Mississippi State vs Kentucky 10/30/21 College Football Picks and Predictions

The Mississippi State Bulldogs and Kentucky Wildcats meet in week 9 SEC college football action from Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday night.

The Kentucky Wildcats will look to bounce back from their first loss of the season after a 30-13 loss at the hands of Georgia last time out. Will Levis leads the Wildcats, throwing for 1,326 yards, 13 touchdowns and 6 picks on 67.2% passing while Chris Rodriguez Jr. has a team-high 775 rushing yards and 5 scores. Kavosley Smoke also has 277 rushing yards while Wan’Dale Robinson has a team-high 49 catches for 566 yards and 5 touchdowns. Josh Ali has 248 receiving yards while another pair of Wildcats have at least 100 receiving yards this year. On defense, DeAndre Square has a team-high 50 total tackles and 3 sacks while J.J. Weaver has a team-high 4 sacks this season.

The Mississippi State Bulldogs will look to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last four game following a 45-6 win over Vanderbilt last time out. Will Rogers has thrown for 2,546 yards, 18 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 73.5% passing while Dillon Johnson has 207 rushing yards to lead Mississippi State and Jo’quavious Marks has 194 rushing yards this season. Makai Polk leads the Bulldogs with 58 grabs for 552 yards and 6 touchdowns while Jaden Walley has 338 receiving yards with 4 scores. Four more Mississippi State receivers have at least 200 receiving yards and another four have at least 100 receiving yards this season. On defense, Jett Johnson leads the Bulldogs with 50 total tackles while three Mississippi State players have a team-high 3 sacks and Emmanuel Forbes has a team-high 3 interceptions this season.

Kentucky is 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games overall and 20-6-1 ATS in their last 27 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 22-9 in their last 31 conference games. Mississippi State is 3-7 ATS in their last 10 home games and 5-11 ATS in their last 16 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 home games against a team with a winning road record.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Wildcats respond here after their beatdown loss to Georgia. However, even on the road, I think Kentucky is the better team on both sides of the ball and while Mississippi State has the better passing attack, Kentucky has the depth on defense to make up the difference. I think the Wildcats win this one and cover the small number in the process.