Last year was a pretty good year to be a Bulldog.

Even though Mississippi State lost three of its last four to close the season, a 9-0 start, No. 1 spot in the poll, and Orange Bowl appearance just doesn’t happen very often in Starkville.

With the return of playmaking QB Dak Prescott for his senior season, the Bulldogs have another opportunity to make a run at the SEC West. Will they have what it takes to best last year’s 10-3 performance in 2015?

The answers may lie in the crystal ball, as we make five predictions for the upcoming season.

5 predictions for Mississippi State in 2015

5. A running back to be named later will approach 1,000 rushing yards

Mississippi State had one of the most productive offenses in the country last season, accumulating 513.8 yards and scoring nearly 37 points per game. While it is true that Prescott had as much to do with that as anyone, the Bulldogs still had a very healthy 1,884 yards from the running back position last season (1,203 of those belonged to RB Josh Robinson, who departed for the NFL). That leaves a big void, but whoever lines up along side Prescott for the majority of the snaps this season will find themselves in a position to rush for upwards of 1,000 yards. Junior Ashton Shumpert could get the first shot to be that guy. He ran for 274 yards on 47 carries in 2014. Other options include Brandon Holloway and redshirt freshmen Dontavian Lee and Aeris Williams.

4. Will Redmond will be an All-SEC performer at cornerback

The Will Redmond experience has been a wild ride for Mississippi State fans. It started with a NCAA-sanctioned suspension stemming from impermissible benefits, which cost him his entire freshman season in 2012 as well as five games of his sophomore season. But last season there was a turn in the tide for Redmond’s career with the Bulldogs, as he earned a role as the team’s primary nickelback and showed a penchant for making big plays at the cornerback position. The Bulldogs are hoping that his senior season is when the road straightens and his talent comes to forefront. With NFL Draft analyst Mel Kiper Jr. recently naming him the top senior cornerback in the country, expectations are as high as they’ve ever been for him. He will be one of the Bulldogs’ starting cornerbacks, and could earn All-SEC accolades after matching up with some of the best wide receivers in the league.

3. Chris Jones will start to fulfill his massive potential

Cashing in on unrealized potential is a theme of the Mississippi State predictions this year. With so many talented players gone from last year’s team, a successful season in 2015 is going to require guys like Redmond and Chris Jones to pick up the slack. Jones, a former five-star recruit, walked onto campus with enormous expectations as one of the most decorated recruits to ever play for the program. But in the midst of last season’s fantastic team performance, Jones turned in an underwhelming individual performance, earning no starts and accumulating just 26 tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. It was a step back from his freshman campaign, when he doubled that tackles for loss total. He has the ability to be one of the league’s best defensive linemen, it is just a matter of being consistent enough to stay on the field and show it.

2. The Bulldogs will lose two SEC games in September that they won last season

Mississippi State’s two conference losses in 2014 were road games in November to nationally ranked opponents (Alabama and Ole Miss). While critics will say they could have played better in those contests, no one is going to fault the Bulldogs for the position they were in entering them due to the 9-0 start built by big conference wins early in the season. Looking ahead to 2015, it is hard to see where the Bulldogs can remain so fortunate in the early going. Bringing back just seven starters from last year’s team, there are bound to be some bumps in the road as things get settled along the offensive and defensive lines. September dates with LSU and Auburn look like games that Mississippi State could drop this season, creating a situation where a better performance in November against the Crimson Tide and Rebels is imperative.

1. Dak Prescott will win SEC offensive player of the year

Everyone knows how important Dak Prescott’s performance is to the success of the Bulldogs this season. There may not be another team whose fate is as married to the output of one player in the entire country. With that in mind, Prescott is set up for a phenomenal accumulation of statistics in his senior season. As a junior, Prescott practically rewrote the Mississippi record books, setting 12 new records including total offense (4,435 yards). It was a season worthy of the offensive player of the year award, but he was passed over for Alabama WR Amari Cooper. This year, assuming Georgia RB Nick Chubb doesn’t go into full Herschel Walker mode on us, Prescott should be able to put up numbers similar to last season to position himself as the favorite to earn the player of the year honor.