No one can blame Mississippi State defensive coordinator Manny Diaz if he takes a break from recruiting and offseason planning Sunday night to catch Super Bowl XLIX.

Diaz’ lone previous stint with the Bulldogs, as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2010, produced three linebackers who started or played significant snaps for either the Seattle Seahawks (K.J. Wright) or New England Patriots (Chris White, Deontae Skinner) this season.

Two of them, Wright and White, should play in the game.

Wright, a 6-foot-4, 246-pound standout on the NFL’s most intimidating defense, made 107 tackles in the regular season for the Seahawks.

Back in 2010, with Diaz assuming control of a unit that had just lost leading tackler Jamar Chaney (sound familiar this year with Benardrick McKinney?), the coach decided to move Wright from the strong side to the weak side. Wright blossomed as a result, turning into a fourth-round draft pick now poised to become just the fifth Mississippi State player ever to participate in multiple Super Bowls.

“K.J. was a guy who was a fantastic worker and bought completely into what we were doing defensively,” Diaz said, according to the Clarion-Ledger. “Because here comes a guy, senior year, you want to change his position, but he bought in immediately.”

Diaz helped execute a dramatic turnaround, as the Bulldogs climbed from 62nd to 17th in the country in rush defense in one year.

Only one player made more tackles than Wright that season: White, who also led the team with 15.5 tackles for loss. A reserve linebacker and a key special teams player for the Patriots, White will be rooting against his former teammate as they meet 1,603 miles away from Starkville, Miss., by road in Glendale, Ariz.

“When you see the type of impact they’ve been able to make in the NFL,” Diaz said. “It gives everybody a great sense of pride.”

A third teammate, Skinner, played in seven games this season and started one, sacking Buffalo QB Kyle Orton in Week 6. The Patriots since cut Skinner and then signed him to the practice squad, and he’ll get a Super Bowl ring if coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady pull through.

Looking back on that 2010 Mississippi State defense now, it’s hard to believe the team didn’t finish even higher against the run. In addition to the three players with ties to the Seahawks and Patriots, the meeting room included then-DL Pernell McPhee (Baltimore Ravens), LB Cameron Lawrence (Dallas Cowboys), CB Jonathan Banks (Tampa Bay Bucs) and DE Fletcher Cox (Philadelphia Eagles).

That’s a lot of active NFL defensive players from one Mississippi State team — a team that finished 9-4, ranked No. 15 in the final AP poll. Diaz, coach Dan Mullen and the Bulldogs hope to parlay that branding into recruiting success as the team again tries to reload.

“It matters. Kids want to be able to connect the dots,” Diaz said. “They want to be able to see that you’ve got a program, especially can take guys that maybe didn’t come out of high school with all the hype and circumstance.”

Regardless of who wins between Seattle and New England, Diaz, and Mississippi State fans, have reason to cheer.