The Mississippi State Bulldogs had little trouble taking care of the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in Saturday’s season opener.

One week later, the Bulldogs are turning the page from one Conference USA opponent to another as they prepare to host the UAB Blazers Saturday afternoon at Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville.

The Blazers trounced the Troy Trojans (say that five times fast) 48-10 in their season opener, moving them halfway to their win total from all of last season. Here’s a little more on UAB:

  • The Blazers ended last season with a 62-27 loss to Southern Miss, which remains the Golden Eagles’ only victory since 2011. Southern Miss had only scored more than 20 points twice last season before facing UAB, and hadn’t scored more than 23 points in a game before beating the Blazers.
  • The UAB defense allowed at least 24 points in every game last season, and allowed more than 30 points in nine of 12 games. It did, however, open the current season by holding Troy, of the Sun Belt Conference, to just 10 points.
  • UAB rushed for 338 yards against Troy, and had two rushers – Jordan Howard and D.J. Vinson – rush for more than 100 yards apiece in that game. The Blazers also posted a strong rushing attack in 2013, accumulating more than 2,100 yards on the ground as a team with two different rushers racking up at least 880 yards for the year.
  • The Blazers are actually Mississippi State’s third straight C-USA opponent; MSU beat Rice 44-7 in last season’s Liberty Bowl before shutting out Southern Miss last week.

The Bulldogs were favored by 28.5 points in Vegas as of Monday morning. This will be the sixth meeting all-time between the two teams; UAB won the first-ever meeting in 2004, but since then has lost five straight to Mississippi State.

The most recent game between the two teams was played in 2011. Mississippi State won the game 21-3.