It used to be that Ole Miss and Mississippi State were teams that would rise up for a season or two then regress back to the bottom half of the SEC.

That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore with both programs thriving and coming off several successful seasons in a row. Ole Miss has had four straight winning seasons under coach Hugh Freeze and Mississippi State has had six with Dan Mullen at the helm.

There’s some chatter that Mullen could be a candidate for the newly vacated Georgia coaching job. But assuming both Mullen and Freeze stay in place here are some reasons why their teams should continue to sustain their winning ways.

FACILITIES

Oxford and Starkville are both now home to facilities that can be compared to some of the best in college football.

In 2013, the Bulldogs erected the Leo Seal Jr. Football Complex, a $25-million, 80,000-square foot facility that houses a training center and offices. This is where Mississippi State’s weight room and locker room are and it overlooks the team’s practice fields, which will be renovated.

Ole Miss’ $18-million, multipurpose building inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, has been the location of the Rebels football facilities since 2004. But a $12.5-million donation from the Manning family in 2013 led to a spectacular renovations completed in early 2014, including expansion of the weight room by 2,000 square feet, a players’ lounge with a game room, a TV room/lounge, computer/study lab, refreshment bar and small theater room.

RECRUITING

If you look at the recruiting class Ole Miss has in place for 2016 and the amount Mullen has been able to get out his recruits in his time coaching the Bulldogs, it’s easy to believe both programs will continue their winning ways.

The Rebels have the fourth-ranked recruiting class as of now for next season, which features six four-star recruits and, most important, five-star QB Shea Patterson, the No. 1-rated player overall in the 2016 class.

Mississippi State has never had a recruiting class ranked higher than 16th in Mullen’s time coaching in Starkville (most of the time, they’ve been in the 25-40 range). But Mullen has been able to get the most out of recruits, leading the Bulldogs to six straight bowl games.

Both programs have done a great job of finding talent under their current head coaches and have had plenty of players drafted into the NFL.

CONTINUITY

This one doesn’t need much explaining and could also end up being irrelevant if Mullen ends up coaching another Bulldogs team (Georgia). But we’re assuming that everything is going to stay the same at the Mississippi schools, so familiarity in a conference undergoing a lot of change should be a big advantage for these programs.

SEC schools such as Missouri, South Carolina and Georgia are already looking for new coaches and there have been plenty of rumors surrounding other head coaches and coordinators around the conference moving on to other places.

If Ole Miss and Mississippi State can retain their coaches and most of their staffs, they’ll keep people in charge that know how to win.