As we approach the end of the 2014 calendar year, we’re looking back at the top 50 stories in college football for the year. Today, we break into the top 10 with our No. 10 story of 2014.

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NO. 10 – Dak Prescott

Simply put, Dak Prescott’s 2014 season was the best individual season by any Mississippi State football player in the program’s 112-year history.

The Bulldogs were the cinderella story of the SEC this year, and Prescott was the biggest reason why, earning his magical run a spot at No. 10 on our countdown of the top 50 stories of 2014.

Let’s take a moment to run through all of his accomplishments and their historical significance to the Bulldogs.

Prescott set 10 school records in 2014, including the most passing yards, most passing touchdowns, most total yards and most total touchdowns in a single season in school history.

He earned first-team All-SEC honors from the league’s coaches and the Associated Press, making him the first Bulldogs quarterback to earn first-team all-conference honors since 1986.

He finished eighth in the Heisman voting, making him MSU’s highest-finishing Heisman finalist of all-time.

And with Prescott under center, the Bulldogs beat three straight top 10 teams early in the season, won 10 games in the regular season for the first time since 1940 and reached the Orange Bowl for the first time since 1941.

It had been a generation since Mississippi State had achieved the kind of success it achieved in 2014, and Prescott may go down as the school’s greatest player of all-time.

But what makes his story so compelling is not his incredible success at a school not known for gridiron glory, but rather the unlikelihood that Prescott of all people would be the one to make history at MSU.

When Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen recruited Prescott out of high school, he was one of few coaches willing to give the Haughton, Louisiana native a shot at quarterback. Most other coaches wanted him to play tight end or safety; the head coach of his home-state LSU Tigers, Les Miles, hardly recruited him at all.

Nevertheless, Prescott broke into the Bulldogs lineup in 2013 and took over as the full-time starter in 2014, taking the SEC and the rest of the FBS by storm with a dangerous skill set as both a passer and a runner.

He drew comparisons to former Mullen quarterback Tim Tebow and former Heisman winner Cam Newton with his admirable quickness and shiftiness despite a large frame and a powerful running style. His numbers backed up those comparisons, as he came just four passing yards and 61 rushing yards shy of becoming the second 3,000-1,000 quarterback in SEC history.

He was a highlight machine this year, and had a knack for making spectacular plays in big moments against some fierce competition.

There were few quarterbacks in the FBS who accomplished what Prescott accomplished this season, and even fewer who did it in a power conference with as little around them as Prescott had around him in 2014.

Prescott’s meteoric rise to the top of the college football universe was both stunning and spectacular, and his storybook season was one of our 10 biggest stories from the 2014 season.

WHAT’S NEXT?

As we continue counting down our top 10 stories, we take a look at one of the most polarizing coaches in the SEC this season. Stay tuned.