Dak Prescott is staying in Starkville for his final season at Mississippi State, electing to play another year of college ball in lieu of entering the NFL Draft a year early.

Prescott said during the middle of last season that if he was projected to be selected in the first three rounds of the 2015 draft he’d take the opportunity to play at the next level for a seven-figure annual salary.

But even after he was projected to be selected as high as the second round by some draft experts (we still don’t know how he was evaluated by the league’s draft grading process), he elected to stay in college another year.

Some found the move puzzling, as Prescott turned down a large sum of money to return to a normally unheralded program that’s losing almost all of its core pieces aside from Prescott off last year’s 10-win team.

Others found the move to be poised and mature, commending Prescott for recognizing the flaws in his game and returning to school to work on them before taking his game to the next level.

But what can we really expect from Prescott next season? Logic tells us he should be an improved player from the man who was named a first-team All-SEC honoree by the coaches and the media in 2014. But that same logic also tells us the team around him, especially on the offensive side of the ball, should be far worse than it was last season.

Thus, it’s tough to project how Prescott’s senior season might play out this fall.

One thing Prescott and Mississippi State can bank on is a solid running game. Bulldogs head coach Dan Mullen has had four different starting tailbacks in his six seasons in Starkville, all of whom posted at least one 1,000-yard season during their college careers.

Josh Robinson may be heading to the NFL this offseason, but whether its Ashton Shumpert or someone else who replaces J-Rob in the lineup, there’s a good chance they’ll rush for close to (if not more than) 1,000 yards in 2015.

This should help Prescott tremendously, just as Robinson helped him in 2014. The star quarterback is an excellent runner in his own right, and if he and the next tailback can build the same rapport he had with Robinson, he, too, should have a chance to run for at least 800 yards for a third straight season.

However, it’s worth noting Mississippi State is losing its three best offensive linemen from its 2014 team in Ben Beckwith, Dillon Day and Blaine Clausell, meaning there may be some hard yards to be had this season with fewer running lanes provided by the big uglies up front.

If Prescott and the new tailback can play off one another in the backfield, keeping defenses in conflict with play-action and read-option looks, it could compensate for an offensive line trying to find its rhythm early in the season.

Where Prescott may see a regression in 2015 is as a passer. He threw for more than 3,400 yards last season and ranked third in the SEC upon completing more than 61 percent of his throws, but he also threw the third-most interceptions in the conference (11), and those turnover woes could haunt him again while playing behind an inexperienced offensive line.

The Bulldogs will return top wideout De’Runnya Wilson next season, one of the most athletic playmakers on the outside in the conference, and he and Prescott should form one of the most dangerous connections in the SEC. But MSU also lost valuable gadget player Jameon Lewis and starting tight end Malcolm Johnson, and aside from Wilson the Bulldogs return just one pass-catcher with at least 20 catches of 350 yards in 2014 (Fred Ross).

Prescott is going to have to elevate the play of many of his modest returning targets, such as Ross, Fred Brown, Joe Morrow, Gabe Myles and others — a task easier said than done, especially when facing some frighteningly fast SEC defenses.

If Mississippi State can establish another potent rushing attack in 2015, it could create opportunities in the passing game the way it did in 2014. But with fewer weapons to capitalize on those opportunities through the air, it will be up to Prescott to make quick decisions and accurate throws, taking on more responsibility himself as the senior leader of the offense.

The Bulldogs’ defense also stands to regress in 2015, losing star middle linebacker Benardrick McKinney, defensive line standouts Preston Smith and Kaleb Eulls, and three starters in the secondary in Jamerson Love, Jay Hughes and Justin Cox off last year’s team. To complicate matters even more, the Bulldogs also lost former defensive coordinator Geoff Collins to Florida during bowl preparation.

Mississippi State’s rebuilding defense could cause Prescott and the offense to face more long fields to start drives, and if they can’t keep teams out of the end zone they could put plenty of pressure on the MSU offense to score almost at will to keep up.

So again, Prescott may be improved in 2015, but it’s highly unlikely the rest of his team will follow suit in what would otherwise be considered a rebuilding year for a program as dependent on player development as MSU.

If Prescott struggles, he’ll still likely be an NFL Draft candidate at season’s end. After all, former big-bodied Virginia Tech dual-threat quarterback Logan Thomas was a fourth round pick in 2014 after completing just 56 percent of his throws with 13 interceptions as a senior in 2013.

And if Prescott shines this autumn and can carry MSU back to the eight- or nine-win plateau, he’ll be seen as one of the tremendous talents of the SEC, if not the entire FBS.

There are risks involved in Prescott’s return to Starkville, but he also has plenty to gain. The challenges he faces will be even steeper than those he faced prior to last season, his first full season as a starter.

But he also has much more to gain, and even if MSU’s win-loss record regresses from 2014, as long as Prescott’s play progresses in a less dynamic offense, it should help his draft stock in 2016 no matter what.