Toward the end of Saturday’s five-interception debacle in Death Valley, LSU fans by the score lined up to take pictures and pet Mississippi State’s bulldog mascot, Bully.

They were not abusive in any way, but they weren’t scared of him, either.

It was a fitting metaphor for the subpar seasons by Mississippi State (1-2, 0-2 Southeastern Conference) and Ole Miss (1-2, 0-1) on the gridiron so far. No one is afraid of them in the least.

Mississippi State’s offensive line, which was supposed to be a strength with four returning starters, made a talented LSU front seven look like the 1985 Chicago Bears. Four of those five interceptions MSU coach Dan Mullen claimed were the result of poor pass protection, as evidenced by quarterback Chris Relf leaving the game after taking a shot to the head and backup Tyler Russell entering the interview room with a cut on his chin. The MSU offensive line didn’t get much of a push in the running game, either.

The sequence that nailed the coffin shut in Death Valley happened in the third quarter. After the Bulldogs’ offense strung together a drive and cut the deficit to 12-7 on Vick Ballard’s 2-yard touchdown run, Sean Brauchle booted the ensuing kickoff out of bounds. That set LSU up at its 40-yard line, and the Tigers went on to score a touchdown. MSU never got any closer.

“We scored right away to start the second half,” Mullen said. “Then our kicker walks out and kicks it straight out of bounds. Those are things that championship programs don’t do. When they seize momentum, they don’t just hand it over to the other team.”

As for the rest of the schedule, there are two cupcakes — Alcorn State and UAB — and a Houston team that lost Heisman candidate Case Keenum to a torn ACL. The rest of the schedule — Georgia, at Florida, Kentucky, at Alabama, Arkansas and the Egg Bowl at Ole Miss — doesn’t look too promising for more wins. Four more victories is a likely best-case scenario.

Things aren’t much better in The Grove.

For Ole Miss, the schedule looked like a slam-dunk 5-0 going into the Oct. 16 game at defending national champion Alabama. But looks can be deceiving. The Rebels laid a miserable egg against Jacksonville State before barely slipping past a moribund Tulane team. Then came Vanderbilt, with folksy coach Robbie Caldwell, who brought a welcome spell of personality to the normally dryball SEC Media Days. The Rebel defense, which was expected to hold serve while a young offense gelled, made the Commodores look like Kurt Warner’s St. Louis Rams teams from 1999-2001.

“It was a very disappointing loss,” Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt said in a team release. “I feel like we wasted away so many opportunities in this game and we just can’t do that.”

Speaking of opportunities, the Rebels now tack into the wind against the heart of their schedule. Fresno State isn’t a pushover and Kentucky is much improved. But then, the Rebels have to take on Alabama, Arkansas and Auburn in consecutive weeks. After a break with Louisiana-Lafayette, Ole Miss closes out the year with Tennessee and LSU before the Egg Bowl at home. Like their in-state rivals, four more wins is a likely best-case scenario.

It’s a very strong likelihood that the Egg Bowl will pit a couple of sub .500 teams battling for a boost going into what promises to be a long off-season for both. And it’ll be the only bowl these two teams see this year.

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Steve Wilson is sports editor of The Vicksburg Post. You can follow him on Twitter at vpsportseditor. He can be reached at 601-636-4545, ext. 142 or at swilson@vicksburgpost.com.