PROVO, Utah -- The Mississippi State Bulldogs are off to their worst start since 2013 and have yet to hit the most challenging stretch of their schedule.Odds are against the Bulldogs getting back into the SEC West race, but a quality bowl game is in the mix if they can traverse a brutal season-ending stretch of No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 1 Alabama, No. 22 Arkansas and No. 12 Ole Miss.But first, Mississippi State faces a BYU team (3-3) on Friday that upset Michigan State 31-14 last week in East Lansing. The Bulldogs (2-3) lost 38-14 to Auburn last week.When I got here the expectations were if we can go to a bowl game every once in a while that would be great, Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen said. Thats certainly not the expectations within our program now, which is great. ... The expectations of the players have changed. They have bigger expectations and pressure from the outside. Not just themselves but from themselves and the outside. Every year just brings a different challenge. Last year was a challenge, go back two years ago and we go back with the challenge of being No. 1 in America and all the challenge that that brought.The honeymoon period for BYUs new coaching staff, including coach Kalani Sitake and offensive coordinator Ty Detmer, seemed to be over after the team fell to 1-3. The love is back after consecutive wins. Mississippi State may be in the midst of a rough year, but a win over an SEC team would be one of the highlights of BYUs season.They are a resilient bunch and they never quit, Sitake said about his team. When you have that, youll have some success. Weve faced a lot of great teams and another one this week. Nothing has changed. Well go into the schedule and well be tough. Obviously we lost some close ones but well build off that and have it work in a positive way to help us win this week.Things to watch when BYU hosts Mississippi State:RECORD BREAKER: BYU senior running back Jamaal Williams has averaged 206 rushing yards in the last three games and is ranked No. 2 in the nation with 866. He needs 63 more to set the school career record.Hes explosive, strong, quick, hits the hole, has the speed to break away when he does get out there, Detmer said. Hes one of the best to play here and his yardage shows that and the consistency hes had year in and year out.ALL ABOUT FITZGERALD: When Mississippi State is playing well, its usually because quarterback Nick Fitzgerald is carrying the load. The sophomore is averaging 78 yards rushing per game, which ranks fifth nationally for a quarterback.Fitzgerald is one of only three quarterbacks in the country who has had at least 300 yards passing and 100 yards rushing in a game this season. One of the others is Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson.WATCH FOR JEFFERSON: Mississippi State defensive end A.J. Jefferson is third in the Southeastern Conference and 10th nationally with nine tackles for loss. The senior has 33+ tackles for loss during his career, which ranks fifth in school history.BACK ON THE BLOCK: Mullen and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson are very familiar with BYU and the state of Utah. Mullen coached quarterbacks at the University of Utah from 2003-04. Johnson played quarterback at Utah and was the captain during the Utes 13-0 2008 season. He also coached quarterbacks for the Utes from 2010-11 before being promoted to offensive coordinator from 2012-13.STILL ON TOP: Senior quarterback Taysom Hill remains the starter for BYU after struggling early in the season and hearing some fans calling for sophomore Tanner Mangum. He hasnt had an interception in the last two games after throwing six in the first four games.Hes a unique player, Mullen said. Maybe like Tim Tebow in that way, hes a physical runner, a will-yourself-to-win guy. Hes not going to make dynamic plays running with the ball until all of a sudden he breaks into the open field and nobody catches him. He runs physical and you got him in the pocket and he really shows up on 3rd-and-4, or the game is on the line and he just finds a way to scramble and stay alive. Hes got that `it factor as a quarterback.---AP college football site: http://collegefootball.ap.org---Follow Kareem Copeland on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KareemCopeland Pittsburgh Pirates Pro Shop . Listen to the game live on TSN Radio 1050 at 7pm et. The Raptors traded Rudy Gay, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray to the Sacramento Kings on Monday, in exchange for Greivis Vasquez, John Salmons, Patrick Patterson and Chuck Hayes. Pittsburgh Pirates Store . -- Aldon Smith believes he is on the path to being sober for good. https://www.cheappiratesjerseys.us/ . Toronto has dropped games to Indiana and Miami since a five-game winning streak and closed out a three-game road trip at 1-2. Wholesale Pirates Jerseys . Soukalova missed only one target and completed the 15-kilometre course in 40 minutes, 32.6 seconds for both victories in this seasons individual discipline. Darya Domracheva of Belarus was second, 34. Pittsburgh Pirates Gear .Y. - General manager Billy King says the Brooklyn Nets are looking to add a big man and confirmed the team worked out centre Jason Collins, who would become the first openly gay active NBA player if signed. This early in the NBA season, its hard for teams to get familiar with each other. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies are the exception.The two teams play in Memphis for the second time this season on Saturday night. It will be third regular-season meeting after Minnesota and Memphis also met in the preseason. The two teams have split the first two regular-season games, each winning on its home court.The Grizzlies (7-5) will be happy to head home after finishing a four-game road trip in Dallas on Friday night. Memphis finished the road trip with three straight wins after beating the Mavericks 80-64.I was happy to see our defense, Grizzlies coach David Fizdale said. I always tell the guys our defense will travel. Your offense dont always get on the plane with you. But our defense was really stingy tonight.Parsons return to Dallas was one of Fridays storylines. The familiarity between teams played a part in the first half, in which neither team scored more than 19 points in the first two quarters.We stopped being friendly, Fizdale said. If you watched the first quarter, everybody was having conversations with the other team like they were all pals. And we dont have the luxury to be buddies.I think we took it light, like thinking they didnt have their players, but this (Mavericks) is an NBA team with NBA players. We didnt show them respect by playing like that. So I got after them pretty good and they came out in the second half and got after it.Familiarity with Minnesota could breed contempt.The Timberwolves (4-7) opened the season at Memphis and led by as many as 17 early before losing 102-98 as the Grizzlies charged back. Minnesota won the second game handily 116-80 at home as Memphis rested point guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol.Fizdale didnt play any of his starters more than 32 minutes on Fridaay with the back-to-back scheduled against the Timberwolves.ddddddddddddMemphis also got guard Tony Allen back after he missed four games with a strained right groin. Allen scored 11 points off the bench in Fridays win.Well have to wait and see how I feel tomorrow, Allen said. I thought I did a good job of icing and stretching. Ill get some rest tonight and see how I feel tomorrow.Minnesota has won three of its past five games, including Thursdays 110-86 dismantling of Philadelphia in which three players posted double-doubles. Andrew Wiggins scored 35 points and tied a career high with 10 rebounds. Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Gorgui Dieng added 12 points and 10 rebounds.I think we character this game as a point in the road that we have to look back and we have to understand and grow from this, Towns said. We held them to, I think, 33 points in the first half. Thats very good for us to do. Weve got to do a better job from here on out, especially in the third quarter.The Timberwolves started Friday as the sixth-highest scoring team in the league. They were also the highest-scoring team in the first quarter. But theyve been the worst in the third quarter, blowing several leads along the way.Wiggins has been the biggest factor in Minnesotas offensive surge. He has scored more than 30 points in three of his past six games. During that stretch, Wiggins has scored 33 points, grabbed 5.3 rebounds and passed out 3.5 assists per game. He shot 50.7 percent from the field while taking 22.67 shots per game.There were times last year where I just drifted to the corner and stayed there, Wiggins said. I think Im just being more active. My awareness is higher. Im just doing more. ' ' '