AMHERST -- Two struggling football teams will take the field Saturday in Starkville, Miss., looking for wins that have become elusive in 2024.

There are a few similarities between the 2-6 University of Massachusetts squad and 1-7 Mississippi State

Both teams have only beaten Division I-FCS teams. UMass is coming off a 35-7 win over Wagner last week after having beaten Central Connecticut State earlier in the season. Mississippi State's only win came in its opener against FCS Eastern Kentucky.

The struggles are, however, different. While UMass did lose to five Mid-American Conference teams as well as then No. 21 Missouri, Mississippi State lost in consecutive weeks to then No. 1 Texas, No. 5 Alabama and 14th-ranked Texas A&M.

The Minutemen will take on a Bulldog team that has lost seven straight games. Kickoff is set for 4:15 p.m., EDT, and the game will be televised on the SEC Network.

All that matters for the Minutemen is playing well.

"For me, this week it's going to be play loose and play a game, and not to do anything extra" UMass defensive back Te'Rai Powell said. "Stick to your job. Stick to what you see on film and just go out and play."

UMass enters Saturday's game in what is affectionally known as "StarkVegas" still looking for a first win against any SEC team. The Minutemen are 0-3 against the Bulldogs, with the narrowest escape for the SEC school coming in 2017. That year, Mississippi State scored a 34-23 win at home. The Minutemen led 20-13 at halftime, but managed only a field goal in the second half.

"Certainly, we're looking forward to it," UMass coach Don Brown said. "Our guys, we're gearing it up and getting ready. The good thing is we can let this go in terms of just let it rip, because you play this game and we'll have a chance to breathe and get our second bye."

But first, the Minutemen will have to contend with a Mississippi State team that is on its second quarterback. Blake Shapen, the Game 1 starter, is out for the season with an injury. Freshman Michael Van Buren Jr., has thrown for 1,101 yards in six games -- four starts -- and has 8 touchdown passes. Van Buren was a top 60 recruit on the ESPN list of the 300 top recruits, and had been recruited by first-year MSU coach Jeff Lebby since he was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma.

During his Monday press conference, Lebby was asked by a local reporter if playing a non-Power 4 team could to give the Bulldogs confidence.

"I haven't looked at it that way at all," said Lebby, whose team was throttled by Arkansas 58-25 on Saturday. "I've looked at it like we've got to make sure we're doing everything we can to be better than we were this past Saturday, and go out and give ourselves a chance to win a football game, regardless of who it is that we're playing."

Lebby's comments to reporters in Starkville, to a large measure, echo what Brown has been saying all year.

"It all starts with us individually and again starting with me and the 10 guys that sit around that table every single day and it bleeds into the locker room," said Lebby, who has also been the offensive coordinator at UCF and Mississippi. "Having great accountability in how we do what we do. What was our process to get us ready to play. It did not get us ready to play. Individually and then collectively, how do we fix that?

"Narrow the focus, quiet the noise and do our job every single snap."

While the Minutemen had to feel good about getting back on the winning side of the ledger, Brown said his club is still going at it hard every day in practice.

"Saturday night after the game, we had to do a little dancing," he said. "Let me tell you now, I think there was a good feeling in the locker room postgame and obviously, this is a good challenge. This is a challenge game. I expect our guys to compete and I know they will.

"This is a good group of guys. They all work hard. We don't have any [guys who don't]. I'm happy with the direction we're going, and we'll go from there."