The toughest sell. (Insider).

For Jackie Sherrill, selling Mississippi State football on the recruiting trail is sort of like trying to peddle canned heat off a flatbed truck in August in Texas. In fact, Sherrill's sales pitch is the toughest of any coach from a BCS league.

Even after good seasons, such as when the Bulldogs won the SEC West in 1998, Sherrill doesn't clean up with prospects. There just aren't a lot of inherent advantages to recruiting at Mississippi State. Chief among the negatives:

Location. Get out your atlas and flip to Mississippi. Now, look for Starkville. Keep looking. Did you find it? Not yet? Well, keep scanning. It's in Oktibbeha County. Here's a hint: It's near the Alabama border, over by Pheba and Sessums. Ah, forget it. Trust me--it's there, this place with 21,869 residents once known as the "Dairy Center of the South"

Tradition. Tennessee has the Vol Navy. Mississippi has the Grove. Georgia has the hedges and Uga. Mississippi State has ... cowbells? That's neat and all, but there's nothing really special about a Saturday at Scott Field.

Success. There has been little for this program, which boasts an all-time record of 462-479-39 and a 148-286-12 SEC mark. Only Kentucky and Vanderbilt have been worse in league play. Mississippi State has just one SEC championship trophy in its case. Blow the dust off it, and you'll see it's from 1941. The Bulldogs have finished in the final Associated Press top 20 just eight times and have only one top 10 finish. In contrast, Ole Miss has 17 top 20 finishes and 10 top 10s.

Mississippi State has had just two consensus All-Americans. Go ahead and try to name them. They were defensive lineman Jimmy Webb in 1974 and defensive back Fred Smoot in 2000.

As if all of that weren't enough, Sherrill's task is complicated by the fact everyone knows he's sitting on one of the hottest seats in the nation. In fact, some MSU fans wanted him gone after last season's 3-9 effort that featured wins over only Troy State, Memphis and Division I-AA Jacksonville State.