In the 78-year history of the Associated Press poll of college football, no team had ever gone from unranked to No. 1 in five weeks.

With their win on Saturday afternoon over Auburn University, the Mississippi State University Bulldogs did just that, rising from their third-ranked spot in last week’s poll and jumping over the previously top-ranked school.

Defending champion Florida State University had been the No. 1 team in the country since the preseason and has yet to lose a game this season, but they could not stop the meteoric rise of the Bulldogs to the top spot in the country over the last few weeks.

Tasked with playing in arguably the toughest division across college football with five other ranked teams, Mississippi State was an afterthought at the beginning of the season. They quickly established themselves as one of the country’s best teams in the season’s fourth week in a matchup against then-No. 8 Louisiana State University Tigers.

The Bulldogs stormed into Baton Rouge, La. and jumped out to a 17-3 halftime lead over the hosts. They added 14 more points in the third quarter and staved off a 19-point rally by the hosts, intercepting a last-second Hail Mary to win in Louisiana for the first time since 1991. The win vaulted the team to the No. 12 spot in the country, setting up a conference showdown with the No. 6 Texas A&M University on Oct. 4.

Junior quarterback Dak Prescott accounted for five total touchdowns in a 48-31 thrashing of Texas A&M, a trio of rushing touchdowns and a pair of passing touchdowns. The quarterback now has 14 passing touchdowns and eight rushing touchdowns on the year and is entering the conversation for the Heisman Trophy—awarded to the most outstanding player across college football at the end of the year by a panel of voters.

In last week’s poll, the Bulldogs jumped all the way to third in the country but were faced with their third-straight ranked opponent in the Auburn Tigers, ranked No. 2 in the country last week.

The Bulldogs quickly established dominance in the contest with Auburn, intercepting the first Tigers drive and scoring a touchdown on their ensuing possession.

Mississippi State forced a fumble on Auburn’s next possession and needed just three plays to find the end zone again, grabbing a 14-0 lead over the game’s first three-and-a-half minutes and three posessions. 

Prescott would add his first of two rushing touchdowns later in the quarter for a seemingly insurmountable 21-0 lead over the Auburn squad.. 

Auburn would climb back into the game with a 13-point second quarter but were still faced with a 28-13 deficit at the halftime break.

An early touchdown in the third quarter gave the Tigers some hope of catching Mississippi State, but a pair of stalled drives killed their momentum, and the Bulldogs put the game away in the fourth quarter with a 10-play, 75-yard drive that resulted in a 25-yard field goal. 

Mississippi State added a touchdown after yet another Auburn fumble in the middle of the quarter, solidifying the victory and setting up the Bulldogs ascension to the top spot in the country.

Mississippi State also became just the fifth team ever to take down three straight top 10 teams, but no other team had ever ended the run in the No. 1 spot in the country.

Though the team has earned their ranking, they will have to prove their mettle twice more over the rest of the season, squaring off against the No. 7 University of Alabama on Nov. 15 and the No. 3 University of Mississippi on Nov. 29. 

For now, the team will surely relish in their win, pulling off a feat nobody could have seen coming at the beginning of the season.