OXFORD — One of the cornerstones for Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen and the building of his program has been an emphasis on the Egg Bowl.

Mullen stressed before last year’s game in Starkville that, despite a 4-7 record, the Bulldogs were playing for a championship. They bought in and beat a Cotton Bowl-bound Ole Miss squad 41-27.

Saturday night at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Mullen again stressed the importance of defending the Egg Bowl trophy. Again, the Bulldogs bought in and the result was a 31-23 victory. It was the first time Mississippi State (8-4, 4-4 Southeastern Conference) has won in Oxford since 1998.

Mississippi State special teams ace Marvin Bure, a former Vicksburg High star, said Mullen provided plenty of motivation for beating the Rebels (4-8, 1-7).

“We wanted to keep that trophy,” Bure said. “It’s a great feeling to come in here and win it.”

Mullen had the same feeling after beating “the school up north” for the second time in as many tries.

“We knew coming in here, we were going to get their best shot,” Mullen said while eyeing the Egg Bowl trophy. “But I can tell you, they will always get our best shot. That’s how important this game is to us. For 364 days, we looked forward to keeping this trophy. It’s great to be able to keep it for another year. Last year’s felt pretty good. This one feels pretty good, too. The best thing, though, is that our seniors have bought into it. We’ve now had two straight senior classes go out as champions.”

One of those seniors is linebacker Chris White, the Bulldogs’ leading tackler and a favorite to be named the 2010 Conerly Trophy winner Tuesday night at the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in Jackson.

“It’s awesome to win the Egg Bowl again,” White said. “That’s why we played so hard at the end. We didn’t want (Jeremiah) Masoli to beat us.”

Next up for Mississippi State is another bowl game. The Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta is the likely destination for the Bulldogs against the No. 2 team from the Atlantic Coast Conference.

It’ll be the first bowl game for Mississippi State since a 10-3 victory over Central Florida in the 2007 Liberty Bowl, and just the second in the past decade.

Mullen felt the Bulldogs let off the gas Saturday after building a 31-9 lead late in the third quarter. Quarterback Chris Relf threw for 288 yards and three touchdowns to build the big lead, which turned out to be short-lived.

Masoli, also a finalist for the Conerly Trophy, led the Rebels on two fourth quarter touchdown drives to trim the deficit to 31-23. Masoli finished 26-of-44 passing for 261 yards and one score, that coming on a 24-yard TD toss to Ja-Mes Logan with 4:21 left in the game.

“We got some big plays and I thought our whole team played well in getting a good lead,” Mullen said. “Then in about a 12-minute span, we fell asleep. We can’t let that happen.”

Ole Miss nearly got the ball back at midfield with three minutes left, but a fumble call was reversed after the replay booth determined Vick Ballard’s forward motion had been stopped. The Bulldogs were able to punt and Ole Miss had to start its last drive from the 11-yard line with 2:30 left. Masoli converted two passes for first downs, but a third was wiped out by a 15-yard penalty on a chop block and the Rebels never recovered.

Offensively, the Bulldogs got a huge game from backup tailback LaDarius Perkins, who recorded the second-highest all-purpose yardage total in school hostory, with 319.

Perkins caught three screen passes for 140 yards, with two going for touchdowns. He also had 98 yards rushing and 65 yards on kickoff returns.

“I had to just be patient and let things come to me,” Perkins said.

What came were designed screen plays to exploit the injured Ole Miss secondary. Perkins scored on catch and runs of 36 and 33 yards, and his 71-yarder set up the Bulldogs’ last score on Ballard’s 8-yard run.

“The first screen was a leak out, kind of our version of the wheel play,” Perkins said. “The second was an outside screen and the long one was a middle screen. We did a really good job of selling it.”