Miss St is not like UF who plays FSU every year. They have 4 legit cupcakes year after year so to win 8 games a year means winning 4 games of the remaining 8. Factor in their cross rival is Kentucky which is pretty much a win as well and your down to winning 3 games a year to get to 8 wins. So getting 8 wins don't seem to hard when 5 games a year are pretty much marked as W in the off season.
Yeah, good thing they play crappy Alabama instead of elite FSU every year, otherwise his record would have been really bad! ;)
So, they play Alabama, LSU, Auburn, A&M, Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Kentucky every year, plus 1 extra SEC East team, plus 4 cupcakes.
Florida plays Georgia, Tennessee, USCe, Missouri, Kentucky, Vandy, and LSU every year, plus FSU & 1 extra SEC West team, plus (usually) 3 cupcakes.
So by your approach, Florida should also have at least 5 games a year which are pretty much auto-wins. I don't really see how Florida's schedule is actually harder than Miss St's in a typical year. In fact, getting 8 wins at Florida should be easier than at Miss St, when you factor in the increased talent that UF can draw relative to most of the teams on our schedule -- not a luxury available to Miss St.
Edit: Also, you say "Kentucky is pretty much a win." Er, not for Miss St. In the 9 years before Mullen, MSU was 4-5 against UK, and they were 9-8 between 1992-2008. Under Mullen, MSU was 8-1 against UK. So... Kentucky being an "auto-win" for MSU was all Mullen.