Well, this game was the complete opposite of the spectrum vs the LSU game for me. It looked gloomy for me when I was not only sitting by the TTM fanclub for the final time (thank God) and I had some Mississippi fans sitting next to and in front of me. They informed me that a State fan "just gave" them the tickets. To that State fan, I say 17 you. I hope that you regret missing the victory. Way to stay with the team. At the same time, I say thank you, because it turned out to be a blessing because I got to jingle my car keys at them as they scurried off like cockroaches. aGAIN. It is amazing how arrogant their fans are. The woman I was sitting next to told me- "I hope we don't annoy you." I told her "I hope I don't annoy you". I'm sure she was expecting the typical "Aw golly shucks, we're MSU, just keep it under 45. And represent the state well when you go to your bowl. I'll be pulling for you." I think all of the Mississippi fans got a rude awakening that we're not "Aw shucks, MSU" anymore today. Thank you ninja. Thanks Dan. And no- I wasn't rude to them at all. I didn't do any trash talking or anything like that- other than the key jingling. I did cheer for my team, as they did theirs, but I was not a *****, either. And for the first time in years, I didn't see any MSU fans act like bitches either. It was refreshing.
I must admit, I did get some pleasure in ruining their vacation as before the game, they were talking about going to Disney World to watch their beloved Rebels. This was BEFORE the game even started. They totally took beating us for granted, but we showed up. Their fans were totally stunned. I really think they expected another 45-0 drubbing.
But enough about those losers- how about the winners? Our team showed up today. I thought we really took it to them. And that starts with Dan. It was SO refreshing to see a coach that actually realized that Ole Miss is our rival and not Alabama- and had the team ready for the game. Of all the gripes I have about Croom, that was my biggest. I'm not a 1-11 with an Egg Bowl win is a good season person by any means, but football is all about rivalries. And you have to understand who your rival is, and beat with some frequency. Ours happens to be Ole Miss. Sure, we have others like Bama, and LSU, and if you're EA sports, Arkansas- but Ole Miss is our main one. If I was the coach at Alabama, despite the fact I went to MSU, I would still understand that I would need to focus on and beat Auburn. That's just how it works. Again, Dan got it.
I do wish we had started Relf. Maybe Ole Miss should be thankful that we didn't. They had no answer for the option today, and they better hope that they never have to play Georgia Tech or Paul Johnson anytime soon. Fortunately for them, Johnson no longer coaches at Georgia Southern, so he won't be on the schedule anytime soon. Anyway, Relf, and Dixon were my co-MVP's. My least valuable player was Arnil Stallworth for fumbling at the one inch line and then tackling Marcus Green on his TD catch. The 4th down conversion and TD to Bumphis was huge, and I think that play kind of broke Ole Miss's back. Great play by Bumphis. And Dixon- I can't wait for the Conerly acceptance speech. He outplayed McCluster.
And he has to thank the defense for that. Torbush had the right gameplan- put McPhee on Sowell. Check. Get pressure on Snead. Check. Get some turnovers because of pressure. Check. And make McCluster go east/west and contain him. Check except for the screen pass he scored on when we were up by three scores. I thought we defended McCluster about as well as you could today. He had only a couple of really long runs, and that was it. And then Charles Mitchell has to be the defensive MVP. He played great and stepped up. And then Corey Broomfield got another INT and took it to the house. He had kind of a rough day at times, but he really stepped up on that play. Snead did make a some plays- he had one TD pass that was a really good play on his part, but even on that play he was blasted, the other TD passes were the play of the day by Hodge, which was more Hodge than Snead, and then the sreen pass to McCluster. We gave up some points, but they have some playmakers, and you have to credit them for that.
And I can't forget special teams. Derek DePasquale hit a 50 yarder that tied the game. Hutchins didn't get many opportunities, but I believe he had a 48 yard punt. (My memory is kind of fuzzy on that, though), and aside from a couple of miscues like kicking a ball out of bounds on a kickoff and getting burned on a fake punt, very solid job. But the biggest play was when the hands team recovered the ball and allowed us to salt away the game.
But the best part was of course parading the Egg around and then Dan Mullen essentially saying "There is a program in this state that is on the rise, and it ain't them." That was a lot nicer to hear than something about Bear Bryant and character.
And that said, a hearty <17> you to LT for giving us this impossible schedule. This team should be bowling- shoot, even if it is Birmingham. It's criminal that these players worked this hard and won't get a reward other than the Egg Bowl. I do feel bad for them for that. But again, this is a different MSU, and I know that the future schedules will be more manageable. And I give Greg Byrne credit for putting this team in a position to be on the rise. LT could have helped Croom out immensely by giving him a better schedule- OK, yeah he still would have lost to some Tulane's and La Tech's, but he didn't exactly do his boy any favors either. But what Byrne has done is hire a coach that as far as I can tell, is very competent even though he was inexperienced- and he now has a year under his belt- and also a coach that has vision and expects it to be done immediately, not in seven years. And now Byrne is scheduling to set this team up for success in the future. Heck, I can tell the difference from watching ESPN and seeing MSU football mentioned about four or five times. That's pretty good for a 5-7 team. We're a team to watch for next year, for sure.
I must admit, I did get some pleasure in ruining their vacation as before the game, they were talking about going to Disney World to watch their beloved Rebels. This was BEFORE the game even started. They totally took beating us for granted, but we showed up. Their fans were totally stunned. I really think they expected another 45-0 drubbing.
But enough about those losers- how about the winners? Our team showed up today. I thought we really took it to them. And that starts with Dan. It was SO refreshing to see a coach that actually realized that Ole Miss is our rival and not Alabama- and had the team ready for the game. Of all the gripes I have about Croom, that was my biggest. I'm not a 1-11 with an Egg Bowl win is a good season person by any means, but football is all about rivalries. And you have to understand who your rival is, and beat with some frequency. Ours happens to be Ole Miss. Sure, we have others like Bama, and LSU, and if you're EA sports, Arkansas- but Ole Miss is our main one. If I was the coach at Alabama, despite the fact I went to MSU, I would still understand that I would need to focus on and beat Auburn. That's just how it works. Again, Dan got it.
I do wish we had started Relf. Maybe Ole Miss should be thankful that we didn't. They had no answer for the option today, and they better hope that they never have to play Georgia Tech or Paul Johnson anytime soon. Fortunately for them, Johnson no longer coaches at Georgia Southern, so he won't be on the schedule anytime soon. Anyway, Relf, and Dixon were my co-MVP's. My least valuable player was Arnil Stallworth for fumbling at the one inch line and then tackling Marcus Green on his TD catch. The 4th down conversion and TD to Bumphis was huge, and I think that play kind of broke Ole Miss's back. Great play by Bumphis. And Dixon- I can't wait for the Conerly acceptance speech. He outplayed McCluster.
And he has to thank the defense for that. Torbush had the right gameplan- put McPhee on Sowell. Check. Get pressure on Snead. Check. Get some turnovers because of pressure. Check. And make McCluster go east/west and contain him. Check except for the screen pass he scored on when we were up by three scores. I thought we defended McCluster about as well as you could today. He had only a couple of really long runs, and that was it. And then Charles Mitchell has to be the defensive MVP. He played great and stepped up. And then Corey Broomfield got another INT and took it to the house. He had kind of a rough day at times, but he really stepped up on that play. Snead did make a some plays- he had one TD pass that was a really good play on his part, but even on that play he was blasted, the other TD passes were the play of the day by Hodge, which was more Hodge than Snead, and then the sreen pass to McCluster. We gave up some points, but they have some playmakers, and you have to credit them for that.
And I can't forget special teams. Derek DePasquale hit a 50 yarder that tied the game. Hutchins didn't get many opportunities, but I believe he had a 48 yard punt. (My memory is kind of fuzzy on that, though), and aside from a couple of miscues like kicking a ball out of bounds on a kickoff and getting burned on a fake punt, very solid job. But the biggest play was when the hands team recovered the ball and allowed us to salt away the game.
But the best part was of course parading the Egg around and then Dan Mullen essentially saying "There is a program in this state that is on the rise, and it ain't them." That was a lot nicer to hear than something about Bear Bryant and character.
And that said, a hearty <17> you to LT for giving us this impossible schedule. This team should be bowling- shoot, even if it is Birmingham. It's criminal that these players worked this hard and won't get a reward other than the Egg Bowl. I do feel bad for them for that. But again, this is a different MSU, and I know that the future schedules will be more manageable. And I give Greg Byrne credit for putting this team in a position to be on the rise. LT could have helped Croom out immensely by giving him a better schedule- OK, yeah he still would have lost to some Tulane's and La Tech's, but he didn't exactly do his boy any favors either. But what Byrne has done is hire a coach that as far as I can tell, is very competent even though he was inexperienced- and he now has a year under his belt- and also a coach that has vision and expects it to be done immediately, not in seven years. And now Byrne is scheduling to set this team up for success in the future. Heck, I can tell the difference from watching ESPN and seeing MSU football mentioned about four or five times. That's pretty good for a 5-7 team. We're a team to watch for next year, for sure.
