What an effort.
That’s just about all you can say. Through the problems, the low points, and the difficulty, the Mississippi State football team put together a performance that, at the very least, can be described as commendable.
MSU fell to the three-time defending SEC East champion and 12th-ranked Georgia Bulldogs, 31-24, in Athens.
“I thought it was a really good effort,” Mike Leach said following the contest. “This is the best game we’ve played this year. I was very proud of the way our guys played. I wish we hadn’t come up short, but I was really proud of them. This is, by a significant margin, the best game we’ve played this year.”
Mississippi State traveled to Athens with 49 players, four below the SEC’s minimum. Instead of choosing not to play, the Bulldogs campaigned to take the field on Saturday night, and they played like a team that was determined to play at all costs.
“We knew we belonged here,” said receiver Jaden Walley. “We just thought that they were the same as us. We could compete with them. We’re hard on playing the next play and keeping the energy up on the sideline.”
“We’re a gritty team that’s always going to fight,” added linebacker Erroll Thompson. “49 guys, 22 guys, it doesn’t matter; we’re going to scrap to the end. I feel, for the rest of the year, we’ve got nothing to lose. We gotta come in each week and prepare, but this is a scrappy team from here on out, I can promise you that.”
The State offense, which has been statistically one of the worst offenses in recent history, played like a sound group. It started with a 15-play, 71 yard drive that ended in a field goal on the first possession of the game.
As the game went on, the two teams traded blows. Georgia scored to go ahead, 7-3, but State responded with a 14-play, 75-yard touchdown drive that was capped off by a four-yard run by Dillon Johnson. The Bulldogs in red and black answered with a field goal to tie, but the maroon and white Bulldogs marched 75 yards in four plays with Will Rogers finding Jaden Walley for the go-ahead score.
UGA scored back-to-back times to regain a touchdown advantage, but MSU put together another methodical touchdown drive, 75 yards in 11 plays, with Johnson finding pay dirt again from three yards out. However, in the end, Georgia’s talent advantage and depth won out. Nevertheless, a solid day from the offense and quarterback Will Rogers—41/52 for 336 yards and a touchdown— is an extremely encouraging sight to see.
“I think he’s gotten better,” Leach said. “I think our offensive line took a step this week, which I think was important. I think Will did too. I think as a team, we played improved, and I think that we played together better than we have.”
Despite falling short, there is legitimate encouragement inside the Mississippi State program right now, in terms of the state of this current team and the program’s future.
“I feel like it’s pretty big,” Leach stated. “I would say this team tonight played as hard and as well with what your best is than any team I’ve ever had. I’ve had a lot of great teams, and yeah, we’ve beaten some teams, some that we probably weren’t supposed to beat, but with regard to matching the best of your ability up to whatever the adversity may be, this team may have preformed to that level, higher than any team I’ve coached.”
Through a season of disappointment and hardships, Mississippi State put together a performance “Between the Hedges” that State players, coaches, and fans have been yearning to see. It is a performance that adds a loss to this season’s record, but much more than that, it proves the kind of team that this one really is.
“This is our team,” Walley said. “This is the team we’ve supposed to have been all year, and it’s just now popping out. We’re seeing it now.”
