ZeekLTK's Dynasty

[ZeekLTK]

I had this going on the other thread and well, obviously that's pretty much done for now. Here is a 'quick' recap of the previous 4 seasons:

Year 1 - 2003
Team: Idaho
Record: 4-8 (2-5)
Regional Broadcast: 0-0
National Broadcast: 0-0
Average Attendance: 8,268
Pre-Season Stats:
-Ranked 109th in NCAA
-Ranked 8th in Sun Belt
Season Accomplishments:
-Finished 6th in Sun Belt
-Finished 92nd in NCAA
-LT Jack Scott finished 11th in Voting for Best OL (38 Pancakes, 1 Sack)

Schedule:
Week 1: vs Idaho State; WIN 23-15
Week 2: at Washington State; LOSS 0-17
Week 3: BYE
Week 4: vs Boise State; LOSS 13-21
Week 5: at Illinois; LOSS 14-42
Week 6: BYE
Week 7: at New Mexico State; LOSS 17-24
Week 8: vs North Texas; LOSS 17-31
Week 9: at Arkansas State; LOSS 21-31
Week 10: at UL-Lafayette; WIN 28-7
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: vs Mid Tenn State; LOSS 12-28
Week 13: at UL-Monroe; LOSS 21-24
Week 14: vs Utah State; WIN 17-14
Week 15: vs Portland State; WIN 33-27
Week 16: BYE
Bowl Week: N/A

Conference Standings:
1. North Texas 9-3 (6-1)
2. Mid Tenn State 9-4 (5-2)
3. UL-Monroe 6-6 (4-3)
4. New Mexico State 6-6 (4-3)
5. Arkansas State 6-6 (3-4)
6. Idaho 4-8 (2-5)
7. UL-Lafayette 3-10 (2-5)
8. Utah State 4-8 (2-5)


Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: Maryland (8-0)
Big Ten: Ohio State (8-0)
Big XII: Kansas State (7-2)
Big East: Virginia Tech (7-0)
Conference USA: TCU (6-2)
Independent: Notre Dame (10-2)
MAC: Northern Illinois (7-2)
Mountain West: Colorado State & San Diego State (6-1)
Pac-10: Washington & UCLA (7-1)
SEC: Tennessee (8-1)
Sun Belt: North Texas (6-1)
WAC: Fresno State (8-0)

National Championship Game: #1 Ohio State vs #2 Maryland; Ohio State wins 54-38
National Champion: Ohio State Buckeyes

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: Darren Sproles (Kansas State)
Maxwell Winner: Lonta Hobbs (TCU)
Best QB: Eli Manning (Ole Miss)
Best HB: Lonta Hobbs (TCU)
Best WR: Reggie Williams (Washington)
Best OL: Patrick Babcock (Illinois)
Bednarik: Matt Ware (UCLA)
Best DL: David Pollack (Georgia)
Best LB: Robert Watts (Utah State)
Thorpe: Mitch Meeuwsen (Oregon State)
Groza: David Carlton (Arkansas)
Best Coach: Phillip Fulmer (Tennessee)

Coaching Changes
-----------------
Fired:
Duke
Baylor
Temple
Army
Ohio
Wyoming
Vanderbilt
Kentucky
UTEP
San Jose State
Louisiana Tech
UL-Lafayette
Bowling Green
Central Michigan
Cal
Syracuse
BYU
Michigan State
Troy State
Eastern Michigan

Off-Season
------------------
Players Leaving:
QB #11 (Senior RS)
HB #20 (Senior RS)
HB #31 (Senior)
FB #34 (Senior RS)
WR #2 (Senior)
WR #14 (Senior RS)
TE #85 (Senior RS)
LT #74 (Senior RS)
RG #65 (Senior RS)
LG #70 (Senior RS)
C #62 (Senior RS)
DT #3 (Senior RS)
DT #5 (Senior RS)
LOLB #35 (Senior)
ROLB #40 (Senior RS)
MLB #95 (Senior)
CB #7 (Senior RS)
FS #23 (Senior)
SS #11 (Senior RS)
K #15 (Senior RS)
P #17 (Senior)

Recruited:
DT ***** - Derek Doss (CA)
FS *** - Keith Foster (CA)
FS *** - Zac Rivers (CA)
DE *** - Elgin Smith (WA)
QB *** - Duncan Siegel (ID)
OLB *** - Tom Nichols (HI)
CB ** - Mike Gordon (WY)
K ** - Ivan Gibbs (AZ)
HB ** - Khaleed Weeks (MT)
P * - Omari Murray (WA)
SS * - Don Curtis (WA)
C * - Taveres Lang (OR)
FS * - David McFadden (ID)

Top 10 for Draft Class:
1. Ohio State
2. Texas
3. Notre Dame
4. Virginia Tech
5. Maryland
6. Oklahoma
7. Miami
8. Georgia
9. Kansas State
10. Tennessee

Conference Rankings for Draft Class:
21. North Texas
45. Mid Tenn State
63. Idaho
73. UL-Monroe
80. UL-Lafayette
90. Arkansas State
95. Utah State
104. New Mexico State

[ZeekLTK]

Year 2 - 2004
Team: Idaho
Record: 7-5 (5-2)
Regional Broadcast: 0-0
National Broadcast: 0-0
Average Attendance: 8,719
Pre-Season Stats:
-Ranked 109th in NCAA
-Ranked 6th in Sun Belt
Season Accomplishments:
-Finished 3rd in Sun Belt
-Finished 56th in NCAA

Schedule:
Week 1: at Idaho State; WIN 28-21
Week 2: at Boise State; LOSS 28-35
Week 3: vs Washington State; LOSS 18-38
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: at Michigan State; LOSS 24-45
Week 6: BYE
Week 7: vs New Mexico State; WIN 31-21
Week 8: at North Texas; LOSS 24-28
Week 9: vs Arkansas State; LOSS 10-21
Week 10: vs UL-Lafayette; WIN 45-14
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: at Mid Tenn State; WIN 24-16
Week 13: vs UL-Monroe; WIN 41-7
Week 14: at Utah State; WIN 17-14
Week 15: vs Sacramento State; WIN 21-14
Week 16: BYE
Bowl Week: N/A

Conference Standings:
1. New Mexico State 10-2 (6-1)
2. North Texas 8-4 (6-1)
3. Idaho 7-5 (5-2)
4. Arkansas State 5-7 (3-4)
5. Mid Tenn State 5-7 (3-4)
6. UL-Monroe 4-8 (2-5)
7. UL-Lafayette 3-9 (2-5)
8. Utah State 2-10 (1-6)

Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: North Carolina State (8-0)
Big Ten: Michigan & Ohio State (6-2)
Big XII: Texas (8-1)
Big East: Miami (7-0)
Conference USA: Louisville & UAB (7-1)
Independent: Notre Dame (8-4)
MAC: Toledo (9-0)
Mountain West: UNLV (7-0)
Pac-10: USC (7-1)
SEC: Arkansas (8-1)
Sun Belt: New Mexico State & North Texas (6-1)
WAC: Fresno State (8-0)

National Championship Game: #1 Miami vs #2 Texas; Miami wins 42-16
National Champion: Miami Hurricanes

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: David Horne (Nebraska)
Maxwell Winner: David Horne (Nebraska)
Best QB: Timmy Chang (Hawaii)
Best HB: David Horne (Nebraska)
Best WR: Tavaris Capers (UCF)
Best OL: Travis Triplett (Kansas State)
Bednarik: Zac Woodfin (UAB)
Best DL: Chris Canty (Virginia)
Best LB: Zac Woodfin (UAB)
Thorpe: Fabian Washington (Nebraska)
Groza: Mark Gent (Miami)
Best Coach: Tony Samuel (New Mexico State)

Coaching Changes
-----------------
Fired:
Rice
Utah State
Navy
Iowa State
Illinois
Houston
Arizona
Wake Forest
Kansas
Colorado
Ball State
Washington
Alabama
South Carolina

Left for Better Offer:
Fresno State
Colorado State
North Texas

Conference Changes
-------------------
Fresno State replaces Arizona in the PAC-10
North Texas replaces UTEP in the WAC

Off-Season
------------------
Players Leaving:
FB #36 (Senior RS)
WR #84 (Senior)
LG #67 (Senior RS)
RE #86 (Senior)
DT #66 (Senior RS)
CB #8 (Senior)
CB #32 (Senior RS)

Recruited:
CB **** - Michael Lockhart (MS)
CB **** - Greg Brown (NV)
CB **** - Chuckie Spencer (ID)
DE *** - John Jenkins (WA)
CB *** - Dave McKay (ID)
OLB *** - O.J. Vann (ID)
FB *** - Adrian Polk (AK)
DE *** - Brian Pace (WA)
FB ** - Thomas McClendon (CA)
QB ** - Chaz Paris (ID)
C ** - Alonzo Mosley (WA)

Top 10 for Draft Class:
1. Texas
2. UCLA
3. Maryland
4. Ohio State
5. Tennessee
6. Virginia Tech
7. NC State
8. USC
9. Colorado State
10. Florida State

Conference Rankings for Draft Class:
55. Idaho
56. New Mexico State
62. UL-Monroe
75. Mid Tenn State
82. Arkansas State
88. UTEP
100. UL-Lafayette
114. Utah State

[ZeekLTK]

Year 3 - 2005
Team: Idaho
Record: 9-4 (5-2)
Regional Broadcast: 1-0
National Broadcast: 0-1
Average Attendance: 20,254
Pre-Season Stats:
-Ranked 81st in NCAA
-Ranked 2nd in Sun Belt
Season Accomplishments:
-Sun Belt Championship
-New Orleans Bowl Berth
-Finished 1st in Sun Belt
-Finished 66th in NCAA
-Finished 4th in Voting for Best Coach
-CB Greg Brown named to Freshman All-American Team (22 Tackles, 2 Sacks, 2 INTs, 373 KR Yards, 686 PR Yards, 2 TDs)

Schedule:
Week 1: vs Idaho State; WIN 38-0
Week 2: vs Boise State; WIN 34-10
Week 3: at Washington State; LOSS 17-35
Week 4: vs Kansas; WIN 30-7
Week 5: at Michigan; WIN 24-21
Week 6: BYE
Week 7: at New Mexico State; WIN 41-30
Week 8: vs UTEP; LOSS 17-20
Week 9: at Arkansas State; WIN 10-7
Week 10: at UL-Lafayette; WIN 31-7
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: vs Mid Tenn State; WIN 30-10
Week 13: at UL-Monroe; LOSS 28-35
Week 14: vs Utah State; WIN 42-21
Week 15: BYE
Week 16: BYE
Bowl Week: vs Cincinnati; LOSS 17-24 OT (New Orleans Bowl)

Conference Standings:
1. Idaho 9-3 (5-2)
2. Arkansas State 6-6 (5-2)
3. Mid Tenn State 7-5 (4-3)
4. New Mexico State 5-7 (3-4)
5. UL-Lafayette 4-8 (3-4)
6. Utah State 4-8 (3-4)
7. UL-Monroe 5-7 (3-4)
8. UTEP 3-9 (2-5)

Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: North Carolina State (7-1)
Big Ten: Wisconsin (7-1)
Big XII: Texas (9-0)
Big East: Virginia Tech (7-0)
Conference USA: Houston (7-1)
Independent: Notre Dame (9-2)
MAC: Toledo (8-1)
Mountain West: San Diego State (6-1)
Pac-10: Arizona State (7-1)
SEC: Georgia (7-2)
Sun Belt: Idaho & Arkansas State (6-2)
WAC: Boise State & Nevada (7-1)

National Championship Game: #1 Oklahoma vs #2 Texas; Oklahoma wins 37-35
National Champion: Oklahoma Sooners

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: Austin Scott (Penn State)
Maxwell Winner: Brandon Jacobs (Auburn)
Best QB: Mike Bush (Louisville)
Best HB: Brandon Jacobs (Auburn)
Best WR: Duncan Dickens (North Texas)
Best OL: Travis Garrett (West Virginia)
Bednarik: Anthony Jordan (Toledo)
Best DL: Clifton Ryan (Michigan State)
Best LB: Anthony Jordan (Toledo)
Thorpe: Abe Brown (Louisville)
Groza: Trey DiCarlo (Oklahoma)
Best Coach: Tom Amstutz (Toledo)

Coaching Changes
-----------------
Fired:
UTEP
Ohio
Eastern Michigan
Tulane
Wyoming
Army
Duke
Temple
Rutgers
Syracuse
Baylor
Texas Tech
Texas A&M
Oregon State
North Carolina
Utah
Mississippi State
Stanford
Michigan

Off-Season
------------------
New Team: Mississippi State

Players Leaving:
QB #17 (Senior RS)
HB #7 (Senior)
HB #12 (Senior)
LT #77 (Senior RS)
RG #50 (Senior RS)
C - Stan Jeffery (Senior)
C #70 (Senior RS)
RE #36 (Senior)
LOLB #54 (Senior RS)
MLB #52 (Senior RS)
CB #30 (Senior RS)
FS #22 (Senior)

Recruited:
CB *** - Zach Reed (MS)
QB *** - Rob Hurst (MS)
C *** - Anthony Lloyd (FL)
SS ** - Cole Walls (MS)
WR ** - Deron McNeil (MS)
FS ** - O.J. Jeffery (AL)
QB ** - Kevin Sims (MS)
HB ** - Shaud Walls (MS)
CB ** - Matthew Bennett (MS)
DE ** - Joe Farris (AL)
FB ** - Ricardo Robinson (FL)
G ** - Adam Erickson (AL)
WR * - Ulysses Larson (MS)
MLB * - Chris Patrick (MS)
MLB * - Brian Cage (FL)
OLB * - Raleigh Parrish (MS)

Top 10 for Draft Class:
1. UCLA
2. Georgia
3. USC
4. Texas
5. Northern Illinois
6. Miami
7. Ohio State
8. NC State
9. Oklahoma
10. Auburn

Conference Rankings for Draft Class:
2. Georgia
10. Auburn
11. LSU
15. Florida
25. South Carolina
29. Tennessee
30. Arkansas
43. Ole Miss
47. Alabama
75. Vanderbilt
80. Mississippi State
81. Kentucky

[ZeekLTK]

Year 4 - 2006
Team: Mississippi State
Record: 9-4 (5-3)
Regional Broadcast: 3-2
National Broadcast: 1-1
Average Attendance: 42,316
Pre-Season Stats:
-Ranked 61st in NCAA
-Ranked 10th in SEC
Season Accomplishments:
-Outback Bowl Victory
-Finished 5th in SEC
-Finished 20th in NCAA
-CB Brian York finished 10th in Voting for Thorpe Award (36 Tackles, 8 INTs, 2 FF, 2 TD)
-CB Brian York named as 2nd Team All-American (36 Tackles, 8 INTs, 2 FF, 2 TD)

Schedule:
Week 1: BYE
Week 2: vs Eastern Michigan; WIN 34-21
Week 3: at Oregon; WIN 45-42
Week 4: at Cincinnati; WIN 13-7
Week 5: vs SMU; LOSS 20-24
Week 6: at LSU; LOSS 20-21
Week 7: at Vanderbilt; WIN 31-14
Week 8: BYE
Week 9: vs Auburn; WIN 21-14
Week 10: vs Kentucky; WIN 24-14
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: at Alabama; WIN 35-14
Week 13: vs Tennessee; WIN 28-21
Week 14: vs Arkansas; LOSS 13-28
Week 15: at Ole Miss; LOSS 28-42
Week 16: BYE
Bowl Week: vs Penn State; WIN 21-14 (Outback Bowl)

Conference Standings:
1. Arkansas 11-2 (8-1)
2. Florida 9-4 (7-2)
3. Georgia 10-2 (6-2)
4. Ole Miss 8-4 (6-2)
5. Mississippi State 8-4 (5-3)
6. Tennessee 8-4 (5-3)
7. LSU 7-5 (4-4)
8. Auburn 6-6 (3-5)
9. Kentucky 5-7 (3-5)
10. South Carolina 5-7 (2-6)
11. Vanderbilt 1-11 (0-8)
12. Alabama 1-11 (0-8)

Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: Maryland (8-0)
Big Ten: Illinois (6-2)
Big XII: Texas (9-0)
Big East: Virginia Tech & Miami (6-1)
Conference USA: Louisville (8-0)
Independent: Notre Dame (10-2)
MAC: Northern Illinois (9-0)
Mountain West: Colorado State & San Diego State (6-1)
Pac-10: Arizona State & Oregon State (6-2)
SEC: Arkansas (8-1)
Sun Belt: Arkansas State & New Mexico State & UL-Monroe & Idaho (4-3)
WAC: Nevada (7-1)

National Championship Game: #1 Maryland vs #2 Louisville; Louisville wins 38-17
National Champion: Louisville Cardinals

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: Tyrone Moss (Miami)
Maxwell Winner: Mark Burton (Ohio State)
Best QB: Torrie Burnett (Colorado State)
Best HB: Tyrone Moss (Miami)
Best WR: Roger Penn (Oregon)
Best OL: Anton Gay (Air Force)
Bednarik: D.D. Combs (Miami)
Best DL: Brian Barnett (Northern Illinois)
Best LB: D.D. Combs (Miami)
Thorpe: Aric Davis (Georgia)
Groza: Del Swift (TCU)
Best Coach: Joe Novak (Northern Illinois)

Coaching Changes
-----------------
Fired:
Vanderbilt
Buffalo
Alabama
Oklahoma State
Cal
UConn
Louisiana Tech
ECU
BYU
Arizona
Rice
Wake Forest
Iowa State
Kansas
Purdue

Left for Better Offer:
Oklahoma (NFL Head Coach)

Off-Season
------------------
Players Leaving:
LT - Jon Frank (Junior)
CB - Brian York (Junior)
QB #11 (Senior RS)
HB - Marcellus Massey (Senior RS)
WR #83 (Senior RS)
TE #86 (Senior RS)
LT #71 (Senior RS)
LE #92 (Senior RS)
DT #96 (Senior RS)
ROLB - Andre Clarke (Senior)
CB #23 (Senior RS)
FS #18 (Senior RS)
K - L.C. McKinney (Senior)

Recruited:
DE ***** - Ray Lacey (GA)
T ***** - Andy Lee (TX)
OLB ***** - Nat Kidd (CO)
OLB ***** - DeMarcus McGee (LA)
DT ***** - Kyle Shipley (CN)
DE ***** - Sylvester Woodruff (AL)
DE ***** - Dre McKinney (LA)
SS **** - Merrill Klein (MS)
T **** - Ruben Barr (MS)
FB **** - LaShaun Combs (AL)
FS **** - Erik Smith (CA)
DE **** - Jeremiah Quinn (MS)
K **** - Reuben Magee (FL)
HB *** - Mike Sterling (LA)
FB ** - Duane Scott (TX)
K ** - Leigh Howell (IL)

Top 10 for Draft Class:
1. Texas
2. Northern Illinois
3. Maryland
4. UCLA
5. Mississippi State
6. Georgia
7. Oklahoma
8. Miami
9. Louisville
10. San Diego State

Conference Rankings for Draft Class:
5. Mississippi State
6. Georgia
11. Arkansas
13. Florida
23. LSU
30. Ole Miss
43. Tennessee
50. Auburn
79. Alabama
82. South Carolina
99. Vanderbilt
103. Kentucky

[ZeekLTK]

2007 Set to Kick Off with Bang... #1 Terps in Town
Starksville, MS - Coach Julson certainly shook things up this year when his new schedule was released for the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Known, and sometimes criticized, for always opening the season against a 'cupcake' (Idaho State for three years at Idaho and then Eastern Michigan last year) everyone was certainly surprised, to say the least, that Mississippi State will open the year against 3 straight ranked opponents, including the top ranked Maryland Terrapins in Week 2. Following the home stand against the #1 team, the Bulldogs will travel to Columbus, Ohio for their coach's annual Big Ten game against the #18 Ohio State Buckeyes. Coach Julson is currently 2-2 against the Big Ten in 4 years, losing to Illinois in 2003, losing to Michigan State in 2004, upsetting Michigan in 2005, and then defeating Penn State in the Outback Bowl last season. After a well earned BYE week during Week 4, the Bulldogs will head out to Manhattan, Kansas, to take on the Kansas State Wildcats, who start off the season ranked #14. Following the three brutal Top 25 games, conference play kicks off as the LSU Tigers invade Starksville. Mississippi State lost to LSU in 'Death Valley' last season as the kicker missed a 58 yard field goal in the closing minute to allow LSU to escape with a 21-20 victory. Following this stretch, it gets a lot easier, a lot quicker, with games 3 of the next 5 games against SEC Bottomfeeders; Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Alabama. Along with these 3 is a road trip to Auburn, a team that has been 'down' lately and doesn't look to provide much of a challenge for the SEC West this year either. Also during this stretch will be the final non-conference game, during Week 8 against the Akron Zips. And then the season will end much as it started, with several brutal games back to back to back as the Bulldogs head to Tennessee, Arkansas, and then come back home to face Ole Miss for the Egg Bowl. "It'll be tough, but we're a tough team." The coach commented on his schedule, "We've got a good mix of returning starters and good young players, I think we can really make a run for the SEC title this year."

In case you don't want to try to come up with the schedule just by reading that, here it is, a little easier on the eyes:

Mississippi State's 2007 Schedule
Week 1: BYE
Week 2: vs Maryland
Week 3: at Ohio State
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: at Kansas State
Week 6: vs LSU
Week 7: vs Vanderbilt
Week 8: vs Akron
Week 9: at Auburn
Week 10: at Kentucky
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: vs Alabama
Week 13: at Tennessee
Week 14: at Arkansas
Week 15: vs Ole Miss
Week 16: BYE

Mississippi State's 2007 Starting Line Ups
Offense:
QB - Daniel Thurmond (Junior RS) 82
HB - Mike Sterling (Freshman) 75
FB - Aric Gillespie (Junior) 75
WR - Ahmaad Ballard (Senior) 93
WR - Bert Mosley (Senior) 93
TE - Nolan Riley (Senior) 87
LT - Andy Lee (Freshman) 76
LG - Rocky Brady (Junior) 75
C - Anthony Lloyd (Sophomore) 71
RG - Adam Erickson (Freshman RS) 73
RT - Shane Polk (Junior) 86

Defense:
LE - Sylvester Woodruff (Sophomore) 79
DT - Kyle Shipley (Freshman) 81
DT - Thurman Odom (Junior) 78
RE - Jeremiah Quinn (Freshman) 75
LOLB - DeMarcus McGee (Freshman) 76
MLB - Nick Crosby (Senior) 81
ROLB - Raymond Blackwell (Sophomore) 68
CB - Zach Reed (Freshman RS) 74
CB - Matthew Bennett (Freshman RS) 70
FS - Erik Smith (Freshman) 77
SS - Tim McIntyre (Junior) 79

Special Teams:
K - Reuben Magee (Freshman) 74
P - Reshard Cleveland (Junior) 60
KR - Charlie Holiday (Senior) 86 (SPD: 92)
KR - Lionel Patton (Senior) 87 (SPD: 91)

*Note: Patton and Holiday are #3 and #4 WRs, meaning my entire WR core will be graduating next year. :/


Around the Nation
Top 25
1. Maryland
2. Miami
3. Notre Dame
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma
6. Georgia
7. Colorado State
8. Virginia Tech
9. Louisville
10. Arkansas
11. Iowa
12. Arizona State
13. UCLA
14. Kansas State
15. Florida
16. Penn State
17. Oregon State
18. Ohio State
19. Tennessee
20. Texas A&M
21. NC State
22. Virginia
23. Ole Miss
24. Northern Illinois
25. LSU

Heisman Watch:
WR - James Townsend (Iowa)
WR - Cliff Metcalf (San Diego State)
QB - Brent Rivers (Georgia)
HB - Damion Grant (Miami OH)
QB - Edwin Anderson (Texas)

[Sportsfan10889]

nice to see this one up. ;)

[WildcatFever]

Looks good Zeek. Seems like you have a really tough schedule this year. Be interesting to see how it all comes out in the end.

[ZeekLTK]

SEC Takes on 2006's Best
Starksville, MS - What a weekend for the SEC to kick off the season with. It would be the Mississippi State Bulldogs against #1 ranked Maryland, and the Kentucky Wildcats against #9 ranked Louisville, the two teams who played for the 2006 National Championship. This was a chance for the SEC to make history, as no two teams who had played in the national title game had ever both opened their seasons with losses, to the same conference! Could the 'cats and 'dogs make it happen?

It appeared so in the first game, as Mississippi State kicked off to Maryland. Watson took the return and looked to start the season off with a bang. And did he ever... he got blasted and fumbled the ball! The Bulldog's 'Ironman' Charlie Holiday, who played WR, HB, CB, KR, PR, and was also on the kick-off team, made the play, by swooping in and blindsiding Wagner, causing a fumble. Ray Lacy pounced on the ball and it was 1st down Mississippi State inside the Maryland 30 yard line! A handoff to Sterling resulted in a loss of 2 and then the ball slipped out of Thurmond's hand on the next play, soaring out of bounds and resulting in an intentional grounding penalty. However, the veteran QB would come right back, hitting one of his four senior WRs, Ballard, in the endzone for a touchdown. Ballard made the incredible catch over the Maryland DB to ensure the Bulldog's would take the early lead. The PAT was good and it was 7-0 Mississippi State... Maryland was shaken, but not out of it yet... until the unthinkable happened.

On the next kick off, it was Wagner again who took the ball, and looking to redeem himself, he set off down the field. Except it would be Ray Lacy again who made another huge play for Mississippi State. He caught Wagner and, while the returner was going down, managed to pop the ball out of his hands again! Another fumble!!! Antoine Hess, who's only stat in the entire ball game would be a recovered fumble, jumped on the ball and again it was a Bulldog first down inside the Maryland 30 yard line! The Bulldog faithful were going crazy and the sound of cowbells echoed throughout the stadium as the deafening roar pumped up the Mississippi State players even more. On the first play of this drive Thurmond again had the ball slip out of his hands and go out of bounds, seemingly not intended for any receivers, getting another penalty. Ballard dropped a pass over the middle and a run up the middle was stopped on 3rd down, forcing a field goal. The freshman kicker was money though, nailing the kick and making it 10-0 with only 2 minutes off the clock, which was the only good news for Maryland, there was still plenty of game to be played.

Wagner again fielded the kick off and this time held on to the ball as he was tackled, allowing Maryland's offense to take the field for the first time this season. The Terps looked to get right back into the game as their star half back, Kai Morris broke two runs for back-to-back first downs right off the bat. Mississippi State's defensive front stepped up in the next series of downs and held the Terps to only 9 yards, stuffing Morris on a 3rd and 1 and forcing UMD to punt. Holiday got a decent return and set up good field position, that only got better within the next few plays as it was once again the combination of Thurmond to Ballard, this time for a 52 yard gain, as Ballard was tripped up at the 2 yard line! A sweep play on 1st down brought disasterour results and the Bulldogs lost 3 yards and were pushed back to the 5. 2nd down brought some trickeration, as Thurmond ran a play-action and then nearly had his pass intercepted in the end zone. Not wanting to risk a turnover after the last play, the coach went conservative and called a play for the 3rd down back to go straight up the middle, putting the team in better position for a field goal. Ali did better than that, he marched right through a gaping hole and strolled into the endzone, giving the Bulldogs a 17-0 lead over the #1 team in the nation!! The Cowbells were louder than ever!

By now Maryland was completely demoralized, but they refused to give up on the running game, as Morris continued to pount on the Bulldog defensive front. However, this was to the advantage of Mississippi State, as they continued to stop him for short gains, eventually Maryland had to punt again. By now the first quarter had passed and Mississippi State was looking to go for the jugular. However, Thurmond was a little off on a couple of passes, and the running game was just not working as expected, so the Bulldogs ended up punting themselves. Maryland had finally stopped a drive without allowing points, and as they began to advance the ball down the field they were starting to gain confidence... that is until Morris was stripped of the football, Maryland's third fumble of the half! Luckily a Terp was able to fall onto the ball to keep the drive alive. It was all for naught though, as the Bulldogs defense would come up huge a few plays later, as Woodruff hammered Josh Davidson as he went back to pass, causing the Junior QB to cough up the ball, and allowing Kyle Shipley to pick up the ball and rumble for about 5 yards before being brought down. With the 2nd half approaching quickly Mississippi State stuck to the running attack and pounded the ball, reaching their own 43 yard line before being forced to punt. By now there was about 20 seconds left in the half and Maryland had no choice other than to run the clock out, heading into half time down 17-0 to the unranked Bulldogs!

Mississippi State got the ball to start off the 2nd half and were still looking to put the game even further out of reach, as they knew a 17 point lead was good, but not that good, especially against the #1 team in the nation. So Thurmond came out throwing, but all he could complete were a couple of short dump passes to Mosley and Patton. Eventually the drive was stopped and Maryland got the ball back. The Terps drive was short lived though, as the Bulldog defense played "lights out" to get the ball back about midway through the 3rd. After a good punt return by Holiday to put the team near midfield, all h*ll broke loose.

On the following Mississippi State drive the Bulldogs ran about 10 plays... and did not pick up a single first down. Instead they were continually penalized, including several holding and clipping calls, as well as a false start. When all the dust had settled the Bulldogs had ran close to 2 minutes off the clock and were forced to punt with a 4th and 48 from inside their own 20 yard line. During the drive Mississippi State picked up 6 penalties which went towards their 11 total on the night. Two more were picked up on the following punt return and then the first run by Morris as two Bulldogs were called given personal fouls for facemasking. Maryland now had the best starting field position of the game and they were looking to capitalize on it. By continually pounding the ball with Morris, the Terps were getting closer and closer, but by running they were using up a lot of clock, and the third quarter actually ended before the Terps were able to score. They did reach the endzone two plays into the 4th quarter when it was none other than Morris who plowed through a now tired Bulldog frontline and put the Terps on the board, 17-7.

With 4:30 left in the game, Maryland had enough confidence in their defense that they did a normal kickoff, rather than onsides, and it turned out in their favor, as the defense held tough, getting the ball back with about 3 and a half minutes to play. A huge pass play down the sidelines put Maryland inside the 20 and then a few runs to Morris got them inside the 5. On 2nd and goal Davidson ran an option to the right and got plastered as he tossed the ball. The hit was so hard that it caused the ball to be thrown right over Morris' head, but things worked out just fine for the Terps as the ball had also gone over the closest Bulldog defender's head, who was to the inside of Morris, allowing the HB to scope up the ball (Maryland's 5th fumble of the game) and fall into the endzone for his 2nd touchdown of the night, pulling the game to within a field goal, 17-14!

There were still 2 minutes and change to play, and the Terps with all three timeouts decided to leave their fate in the hands of the defense, kicking off yet again. Just as things looked hopeless for Mississippi State (they had not picked up a first down since the 1st half) Thurmond stepped up to the plate and showed why he was in fact the leader of this offense. On first down he took a QB sneak up the middle for 14 yards, completely catching the Terrapins defense off guard and picking up the 1st down. Coming back into the huddle he barked "That's how you do it. Now let's pound these b*tches and finish this!" The words inspired the entire backfield who came out and did just that. Sterling, Ali, and Gillespie carried the ball 10 more times over the course of the final 2 minutes, picking up first down after first down and burning all of Maryland's timeouts in the process. Finally the clock got to inside 30 seconds and Thurmond took a knee. The refs were slow to spot the ball, and didn't do so until the game clock went under 25 seconds. As the play clock shut off and the game clock dwindled down, Starksville went into pandemonium, and the sound of cowbells could be heard from miles away!

Later on in the night, the scene was similar in Lexington as the Kentucky Wildcats upset the defending nationa champions, 27-17! The SEC had done it! The only two undefeated teams from the 2006 regular season would now start 2007 off 0-1! Next up for the newly ranked (#14) Bulldogs will be the #15 Ohio State Buckeyes, in the dreaded horseshoe! The Buckeyes clobbered New Mexico in their opener, 27-3.

Final: Mississippi State: 17, Maryland: 14

[TexasAg]

Whoa bud, we need some breaks in those giant paragraphs and quarter markers would help give some better sense of the game.

Good info, good read, bad layout. Of course Im taking TechWriting this semester so Im all over it .. next semester Ill forget to care

[Anteater]

What the hell is techwriting? are you majoring in computerscience or something texasag? and good game Zeek way to take advantage of the turnovers!
Anty

[ZeekLTK]

The Same Ole, Same Ole
Columbus, OH - As mentioned several times in previous years, Coach Julson has either won close or lost big to the Big Ten. In 2003 it was Idaho at Illinois... the Illini cruised to a 42-14 victory. The following year East Lansing was the destination for the Vandals. New scenery, but similar results as the Spartans romped, 45-24. In 2005 Idaho tried their luck in Ann Arbor, and this time came out with an unbelievable 24-21 victory! In 2006, with his new team, Coach Julson chose to honor Oregon's 'home/home agreement' and spent his major roadtrip in PAC-10, not Big Ten, country. However, the stars were aligned that season as the coach would end up facing off against a Big Ten school after all, taking on Penn State in the Outback Bowl. His Bulldogs prevailed, 21-14 and evened the record. With the streak still intact (1 Big Ten game per year) it was only natural to get one back on the schedule for the regular season for 2007. The choices were narrowed down to either at Iowa or at Ohio State, and the Buckeyes were "lucky" enough to welcome the coach back to Big Ten country, and they hoped to send him home with memories of Illinois and Michigan State rather than Michigan and Penn State.

And the Buckeyes would be no pushover either. Maryland might have been the pre-season #1, but 10 free points to start the game will do in almost any team. With Mississippi State's opening win, they jumped 16 spots from 30th to 14th in the nation, leapfrogging their opponents, as Ohio State sat at #15. As if this wasn't enough motivation, the Buckeyes were also in the hunt for a national title, and after seeing Mississippi State play last week, they were completely prepared. And they were about to attack the Bulldogs with no mercy!

Things started out bad for the Bulldogs... and never really got better. The Buckeyes had won two national titles in the past 5 years, and Coach Julson was about to find out why... because of the defense! Thurmond, who after a very good season last year followed by his encore performance against Maryland, was starting to be mentioned as a possible heisman candidate. Well, all that talk will certainly be hushed after today's performance... as Thurmond nearly threw many INTs (5) as completions (6). "I was having an off-game," the Junior starter commented, "and then to make matters worse their defensive front was just coming after me like crazy, and they were running some kind of defensive scheme that I just couldn't figure out. Where ever I wanted to throw the ball, there would always be red shirts there. Eventually I got sick of scrambling for my life and just started to let it fly... obviously it didn't turn out as well as I hoped." Obviously not, Thurmond finished the day with the lowest QB rating in Mississippi State history, a whopping 24.5 by going 6/19 for 103 yards, 0 TDs, and 5 INTs. His counterpart for the day, Senior Leroy Livingston was just the opposite, as he was spectacular throughout, going 10/19 for 243 Yards, and 4 TDs to earn a 229.5 rating!

But it wasn't just the QBs, Ohio State was better across the board. Three rushing touchdowns, by three different backs, four receiving touchdowns, all by Junior Marcus Mack (who had 6 catches for 176 yards), a kick off returned for a touchdown, and six seperate players with at least one INT or sack. Meanwhile the best stat any Bulldog put up was the kicker who went 2/2 with a 31 yard field goal and an extra point.

So, in case you haven't figured it out by now, it was not a pretty site for Bulldog fans. The Buckeye fans really ripped into the team when Thurmond threw his 5th pick with under a minute left in the game (which was tipped up into the air in the endzone and then caught by a Buckeye) as the 100,000+ fans in attendence all began to chant "OVER-RATED... OVER-RATED!" Obviously upset that their team had been leapfrogged in the standings the week before.

Mississippi State will get a needed BYE week next week before traveling to play their 3rd top 25 opponent of the season, Kansas State in Week 4. The Wildcats had a BYE this week and will face the undefeated Washington Huskies in Seattle next week. Also, the #1 team was back in the state of Mississippi this week, as #1 Miami took on #19 Ole Miss. This time, however, the #1 team would leave with the rank they came in with, as the Hurricanes steam rolled the Rebels, 38-14. And on one final note, the Idaho Vandals have won their first game ever (since Coach Julson has been in the league at least) against the Washington State Cougars! Winning 49-42 in a shootout at Pullman as Siegel had the kind of day his former coach needed out of a QB, going 25/32 for 368 Yards and 5 TDs. Coach Julson was 0-3 against Wazzu with the Vandals.

Final Score: Ohio State: 59, Mississippi State: 10

[RollBama1237]

Ah there we go.....that's a lil' nicer on the eyeballs.

Nice job Zeek, and tough loss against Ohio State......bandage your team up during the bye and get back out there!

[RunDMC]

nice dynasty with lots of info to read through. quick question: did you make coaches for every team and just put the other 116 teams on computer assist in order to see all of the fired coaches and make teams jump conferences? i guess that would have to be the only logical way to see all of that. thanks.

[HappyHoosier]

nice dynasty with lots of info to read through. quick question: did you make coaches for every team and just put the other 116 teams on computer assist in order to see all of the fired coaches and make teams jump conferences? i guess that would have to be the only logical way to see all of that. thanks.
I've been wondering the same thing. I thought you were limited to only 12 coaches per year, obviously he had several coaches in there, which is clear from the conference jumps, but way more than 12 firings some years. I'm curious what the deal is...

HH

[ZeekLTK]

I've been wondering the same thing. I thought you were limited to only 12 coaches per year, obviously he had several coaches in there, which is clear from the conference jumps, but way more than 12 firings some years. I'm curious what the deal is...


Yeah, you can only have 12 coaches at a time, and since I'm one of them, that leaves 11 open spots. So I go through and 'fire' every coach who finished with 3 wins or less. However, coaches are exempt if their team just fired their coach the year before that (meaning it's a first year coach) and if he took over 2 years ago then it depends on if I feel like firing him or not. Usually if it's for a team that I'm not trying to get kicked out of a conference then I'll give them one more year to turn it around, but if it's for a team such as Temple, that I could get kicked out of the Big East and replaced by a good mid-major team, then that coach is gone!

So I make a list of all the teams who finished 3-9 or worse and then check to see which teams had the same record last season and the season before that. If the team isn't on either list, then that coach is gone! If the team is on the list the previous year, they get to keep their coach (for now). And like I said, if he's on the 2 years ago list then it depends. I also look at the teams who only won 4 games and try to find some 'good' schools and then I fire their coach (for example the year that Washington's coach got fired the Huskies were a 5-star program and went 4-8 so I figured that deserved a firing).

To fire the coach I just create a coach and then take over that team. If there are more than 11 coaches to be fired, then I will look at my list and narrow it down to the 11 I am trying to move around inbetween conferences. The others I just take over, and then I leave that job and take another (which by doing so gets rid of their old coach and replaces him with a new one), until it's down to the 11 and then I have each individual coach take over one of the final 11 teams and hope that one or more of them get kicked out of their conference. If I don't really see many teams that have a good shot at getting kicked out, I'll pick some teams that I think have a very good shot at moving up and take over as them (which when you take them over, they lose their coach... which is why I have the "left for better option" for Year 2. Then in Year 4 I had Oklahoma's coach leave just to shake things up heh).

The point of making teams change coaches is just to make it more interesting. Michigan State's coach was fired after they did terrible in Year 1, and then I played them in Year 2 and rather than using "Michigan State" playbook they were using "Balanced Run" or something like that. Each coach has his own playbook, so by having teams get new coaches every so often it just mixes it up, and possibly makes teams better. For example if Nebraska started to recruit slow QBs, bad HBs, and really good WRs and then went 2-10, in a normal dynasty they'd continue to be terrible because their playbook is designed to run the ball, but in mine if they do bad enough to get fired (and they have that kind of roster) they might end up getting a guy who uses Florida's playbook, and because that's a passing offense, they might thrive and win the Big XII the next season. That's just an example. There is no way (That I know of) to find out which coach took over for the teams in question unless that team gets their coach into the top 12 of the award semifinalists and it says (TEAMABRV COACH - Team). For example usually it will say like BUCKS COACH - Ohio State. But after changing coaches, it will say PRVAMU COACH - Colorado State, meaning that Colorado State now has Prairie View A&M's coach (which is who they have right now in my dynasty). And they use whatever play book P-View A&M uses, dunno right now, haven't played the Rams yet.

[ZeekLTK]

Note: You know what. F*ck this computer. I'm sick of typing up a long a$$ report and then having the f*cking web browser crash and it all being deleted. I had a great post written up and I was just about done and then the f*cking error comes up. It did this to me all the time when I was posting on the other board, but it'd been fine until now. So f*ck it, I'm not gonna waste my time doing this any more. I'll just go back to how I used to do it, a small paragraph of the game with very breif and undetailed summaries. And you can thank my piece of sh*t computer.

Bulldogs Drop the Ball in the Little Apple
Manhattan, KS - It was a great match up today as the #22 Mississippi State Bulldogs came to town to take on the #12 Kansas State Wildcats. Both teams were coming off of games against opponents who had been undefeated... the Bulldogs getting whopped by Ohio State, 59-10, and Kansas State knocking off former undefeated Washington, in overtime. This game appeared to be headed into overtime as the two squads were evenly matched. Both had huge running games (Kansas State ran for 130 yards, Mississippi State for 111), decent passing games, and their share of penalties and turnovers. Mississippi State's 1-4 WRs and starting TE are all seniors this year, but they certainly played like freshman out there. Riley, Holiday, and Patton all had at least one ball that ended up on the turf rather than in their hands on their short crossing routes that this team loves to run. Ballard dropped a wideopen pass which he got so free on because the secondary came up to cover the option and it turned out Thurmond would be throwing the ball, that would have, without a doubt, gone for a touchdown. Meanwhile Mosley had the ball stolen right out of his hands by a CB on one play, and then dropped a deep pass in which he was open in the middle of the field with 12 seconds left in the game and the score tied at 24-24. Despite this, the Bulldogs were still in the game, mainly due to their real freshman, the HB Sterling, who, as mentioned above, rushed for 111 yards on the day. He also caught a pass which he took 18 yards for a touchdown as well. However, in the end it would come down to a 3rd and 17 from the Bulldog's 13 yard line in which Thurmond lined up in the shotgun formation... and the center snapped the ball over his head. All the veteran QB could do was watch as the ball rolled harmlessly out of the back of the endzone for a safety giving Kansas State the victory without having to earn it in overtime, 26-24. The Bulldogs will begin SEC play next weekend as they welcome the LSU Tigers to Starksville.

Kansas State: 26, Mississippi State: 24
Current Record: 1-2 (0-0)

[TexasAg]

Note: You know what. F*ck this computer. I'm sick of typing up a long a$$ report and then having the f*cking web browser crash and it all being deleted. I had a great post written up and I was just about done and then the f*cking error comes up. It did this to me all the time when I was posting on the other board, but it'd been fine until now. So f*ck it, I'm not gonna waste my time doing this any more. I'll just go back to how I used to do it, a small paragraph of the game with very breif and undetailed summaries. And you can thank my piece of sh*t computer.


Ahhh that sucks Zeek, that last game and summary was good, but you need to just break up the paragraph a little and it would be super. I break mine up into drives cause I further break it up into quarters. But you could just break yours up into quarters and keep it small. With a small summary/misc event thing to start.

Tough loss, but losses make the wins better.

[ZeekLTK]

I was more p*ssed about the fact that I had typed up a nice report about the game and then it got erased more than I was that I lost on something so stupid as a safety on the last play of the game. :/

[TexasAg]

How did that last play go down dude? I mean .... I dont think Ive ever had a snap go over the head of my QB, or a missed punt snap.

Furthermore why were you passing?! =P

[ZeekLTK]

How did that last play go down dude? I mean .... I dont think Ive ever had a snap go over the head of my QB, or a missed punt snap.

Furthermore why were you passing?! =P

Well, like I HAD typed in my previous post that got erased...

I was up 24-14 at the end of the 3rd quarter. They drove down and scored a touchdown with 3 minutes left in the game (5 min quarters) to make it 24-21. I got the ball and threw a great pass down the field to one of my best receivers, Mosley. He was double covered, but I threw it short so he caught it in the air fairly easily. However, when he was coming down with it, the Kansas State CB's hands were like right there and somehow it got exchanged from my guy's hands to his and thus an interception and they get the ball back. :/ So they are trying to drive but I'm doing pretty good on D, holding them. However they are usually moving the ball forward every play, even if it is only a few yards. Eventually they get down to 3rd and goal from the 2 yard line and run an option play and run it into the endzone. However I get the luckiest break ever and it's called back for holding. So now it's 3rd and goal from the 12 and they try a pass to the endzone that I nearly intercept. There's now 21 seconds left and they kick a field goal to tie it 24-24. They kick off and I only returned it to my own 20, running the clock down to about 17 seconds or so. Earlier in the game I had called an "option pass" and it worked perfectly... my guy was wide open, no one within 30 yards of him but the ball hit him on the shoulder or something and fell incomplete! So I called that play, hoping for similar results but this time I got sacked in the backfield for a loss of 7. I called timeout and there were 12 seconds left now. Next I went to the shotgun formation and figured if I could complete a pass and get to midfield I could call my last timeout and try for a "Hail Flutie" type play. The play worked perfectly, Mosley got open in the middle of the field and the ball hit him right on the hands... and the b*tch dropped it! /evil So I had 6 seconds left now and figured maybe if I can just complete the pass something will go my way after all these drops, maybe I'll get a facemask against them and get put into field goal range or something (that had happened against me once) so I called another play out of the shotgun formation. I put the receiver in motion and then I noticed on of the DBs moving with him, which was suppose to be the guy covering one of my other guys I thought... anyways, I got excited that it looked like one of my guys would be WIDE OPEN and hit the snap button... right when the WR that I had put in motion ran past the center. The ball hit him and ricqoschayed (omg spelling?) off his leg and started rolling towards the endzone. For some reason my lineman was closer to the ball than my QB so I switched to him and by the time I got to it, the ball had rolled into the endzone so I couldn't dive on it or it would be a safety. So I tried run in and scoop it up so that I could at least get it out of the endzone and not get a safety... but since EA made it impossible to manually pick up the ball on the run this year my guy ended up kicking it straight out of bounds as the clock expired to lose the game. And then I typed up a long post describing the entire game and my browser crashed right before I finished!! /evil

[TexasAg]

Ahh you are much more brave than me, I know that playing on Heisman the computer WILL make you pay if you get too ballsy, if I had been in your situation I would have did a few FB dives and maybe a offtackle out of the Maryland-I and ran the clock out and went to OT. Of course that being said, I had the same opportunity and I went for the win at SMU instead of kicking a FG to tie so I lost. I can be ballsy like that too, but typically I play conservative because of Heisman's nack of cheating in the late 2nd and late 4th.

[ZeekLTK]

True Freshman Carries Bulldogs with Record Breaking Performances
Starksville, MS - It had been three weeks since the Bulldogs had played at home in Starksville. And it had been three long weeks in which the Bulldogs suffered two terrible losses. Now that they were back in their home, the place where they had defeated the #1 team in the nation, it was payback time. Payback for the Buckeye's 59-10 route of them, pay back for the unbelievable safety at the end of the game to lose by 2 points to Kansas State, and most of all... pay back for the missed field goal in the closing seconds at Baton Rouge during a Mississippi State loss, 21-20. It was on, and it was on good as the LSU Tigers and Mississippi State Bulldogs have begun to develop a fierce rivalry in the SEC West, and this game only expanded on that new found rivalry.

This game was full of things no one would ever expect to see just turning on a casual Saturday night football game. But this was the place where just a month ago the Bulldogs had defeated the top ranked Maryland Terrapins thanks to 5 UMD fumbles! The crazieness all started in the middle of the first quarter when the true freshman Sterling, who's name will certianly come up a lot when talking about this game, took the ball on a toss play and then surprised everyone as he launched it down field. The CB wasn't fooled, at least not by the pass, as he was able to get his hand on the ball. However, all he did was tip it into the waiting hands of Ballard, who caught it and then took off down the sidelines for an 89 yard touchdown!

Tipped balls go both ways though, and LSU's stud WR for the day, WR #89, managed to pull in a ball that was tipped by Reed and took it to the house, making it 7-7! Mississippi State was not done yet though, as with less than a minute left in the 2nd quarter and the ball still on the Bulldog's side of the field, the team turned to their freshman once again, and once again... he came up huge. This time with a 34 yard run to put the team into field goal range. But before it was time for the kicker to come out, Thurmond found Sterling open at about the 10 yard line. The HB made a great juke to get around the first defender and then he was into the endzone on the 19 yard play, 14-7 Bulldogs!

LSU would come right back though, as they had been using WR #89 and picking on Reed all day, as he towered over the small CB by 4 inches! Getting closer to the endzone, it looked as though the Tigers were about to tie the game again as they threw another pass, this time in the endzone, to #89. However, Reed was sick of being picked on because of his height, and he did something about it. He read Cox's pass perfectly and intercepted the ball in the back of the endzone! But that wasn't all, ahead of him he saw a wide open field, and rather than taking a knee, Reed took off down the sidelines! With only a few lineman chasing him (it took WR #89 a while to realize what was happening, and by then Reed was gone) the 5'11 CB strutted down the sidelines, and did a huge celebration, costing the team 15 yards, once he reached the endzone! The return had spanned 107 yards and shattered the previous NCAA record of 103 yards which had been set by a Michigan CB 4 years ago.

Prior to the interception, LSU had been dominating the Bulldog secondary with their incredibly tall receivers, but the huge interception return pumped the Bulldogs full of confidence that lasted throughout the 3rd. When LSU got the ball back they attempted to rebound by going to the air 3 times in a row, and 3 times in a row the Mississippi State defensive backs made huge plays, forcing an LSU punt! Things got even worse for LSU as Magee came out on the field on 4th and long to attempt a 52 yarder... and drilled it right through the uprights! It was the longest kick of the young kickers career, and it gave the Bulldogs a 24-7 lead!!

Things were well in hand heading into the 4th quarter, but all year Mississippi State had fallen apart in the 4th quarter, including squandering their 24-14 lead over Kansas State to lose 26-24. It looked like the Tigers might be on the verge of a comeback, scoring a quick touchdown early and then getting the ball right back. Cox hit Jamison on a screen pass, and somehow the HB found some room to run... and ran 65 yards into the endzone to make it 24-21 with 1:24 left to play! Another 3 plays and it was again punting time for Mississippi State with still slightly over a minute left! The comeback was in the making... until the LSU Punt returner muffed the catch! The Bulldogs pounched on the ball, recovering it inside the Tiger's 20 yard line!! While running out the clock, Sterling took a sweep to the outside for a 12 yard touchdown, completing the cycle and preventing the comeback! With the score, Sterling, a true freshman, had accomplished something that very few men can ever say they have done in a game: throw for a touchdown, rush for a touchdown, and catch a touchdown pass! With the score now 31-21 with under 40 seconds to play, it was all over for LSU. On the last play of the game Cox hit WR #89 for a huge gain down the sidelines, but like it had been all night, the WR got a lot of yards, but no points.

Mississippi State improves to 2-2 (1-0) on the season with coach Julson's first victory ever against the LSU Tigers, and they look to get back above .500 for the first time since Week 2 next week against the weak Vanderbilt Commadores. As for Sterling, his final stat line read:

1 Pass for 89 Yards, 1 TD (1177.6 QB Rating)
8 Carries for 63 Yards, 1 TD
2 Catches for 35 Yards, 1 TD

"Simply unbelievable!" the coach said.

Mississippi State: 31, LSU: 21
Current Record: 2-2 (1-0)

[ZeekLTK]

Bulldogs Cruise Past Vanderbilt
Starksville, MS - After four straight tough games, Mississippi State finally got a breather, as SEC cellar dwellar Vanderbilt came to down. It was all Bulldogs, all the time in this one as Thurmond lit up the Commadore defense through the air, and Sterling rushed for about 50 yards and 2 TDs on the ground. Vanderbilt really never put up much of a fight. When the score was 14-0 they managed to put together a touchdown drive to get on the board, but the Bulldogs responded on their next possession with a Sterling touchdown to continue to pull away. Finally, in the closing seconds of the 4th quarter Vandy's WR broke a tackle from Reed, injuring the CB for at least a week, and ran 60 yards for a touchdown as time expired, making the score look a little better, 35-14 rather than 35-7, but still losing handily. Up next for Mississippi State is a third home game in a row before a two game road trip as the Akron Zips will be making the trip down to Starksville. The Bulldogs are expected to win fairly easily as Akron has not lived up to the litte pre-season hype that they even had (which was being picked to finish 3rd in the MAC) as they have already lost several games to teams such as Ohio and Navy. Akron will be the last non-SEC opponent that Mississippi State plays during the regular season.

Mississippi State: 35, Vanderbilt: 14
Current Record: 3-2 (2-0)

[bruinfan18]

great job zeek keep up the great work

[ZeekLTK]

Bulldogs Outrun Zips
Starksville, MS - Mississippi State concluded their final non-conference game, of the regular season at least, today at home against the Akron Zips. Thought to be a tough challenge earlier in the year, Akron has promptly disappointed everyone, losing to teams such as Ohio and Navy earlier in the season. Add to this the fact that Mississippi State has been unbeatable at home, including a win over the (previous) #1 team in the nation, Maryland, who has since gone on to win 4 in a row.

However, as the game started with the rain pouring in Starksville, it appeared that maybe Akron was ready to live up to their hype, however small it was, and would give the Bulldogs a run. The Zips intercepted Thurmond's first pass of the game and eventually scored to make it 7-0. The Bulldogs responded with a nice drive of their own, and then Akron again took the lead, this time with a huge run to make it 14-7. However, anything Akron's backfield could do, the true freshman Sterling showed that he could do better, as he broke off not one, not two, but three runs for 60+ yards during the game, including a run on the ensuing drive after that score to make it 14-14. An Akron turnover set up a touchdown run by Gillespie and then a screen pass that was intercepted by the FS Smith at Akron's 8 yard line was taken in for a score, making it 28-14... after only 1 quarter of play.

Akron was able to respond early in the 2nd quarter to keep the game close, as their backfield continued to give the Bulldogs problems. Moore broke a big run again and not long after the Zips were back in the endzone, cutting the lead to 28-21. But that was as close as they would get. Between Sterling, who was just running circles around the Akron defense, Gillespie, who was simply running through the Zips, and Ali, who was out to prove that he was just as good as the man who took his job... Akron had no chance at stopping the Mississippi State rushing game on this night, and they didn't. Between them, the three backs combined for 310 rushing yards and 6 touchdowns (2 TDs each), leading Mississippi State to a 56-21 route.

Sterling is breaking all kinds of freshman records for the Bulldogs this season, and seems to only be getting better with each game. Many fans will remember how he achieved the "football cycle" a few weeks ago against LSU by throwing for, rushing for, and catching a touchdown pass in the same game. Today, his 225 yard, 2 TD performance went even further to solidify himself as not only one of the best freshman backs in the nation, but simply one of the best. "It's hard to believe that Sterling was just a 3-star recruit, but that happens." The coach commented about his prized freshman, "guys from small schools like that get overlooked sometimes, or they don't get as much respect as they should. I'm sure LSU is just kicking themselves that they let this kid leave the state, especially after what he did against them." Sterling and Mississippi State will have a much tougher defense to run against next week as they take on the #23 Auburn Tigers.

Mississippi State: 56, Akron: 21
Current Record: 4-2 (2-0)

[bruinfan18]

nice win zeek!...great job being 2-0 in the confrence

[ZeekLTK]

Road Woes Continue for Bulldogs
Auburn, AL - Coming off of the biggest win of his career, coach Julson was poised to put his Bulldogs in position to run away with the SEC West by defeating the #23 Auburn Tigers, knocking them down to a 2-2 conference record while improving #24 Mississippi State to 3-0 in the SEC. But then again, things don't always go as planned. After dropping 56 points on Akron last week, the Bulldog offense was in for a rude awakening when they ran into a "real defense" as senior OLB Anton Carter put it earlier in the week. And oh boy, Auburn showed Mississippi State and their "star" freshman half back that they might be able to run wild on a weak MAC school, but they were no match for the Tiger's top 25 defense.

In fact, the entire game was a defensive struggle, and in the end, the team with the better defense prevailed... Auburn. The Tigers pounced all over the Bulldogs and were in the backfield more often than Sterling was. The team recorded an amazing 12 tackles for loss during the game, as opposed to Mississippi State's 5. "I couldn't believe it," Sterling said afterwards, "I would just take the hand off and then all of a sudden there would be 2 or 3 defenders all over me. It was just so frustrating." Carter and teammate, SS Matt Holland, were the main causes of concern for the Bulldogs, as the two seniors as they combined for 11 tackles (4 for loss), leading the team with 6 and 5 tackles respectively (and each getting 2 for loss). Holland also recovered a fumble. But the defense wasn't the only unit dominating their opponents, the Auburn offensive line deserves recognition for their 19 pancake - 0 sack performance! Because of the incredible job the offensive line did, Auburn was able to rush for over 100 yards on the day. The passing game was all but shut down, save for a few instances, such as where Swann found Davis open in the endzone for a 20 yard touchdown pass late in the 1st quarter. That pass was of course set up by the great runs that HB Brandon Johnson and FB Major Daniel had. In fact, it would be Johnson to put the final nail in the coffin as he busted an 11 yard run on 3rd and 4 late in the 4th quarter to keep the ball out of Mississippi State's hands and ensure victory.

As for Mississippi State, the offense was non-existant. Thurmond threw for a mere 121 yards while the ground game picked up only 44 yards on 23 carries, 35 of which came from Sterling. The special teams were the only thing keeping the Bulldogs alive as Holiday had two great punt returns that set up field goals in the 2nd half. However, the Tiger defense was simply too dominant and the early touchdown pass ended up being the difference in the game. Auburn did kick a field goal as time expired, since the Bulldogs purposefully jumped offsides on 4th and 8 to ensure that there would be one more play. They were hoping for a blocked kick that could be returned for a score, but instead the Auburn kicker drilled the ball through the uprights to give Auburn the 10-6 victory. Mississippi State is now 4-0 at home and 0-3 on the road this season, and things do not get any easier as their final road games of the season are at Kentucky (4-3), at Arkansas (5-2), and at Tennessee (5-3). The Kentucky game will be played next week.

Auburn: 10, Mississippi State: 6
Current Record: 4-3 (2-1)

[ZeekLTK]

Second Half Explosion Gives Bulldogs First Road Victory
Lexington, KY - Both SEC foes on this day came into the game with 4-3 records, both teams had played and defeated the teams who had battled for the 2006 national championship (Maryland and Louisville) in their opening games, both came in with 2-1 conference records, and both were looking to rebound after tough losses the previous week.

On paper everything looked dead even, and on the field in the 1st quarter it looked the same. Kentucky held Mississippi State on their first drive, and then put together a drive of their own to get into field goal range. The Wildcats nailed the field goal to make it 3-0... but wait, holding on the play. After backing up 10 yards they kicked it again, but again it was holding! Another 10 yards was tacked on and now they were completely out of field goal range and were forced to punt. The Bulldogs took advantage of this and put their own drive together to get into field goal range, except this time there would be no flag as they kicked their field goal, making it 3-0 in favor of the visitors.

The penalties kept coming, for both sides, as numerous offensive drives were killed by 15 yard clipping penalties, as 5 of them were called in the 1st half alone. Finally, after trading off punts over and over, Mississippi State managed to get back inside the 30 and kick another field goal to make it 6-0 at half time. There were less flags in the 2nd half, but still Kentucky's offense struggled, as Mississippi State completely shut them down, forcing several punts from the back of the endzone. Because of this, the Bulldogs always had great field position, and that led to some fairly easy scores, as Thurmond found Sterling open for a score and then the freshman punched in a run himself to make it 20-0 after 3 quarters. Even more impressive was probably the fact that the entire 3rd quarter was played on Kentucky's side of the field... the ball never crossed into Bulldog territory.

The 4th quarter was desperation time for the Wildcats, as they needed 3 scores, and quickly. This led to the senior QB making some throws that he normally wouldn't make, and those throws ended up getting picked off. Thurmond was still picking apart the Mississippi State defense as well, finding Holiday on a deep route and then Riley in the back of the endzone to make it 27-0. And then finally, with under a minute to play, a simple pass to Patton for 12 yards turned into a 79 yard touchdown as the WR/CB juked out his defender and then simply outran the rest of the Wildcat defense to make it 34-0. With this Kentucky simply gave up and ran the clock out to finish off the game as they fall to 4-4 (2-2) overall while Mississippi State improves to 5-3 (3-1) and remains in the hunt for the SEC crown. The Bulldogs get a BYE week next folllowed by a home game against possibly the worst team in the SEC, Alabama. After the Tide though, things will get much tougher as the Bulldogs will prove whether or not they are contenders or pretenders with road games at Arkansas, Tennessee, and then a home game against Ole Miss!

Mississippi State: 34, Kentucky: 0
Current Record: 5-3 (3-1)

[ZeekLTK]

Bulldogs Enjoy Bye Week - Prepare for Final Stretch
Starksville, MS - Not much to report on this week for Bulldog football as the team was idle to rest up for their final 4 game stretch of the season. However, other games did take place and other conference races heated up. Here is the current SEC standings after a wild week of play, as well as the conference races from across the nation:

SEC East
1. Georgia 9-0 (6-0)
2. Florida 6-3 (4-2)
3. South Carolina 5-4 (3-3)
4. Tennessee 6-3 (2-3)
5. Kentucky 4-5 (2-3)
6. Vanderbilt 3-6 (0-5)

SEC West
1. Auburn 7-2 (4-1)
2. Mississippi State 5-3 (3-1)
3. Arkansas 7-2 (3-2)
4. Ole Miss 4-5 (3-2)
5. LSU 2-6 (1-4)
6. Alabama 2-7 (0-5)

ACC
1. Maryland 8-1 (5-0) *Plays Virginia Next
2. Virginia 8-1 (5-1)
3. NC State 8-2 (5-1)

Big Ten
1. Michigan 9-1 (6-0)
2. Ohio State 9-0 (5-0)

Big XII South
1. Texas 9-0 (5-0)
2. Texas A&M 8-2 (5-0)
3. Oklahoma 8-1 (4-1)

Big XII North
1. Kansas State 8-1 (4-1)
2. Missouri 6-3 (4-1)

Big East
1. Virginia Tech 9-0 (4-0) *Already played Miami
2. Miami 7-2 (3-1)

Conference USA
1. Cincinnati 7-2 (4-1)
2. Louisville 6-3 (4-1)
3. TCU 7-3 (4-2)

Independents
1. Notre Dame 8-1
2. UConn 8-2

MAC East
1. UCF 7-2 (5-0)
2. Marshall 8-1 (4-1)
3. Miami (OH) 4-5 (4-1)

MAC West
1. Toledo 6-3 (4-1)
2. Northern Illinois 8-1 (4-1)
3. Eastern Michigan 3-6 (3-2)

Mountain West
1. Colorado State 6-3 (5-0)
2. San Diego State 5-4 (4-0)
3. UNLV 5-4 (3-1)

PAC-10
1. UCLA 8-1 (5-0)
2. USC 5-3 (4-1)
3. Washington 5-4 (3-2)
4. Oregon State 6-3 (3-2)
5. Fresno State 6-3 (3-2)

Sun Belt
1. Idaho 6-3 (3-1)
2. UL-Monroe 5-4 (3-1)
3. New Mexico State 6-4 (3-2)

WAC
1. Nevada 5-4 (4-1)
2. SMU 5-5 (4-2)
3. North Texas 4-4 (3-1)

[bruinfan18]

good luck zeek!...glad to see my bruins in first place

[ZeekLTK]

Freshman Fullback Shows Up Freshman Halfback
Starksville, MS - Undefeated at home and hosting the 'worst' team in the SEC, this looked like another Akron game for the Bulldogs. However, the "worst" officials in the nation (according to Mississippi State's coach after the game) were in the stadium as well, and to top it off, Alabama's redshirt freshman fullback, Stevie Ball, was preparing to have the game of his life.

As usual, things started off slow for the Bulldogs. Reed got burned by the surpsingly fasy Junior WR Lawrence Goodwin on the first play of the game. All it took was a lob over Reed's head into Goodwin's hands and he was off to the races... 85 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0 'Bama 13 seconds into the game. The Bulldogs did not fear though, they had Thurmond at the helm, and despite Ballard dropping a fairly easy catch on Thurmond's first attempt, the veteran QB went to one of his other four senior WRs, Mosley, who made a great catch, broke a tackle, and scampered into the endzone for the 64 yard touchdown, tieing the game.

This should have been it for Alabama, and it looked like it was as the first quarter ended in a deadlock, both teams now struggling to move the ball and punting back and forth. Everyone was waiting for Sterling and Mississippi State to break the game wide open, but instead the Tide shocked everyone as they responded, with another broken coverage touchdown. On the play Tim McIntyre, who played great for the rest of the game by picking up 5 tackles and an INT, completely missed his assignment, allowing Ricardo Stanton to stroll 48 yards down the sideline, completely unopposed, to make it 14-7 Alabama. The Bulldogs shrugged it off and prepared for an offensive touchdown of their own, and they had plenty of chances, but it was not to be as "the officials did more to stop our drive than Alabama did" the coach said afterwards. On the Bulldogs drive Sterling broke a run that went for 68 yards and a touchdown... except it was called back for holding. The Bulldogs had been called for clipping on the previous play, and then Sterling was stopped in the backfield making it 2nd and 38! Thurmond completed a nice pass to make it 3rd and 21, and then a screen pass to Sterling picked up big yards, but it wasn't enough as it was now 4th and 8 and the Bulldogs were forced to punt. Alabama got the ball and pounded it up the middle with Ball before attemping a 51 yard field goal that fell just short as the half came to a close.

With the score only 14-7, and remembering the 2nd half they had against Kentucky, Mississippi State was not at all concerned as the 2nd half kicked off. They would get the ball first and most likely drive down to tie the game up, but as Patton, not Holiday, fielded the kick off things went a rye as he tried to juke and spin for extra yards he fumbled the football... and the Tide recovered! After a barage of runs by HB Kevin Helms and the freshman, Ball, Alabama finally got into the endzone on a playaction pass from 5 yards out! 21-7 Crimson Tide.

The Bulldog offense continued to be non-existant in the 3rd quarter, heading into the final period still down by 2 scores. Thurmond finally stepped up and made a big play though, as on 3rd and 13 he found Patton for a huge gain of 31 yards. After two runs by Sterling the team was inside the 5 yard line, and then the true freshman carried it in himself to put the game within a single score, 21-14. But neither he nor Thurmond would have a chance to score again, as they would never touch the ball again. Alabama got the ball and Ball began to shine. During the stretch, he picked up 2 facemask penalties that earned the Tide first downs (one on 3rd and 4 in which he was stopped in the backfield), and he ran for at least 30 yards on several carries during the drive as well, including another 3rd down where Helms took a handoff up the middle and then pitched it out to him. Ball put a huge stiff arm on Crosby and then rumbled forward for the 1st down. Alabama also had luck in the air, as Reed was called for pass interference on 3rd and 7 for "slowing down" in front of Goodwin in order to "try to intercept the ball" he claimed. And on another pass on 3rd and long, freshman Matthew Bennett got a few steps behind his WR and the pass was completed for the first down. All in all, Alabama converted 6 third downs in the game, four of them coming on the last drive of the game. When the Bulldogs finally did stop Alabama on 3rd down it was too late. There were 10 seconds left, Mississippi State was out of timeouts, and Alabama was in field goal range. This time their kicker made the attempt and it was 24-14 with 6 seconds to go. Thurmond attempted a hail mary to make the score look respectable, but he was sacked on the last play of the game and left the field after throwing his helmet on the ground, shattering part of it.

After the game coach Julson was very vocal on the ref's role in the two critical drives of the game, meaning the last one and the one in which Sterling's touchdown was called back on account of holding that took place away from the play. "It just disgusts me that the refs can, and in this case did, decide the outcome of the game with terrible calls. You should NEVER call a facemask, especially 'inadvertant' like it was, on 3rd down late in the game. That's total bullsh*t. Also I can't believe a phantom holding call cost us a touchdown that would have probably made a difference in the game, as we wouldn't have had to worry about Ball in the 4th quarter, since they wouldn't have been trying to run the clock out."

Alabama: 24, Mississippi State: 14
Current Record: 5-4 (3-2)

[ZeekLTK]

Bulldogs Take A Page From Alabama's Book
Knoxville, TN - Coming off their embarrassing loss to Alabama, Mississippi State had something to prove. With Tennessee struggling all year (especially for their standards), the Vols were playing for their own pride as well. A top 25 ranking hung in the balance as the unranked Bulldogs took on the #23 Volunteers.

Tennessee had obviously gotten ahold of the game footage of 'Bama's win the week before, because they started out nearly indentically as the Tide, by attacking Reed and getting a huge passing touchdown early. Mississippi State stood in there though, they sucked it up and then went right after the Volunteer's defensive front. Between Sterling and Gillespie, the Vols just could not stop the potent rushing attack that had simply not showed up last week for the Bulldogs. Thurmond completed a few key passes, but the bulk of the drive was carried by the two backs and it ended up being Gillespie who found the end zone to tie the game at 7-7.

The Bulldog secondary came back out with something to prove and shut down the Tennessee passing attack, forcing Thomas to throw 5 incomplete passes in a row at one point. The Volunteers never even attempted to try their rushing attack, as their backs had a total of 7 combined carries in the game. The first quarter ended tied, but it didn't stay that way for long, as the Bulldogs were driving, using Ali now as well, as Sterling was beginning to tire, and they eventually punched it in, again on a short run, this time by Ali though. The defense continued to shut down the passing attack and got the ball back. Some more key passes as well as some big runs by the Bulldog backfield put them back inside the redzone. However, the Vols got lucky and Thurmond's play-action pass was tipped and fell into the hands of a linebacker, making it the first redzone possession of the year that did not result in points for Mississippi State!

Tennessee would make the Bulldogs pay for abandoning their running game by throwing the ball. They figured that eventually the secondary would crack and they would be able to bust a big play... they were right. Thomas found the 5th year senior who broke a tackle (of Reed) and then had two key blocks by his other receivers to open the lane in which he ran 80 yards for the score to tie the game! Mississippi State was unimpressed though, and despite time being low, Thurmond came out and made three big completions, including a 24 yard pass to the TE Riley to get inside the redzone with only 3 seconds left on the clock. After a timeout the field goal unit came out and hit the easy 28 yarder to make it 17-14 in favor of the Bulldogs at half time.

The third quarter was dominated by Mississippi State as they expanded their lead to 24-14 thanks to two key receptions by Mosley, one of which went for a 43 yard touchdown. The defense clamped down and Tennessee could not do anything at all in the air, but they still refused to go to their running game. The score still stood at 24-14 heading into the 4th quarter and Tennessee was starting to drive. Memories of the Kansas State game began to come back to the Bulldogs, even more so when Tennessee finally scored, cutting the lead to 24-21 with over 3 minutes left to play!

However, if the Bulldogs learned anything from the Alabama loss, it was how to control the ball and run the clock out in the 4th quarter. Mississippi State took the remaining 3 minutes and change and pounded Tennessee into submission by running the ball 12 times, gaining several yards and first downs and burning up all of the Vol's timeouts in the process. When Sterling picked up yet another 1st down with only 38 seconds left in the game, silence fell over Neyland Stadium as everyone knew this game was over. A knee by Thurmond sealed the deal and Mississippi State rebounded nicely after their loss to a 2-7 Alabama squad by defeating a 7-3 Tennessee squad. Up next for the Bulldogs will be their final road game of the season, a trip to Fayetteville, Arkansas. This game will have major implications of which bowl each team goes to as the Bulldogs and Razorbacks are now tied for 2nd place in the SEC West.

Mississippi State: 24, Tennessee: 21
Current Record: 6-4 (4-2)

[ZeekLTK]

Thurmond Overcomes Receivers to Win
Fayetteville, AR - With Auburn's huge upset of Georgia last week to improve them to 6-1 in the conference clinched the Tiger's a spot in the SEC Championship game, as the worst that they can finish now is 6-2 (and only if Alabama upsets them in the Iron Bowl). Arkansas and Mississippi State each had 4-2 records after their wins last week, but since they both lost head-to-head against Auburn, the Tigers would go anyways, even if there was a 3-way tie. But there wouldn't be a 3-way tie, because the 'dogs and hogs still had to play each other, and that game would take place this weekend in front of a sold out crowd in Fayetteville. Last year Arkansas embarrased the Bulldogs in front of their home crowd, to the tune of a 28-13 beat down. This year Mississippi State was looking for revenge.

And they showed it, as they came out swinging. The defense was all over Arkansas for the entire 1st quarter, not giving up anything at all. Meanwhile, the offense put together a very nice drive, complete with some key third down conversion catches by the tight end Riley, as well as some big runs by Sterling. Sterling eventually capped it off with a 12 yard run to give Mississippi State a 7-0 lead early. The lead would hold until midmay through the 2nd quarter when the Arkansas offense began to come to life. The Razorbacks were the #12 team in the country after all, they were bound to get things going, especially since their receivers were 3 inches taller than the tallest defensive back for Mississippi State. Nix used this height to the hog's advantage, lobbing up several passes in key situations for his receivers to pull down with relative ease. This "frustrated the h*ll" out of Mississippi State's defensive coordinator, and eventually resulted in a score to tie the game 7-7. The Bulldogs got their own drive going as Thurmond hit Ballard and then Holiday for some huge gains. Mosley continued to drop a few balls, but it didn't matter as the team got into field goal range and then took the lead back, 10-7, right before half time.

Each team made adjustments at half time, and usually it was Mississippi State who would come out better prepared for the 2nd half, as they had been crushing teams in the 3rd quarter all year long. However, on this day, the 3rd quarter would belong to the Razorbacks as the tall WRs continued to abuse the "short" secondary (even though most Miss. State DBs ranged from 6'0 to 6'2) and scored again to make it 14-10. The running game was beginning to get shutdown, so the Bulldogs turned to Thurmond to go to the air. He was not met with good results as his receivers just could not hang onto the ball. After going 3 and out for the 3rd time in a row near the end of the quarter, cameras picked him out on the bench verbally abusing his senior receiving core. Meanwhile, on the field, Arkansas was driving for yet another score, as they punched in a 17 yard run (set up by numerous passes to the 6'5 WRs) early in the 4th quarter to make it a 21-10 game with only 4 minutes remaining! Thurmond's speech must have worked though, as the offense came out firing. Ballard, Holiday, and Patton all stepped up to make huge catches. Ballard even put his neck on the line as he caught a bullet at the 1 yard line and was immediately crushed by 3 Razorback defenders. He fell into the endzone, injured, but it was a touchdown and the lead had been cut to 21-17. Ballard would be out for the rest of the game, but team doctors assured everyone that he will be fine, and will even start next week against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.

It was up to the defense now, and unlike the Alabama game, they did not let Arkansas run wild on them now. Crosby and Costa, the two star defenders from last season who haven't been heard from much this year, reminded everyone that they were still part of this team by making some huge stops. Eventually, with 1:20 to go, Arkansas had to punt the ball. Holiday fielded it and juked a couple of defenders, outrunning them to about the Hog's 40 yard line before being forced out of bounds. The field position was great, and with only 1 timeout, it allowed Mississippi State to mix up their play calling, something that wouldn't have been possible had they started deep in their own territory. On the first play of the drive Sterling took a draw handoff and plowed forward for 12 yards. On the next play Thurmond ran an option play, pitching to Sterling to pick up 8 yards. A play action pass allowed Holiday enough time to get a step on his defender and Thurmond found him across the middle for a 1st down. The clock was becoming a factor though, so Thurmond's next pass was a short drop off to Ballard, who scampered for about 6 yards and then got out of bounds. Inside the 20 now, the Bulldogs were knocking on the door, but memories of the tipped ball that was intercepted against 'bama lingered in the minds of the Mississippi State faithful. Another running play caught Arkansas off-guard for another first down and the Bulldogs used their final timeout. It was now 1st and goal from the 4 yard line with 17 seconds left. From the shotgun, Thurmond took the snap and saw Mosley cutting across the back of the endzone, open! A perfect throw should have put Mississippi State on top, but Mosley's rock hard hands failed to hold on to it, falling to the ground harmlessly. On 2nd down Thurmond took the snap and there was pressure immediately. He was forced to scramble to the left. With only 4 yards to run for a score, the DB covering Holiday had to commit to Thurmond, as soon as he took a step forward the veteran QB lobbed the ball over his head, just inches over the DB's outstretched fingers, and it fell into the hands of Holiday! The announcer's call of "TOUCHDOWN BULLDOGS!" Echoed through the stadium as it became completely silent. The PAT was good and the Bulldogs were at their favorite score again... 24-21.

Arkansas got the ball back with 9 seconds left. With all 3 timeouts, there was time to run at least 2 or 3 plays. But that all changed when Nix let the ball fly towards his 6'5 WR, only to overthrow it and have it fall into the waiting arms of the freshman, Bennett! Thurmond came out and took a knee to seal the game and then the Bulldogs rushed to the middle of the field to celebrate their incredible come from behind victory! If Mississippi State can win the Egg Bowl they will most likely be heading to the Peach Bowl to play North Carolina State. There is a chance that they could get picked (over Florida, who they did not play) to play in the Cotton Bowl against the Big XII Runner-Up (most likely Missouri). If they lose to the Rebels it will most certainly be another trip to the Outback Bowl, but this time they would play Iowa instead of Penn State.

Mississippi State: 24, Arkansas: 21
Current Record: 7-4 (5-2)

[ZeekLTK]

Revenge - How Sweet It Is
Starksville, MS - Last year against Ole Miss, the Bulldogs got behind early and never caught back up, as then sophomore QB Maurice Carter torched the entire Bulldog secondary leading the Rebels to a 42-28 victory for the Egg Bowl. This year, Mississippi State was looking for some payback, and to keep Ole Miss out of a bowl game, which would happen if the Rebels lost.

Things could not have started any worse for the Rebels. Carter was sacked on the first two plays from scrimmage. The already-bruised QB staggered to the line on 3rd and 22 and fired an incomplete pass to force the punt. The Bulldog receivers had been challenged by their Junior QB Thurmond prior to their pitiful performance against Arkansas, nearly costing them the game. The remarks obviously got to the 5 seniors as they clearly were making the extra effort to catch any and every ball within their vicinity. After catches by all five seniors Mosley, Ballard, Holiday, Patton, and Riley it would be the true freshman to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game, punching in a run from 3 yards out.

Carter was not about to back down though. After 3 passing plays his stat line read: 0/1, sacked twice. His next 6 passes produced the exact opposite, as he completed every single throw on the Rebel's next possession, including a 21 touchdown pass to Harris. It looked like this was going to be another shootout, and Thurmond confirmed that as he continued to find receivers and make incredible throws. Passing got the Bulldogs down the field, but the running game got them into the endzone. This time it was Ali, on his first carry of the game, sprinting for 15 yards and the score to put Mississippi State on top. The Rebels would never catch back up.

The Bulldogs set out to ensure that Carter's 6/6 drive wasn't going to haunt them all day like it had last year. After last year's performance, the entire Mississippi State defensive squad was out to prove that they were better than the 42 points dropped on them by Carter almost single handidly. He had a bullseye on his back and everyone in maroon was out to get him... but it was the man who had not even played in last year's game, the freshman CB Bennett, who got to Carter the most. His 72 yard interception return on the next drive set the tone for the defense, who continually harassed and assaulted their arch-nemesis all night long.

Meanwhile, the offense was tearing through the Rebels in a similar fashion that Ole Miss had done to them the previous season. Magee hit a 34 yard field goal and then Sterling scored his 2nd touchdown of the night to make it 31-10 at half time. The Rebels would start the 3rd quarter off with a drive ending in a field goal, but Thurmond came right back with a 79 yard perfectly thrown pass to Patton making it 38-10. It was over.

In the 4th quarter the Bulldogs pretty much did whatever they wanted. The Ole Miss offense could not do anything, throwing 2 INTs in the quarter and allowing Carter to take numerous shots by the DEs and LBs as he tried at least 4 draw plays during the quarter, all of them stuff for losses, 3 of them resulting in brutal hits in which Carter took longer than usual to get back up. Meanwhile, Thurmond was just playing pitch and catch now, carelessly heaving the ball down field hoping for another huge play like the one with Patton in the 3rd quarter. Instead he found Ole Miss defenders... 3 of them, and two of the picks were returned for 60+ yard touchdowns to make the score look a little more respectable, but it didn't matter. Nothing Ole Miss could do was going to make up the 28 points that they had trailed by entering the quarter. As the clock ticked away the Bulldogs celebrated, and rightfully so, they earned back the their Egg Trophy, they earned a spot in either the Cotton Bowl or the Peach Bowl, and they kept Ole Miss from reaching a bowl by dropping their record to 5-7!

There will be one final rematch between the soon to be 3-year starters: Carter and Thurmond as they will be seniors, and will end their regular season careers facing off against each other. What a battle that will be, but that is still a year away. For now, Ole Miss is done, they will not make a bowl game. However, Mississippi State, despite clinching a bowl berth, will still be waiting to see where they end up. They have finished the season with a 6-2 conference record, which ties them for 3rd place with the Florida Gators, who also finished 6-2. The teams did not play each other this year, so there is no word yet as to which team will be sent to play in the Cotton Bowl against either Texas, Texas A&M, or Missouri as the SEC #3 team, and which will be sent to play in the Peach Bowl against North Carolina State as the SEC #4 team. As for the SEC #1 and #2 spots, those will be decided within the next couple of weeks as Auburn and Georgia will meet for the SEC Championship. Auburn defeated Georgia just two weeks ago, and blew out the previously undefeated Bulldogs, 42-21 in Athens, giving Georgia their first and only conference loss of the season. Auburn also comes in with an SEC loss, as they fell to Tennessee by a score of 28-14 way back in Week 7. Each team also has lost one non-conference game as well. Auburn fell to currently Virginia early in the season, and Georgia was demolished this weekend by Georgia Tech to the tune of 55-24. Virginia defeated Virginia Tech 21-7 this week to finish the season 11-1 and ranked 4th in the nation.

Mississippi State: 38, Ole Miss: 24
Current Record: 8-4 (6-2)

[ZeekLTK]

Mississippi State is just Peachy
Starksville, MS - After waiting a couple of weeks for everything to play out, all the bowl bids have been announced. Mississippi State and Florida were both hoping for a spot in the Cotton Bowl, which is reserved for "SEC #3" as both teams finished tied for third with 6-2 records. Since the two didn't play each other, overall record was the decided. Despite blowing out Ole Miss in the last game, the Bulldogs only finished with an 8-4 record. Meanwhile, Florida defeated their arch-rivals, Florida State, to give the Gators a 9-3 overall record and thus a bid to the Cotton Bowl. With the Gators playing in January, Mississippi State accepted a bid for the Peach Bowl, as "SEC #4". They will be challenging the North Carolina State Wolfpack who finished 8-4 (5-3) as the #3 team in the ACC. This will be the Bulldog's second trip to the Peach Bowl in 5 years, as they played in the bowl 5 years ago, after the 2003 season, where they destroyed Clemson, 42-11. This will be NC State's first trip to the Peach Bowl in that 5 year span. Last season Mississippi State escaped a close battle in the Outback Bowl, defeating Penn State 21-14. NC State also had success in their last bowl, thumping Texas Tech 49-10 in the 2006 Tangerine Bowl.

Conference Championships were handed out throughout the nation as well. Ohio State defeated Michigan to give them their fourth Big Ten Championship in the last six years and a chance to play for their third national title in that span. In the ACC Maryland had lost to Virginia several weeks ago to give each team a 1-loss record on top of the conference, and then Wake Forest became UVA's favorite ACC team as they shocked the Terrapins here in the last week of play to give the Cavaliers an outright title and a trip to play in Orange Bowl. In the Big XII Texas kept their national title hopes alive by defeating a surprising Missouri team in the championship game. Texas will meet Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl in the battle of the only unbeaten teams left in the nation. This will be the Longhorn's third national title game; they lost their previous two in 2004 to Miami and in 2005 to Oklahoma. Missouri will be heading to the Cotton Bowl to play Florida.

Elsewhere, UCLA won the Victory Bell, the PAC-10 Championship, and a trip to the Rose Bowl as they defeated USC in their final game of the season. Auburn defeated Georgia in the regular season, but the Bulldogs would get the last laugh, as they defeated the Tigers in the SEC title game to give Georgia a bid to play Virginia in the Orange Bowl. Auburn will face Michigan in the Citrus Bowl.

As for the mid-majors, Marshall defeated Toledo in a great MAC Championship game, Colorado State won their third Mountain West title in 5 years, and Louisville did the same in Conference USA. The Sun Belt had yet another new champion, this time Mid Tenn State. The Blue Raiders continued the trend of sending a new team to the New Orleans Bowl as 5 different teams have gone in the last 5 years (North Texas in '03, New Mexico State in '04, Idaho in '05, Arkansas State in '06, and now Mid Tenn State in '07). As for the WAC, SMU needed Arizona to knock off North Texas if the Mustangs were to win the crown, but the Mean Green prevailed to capture their first WAC title ever, making them the only team to have won 2 different conference championships in the last 5 years as they won back-to-back Sun Belt titles in 2003-2004. Notre Dame also beat out UConn to be named the "best independent team" by finishing with a 10-2 record as opposed to UConn's 9-3 record. However, due to UConn's success, combined with how terrible Rutgers and Duke have been playing, there has already been talk about UConn joining the Big East or ACC for next season. They would become the third team to change conferences since 2004 when North Texas and Arizona joined the WAC, Fresno State joined the PAC-10, and UTEP joined the Sun Belt.

Numerous awards were handed out, several of them going to Marshall, who might possibly have the best passing attack in the nation. Their senior QB and two junior WRs were all heisman contenders at some point in the season and even finished 2 and 3 in the final voting. And despite not winning the heisman, they did each win their respective awards for Best QB and Best WR. The Heisman went to Colorado State's HB Quincy Stuart who was a main reason that the Rams had the success they did this season. Here is everything you need to know about the awards and championships won this season:

Final SEC Standings:
1. Georgia 11-2 (8-1)
2. Auburn 10-3 (7-2)
3. Florida 9-3 (6-2)
4. Mississippi State 8-4 (6-2)
5. Arkansas 8-4 (4-4)
6. Ole Miss 5-7 (4-4)
7. LSU 5-7 (3-5)
8. South Carolina 6-6 (3-5)
9. Tennessee 8-5 (3-5)
10. Kentucky 5-7 (3-5)
11. Vanderbilt 4-8 (1-7)
12. Alabama 3-9 (1-7)

Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: Virginia (7-1)
Big Ten: Ohio State (8-0)
Big XII: Texas (9-0)
Big East: Virginia Tech & Miami (6-1)
Conference USA: Louisville (7-1)
Independent: Notre Dame 10-2
MAC: Marshall (8-1)
Mountain West: Colorado State (6-1)
Pac-10: UCLA (7-1)
SEC: Georgia (8-1)
Sun Belt: Mid Tenn State (6-1)
WAC: North Texas (7-1)

National Championship Game: #1 Texas vs #2 Ohio State

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: Quincy Stuart (Colorado State)
Maxwell Winner: Tory Dempsey (Marshall)
Best QB: Tory Dempsey (Marshall)
Best HB: Quincy Stuart (Colorado State)
Best WR: Nate Cleveland (Marshall)
Best OL: Joe Moore (Minnesota)
Bednarik: Damon Hill (Louisville)
Best DL: Damian Sheppard (New Mexico State)
Best LB: Damon Hill (Louisville)
Thorpe: Chaz McIntyre (Wyoming)
Groza: Rashad Carter (Fresno State)
Best Coach: Bob Pruett (Marshall)

SEC Bowl Matchups
Orange Bowl: #10 Georgia (11-2) vs #3 Virginia (11-1)
Citrus Bowl: #13 Auburn (10-3) vs #11 Michigan (10-2)
Cotton Bowl: #7 Florida (9-3) vs Missouri (8-5)
Peach Bowl: #17 Mississippi State (8-4) vs #25 NC State (8-4)
Outback Bowl: Arkansas (8-4) vs Penn State (7-5)
Music City Bowl: South Carolina (6-6) vs Boston College (6-6)
Independence Bowl: Tennessee (8-5) vs Oklahoma State (6-6)

[ZeekLTK]

http://www.peachbowl.com/CFAPB04.jpg

Mississippi State Bulldogs (8-4) vs. North Carolina State Wolfpack (8-4)

Peach Bowl Becomes a Story - "Tale of Two Halves"
Atlanta, GA - "You can't sugar coat it," Chuck Amato said after this game, "we absolutely sucked in the first half." And the coach was right, NC State did 'suck' all the way from the opening kick off until the half time whistle. During this 10 minute span Mississippi State's senior receiving core had the game of their lives. First it was a 46 yard field goal by Magee. Then it was Patton who caught a tipped ball and took it 40 yards for a score. NC State's offense continued to struggle, this time instead of going on what would have been a third straight 3-and-out, Reed intercepted the ball! The result was a nice pass to Holiday for a decent gain, and then a big pass to Mosley to get inside the 10 yard line! Sterling punched it in from a yard out and all of a sudden it was 17-0 Bulldogs. It didn't end there though, as they would get it back one more time in the 2nd half, and after a great pass to Ballard for a good gain, Magee came out and hit a 43 yard field goal, making it 20-0 at half time. The route was on...

Or so we thought. Amato must have given a great half time speech to his team, because the Wolfpack came out with fire in their eyes and were ready to do some damage. They held Mississippi State and forced a punt on the opening kickoff. Then they drove 56 yards and capped it off with a 10 yard touchdown pass from Carty. The first drive of the 2nd half had resulted in more offensive yards than the Wolfpack had picked up in the entire first half, which was 48. Things only got worse for the Bulldogs as Thurmond's first pass on the next possession was picked off an returned inside the redzone. An 8 yard run by the fullback resulted in a score, and all of a sudden the blowout had become a ballgame!

The third quarter was winding down, but the Wolfpack defense would not give up. They forced a 3-and-out and got the ball back, with a shortened field again thanks to a good punt return. As they pushed closer and closer to the endzone, looking to take the lead after simply being embarassed in the first half, it would be the Bulldog secondary to step up and take the game back. Reed made an incredible interception in the closing seconds of the quarter to give the Bulldogs the ball back and take away all of the momentum that NC State had built up throughout their quarter of dominance.

After throwing the pick Thurmond had rounded up his teammates on the sideline and gave them a little speech. No one knows exactally what he said, but whatever it was, it worked. The team came out for their first drive of the 4th quarter and started to play some good ole Mississippi State football again. However, the Wolfpack defense had their confidence back and they fought hard against the Bulldog attack. Mississippi State managed to pick up a few first downs, but they were eventually forced to punt with about 3 minutes left in the game, plenty of time for NC State to march down the field and score. But this wouldn't be about the NC State offense, this drive was about the Mississippi State defense. And boy did they step up. NC State picked up a first down on the first pass of the drive, but then the clamp came down as Reed, McIntyre, and Smith made some huge plays to deflect passes and hold the 'pack short of a first down. Smith even got injured making sure he stopped his WR from getting across the first down marker, but his injury was not in vain. On the next play Reed broke up a pass and NC State had to punt.

With the ball back in their hands, the offense knew they needed to make this a two possession ball game again to take the pressure off their defense. However it didn't look like that was going to happen as the team quickly found themselves in a 3rd and 13 situation. Electing to attempt to burn some clock out, the coach called a run to Sterling. The freshman decided to do better than just get 25 seconds off the clock, he decided to win the ball game. As he took the hand off a NC State defender managed to get into the backfield. He got his hands on Sterling, but the Freshman fought off the tackle that would have resulted in a 2 yard loss and cut up the field. As he turned there were two more potential tacklers in his path, but a slick juke move, coupled by some timely blocking from his teammates, allowed Sterling to run right past them and into the open field, where he ran for 34 yards before being brought down by the safety. This run would be one of the first nails in the coffin of NC State, as the offense came back to life. Thurmond found Riley open for another first down. And then it was Sterling again who picked up a first down. The team got all the way down to the 2 yard line but the Wolfpack held their ground and would not give up a touchdown. Rather than risk it, Mississippi State kicked the 19 yard field goal to make it 23-14 and put the final nail in the coffin, as only 1 minute remained on the clock and NC State needed at least two scores. The ensuing possession was very sloppy. NC State was looking for a quick score and were hurrying everything. Due to this there were a couple of penalties on them, as well as some bad passes. After a minute of this circus the Wolfpack had only reached midfield. The final whistle sounded and the Bulldogs celebrated their 2nd straight bowl victory! The five seniors (Ballard, Mosley, Patton, Holiday, and Riley) each had at least one catch for over 20 yards, as all of them contributed greatly to the victory.

Mississippi State: 23, North Carolina State: 14
Final Record: 9-4 (6-2)

Other Bowl Scores
Independence Bowl: Tennessee: 42, Oklahoma State: 16
Music City Bowl: South Carolina: 38, Boston College: 14
Outback Bowl: Arkansas: 42, Penn State: 13
Cotton Bowl: Missouri: 42, #7 Florida: 37
Citrus Bowl: #11 Michigan: 25, #13 Auburn: 18
Orange Bowl: #10 Georgia: 27, #3 Virginia: 7
Rose Bowl: #6 Oklahoma: 29, #14 UCLA: 27
Fiesta Bowl: #4 Iowa: 36, #15 Virginia Tech: 10
Sugar Bowl: #1 Texas: 41, #2 Ohio State: 7

2007 National Champions: Texas Longhorns

*Note: If there is a team you want to see how they did in their bowl let me know and I can post it.

[ZeekLTK]

Year 5 - 2007
Team: Mississippi State
Record: 9-4 (6-2)
Regional Broadcast: 5-1
National Broadcast: 2-2
Average Attendance: 41,131
Pre-Season Stats:
-Ranked 30th in NCAA
-Ranked 7th in SEC
Season Accomplishments:
-Peach Bowl Victory
-Finished 4th in SEC
-Finished 11th in NCAA
-HB Mike Sterling named to Freshman All-American Team (145 Carries for 952 Yards, 15 Catches for 205 Yards, 16 TDs)

Schedule:
Week 1: BYE
Week 2: vs Maryland; WIN 17-14
Week 3: at Ohio State; LOSS 10-59
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: at Kansas State; LOSS 24-26
Week 6: vs LSU; WIN 31-21
Week 7: vs Vanderbilt WIN 35-14
Week 8: vs Akron; WIN 56-21
Week 9: at Auburn; LOSS 6-10
Week 10: at Kentucky; WIN 34-0
Week 11: BYE
Week 12: vs Alabama; LOSS 14-24
Week 13: at Tennessee; WIN 24-21
Week 14: at Arkansas; WIN 24-21
Week 15: vs Ole Miss; WIN 38-24
Week 16: BYE
Bowl Week: vs NC State; WIN 23-14 (Peach Bowl)

Conference Standings:
1. Georgia 11-2 (8-1)
2. Auburn 10-3 (7-2)
3. Florida 9-3 (6-2)
4. Mississippi State 8-4 (6-2)
5. Arkansas 8-4 (4-4)
6. Ole Miss 5-7 (4-4)
7. LSU 5-7 (3-5)
8. South Carolina 6-6 (3-5)
9. Tennessee 8-5 (3-5)
10. Kentucky 5-7 (3-5)
11. Vanderbilt 4-8 (1-7)
12. Alabama 3-9 (1-7)

Conference Champions
----------------------
ACC: Virginia (7-1)
Big Ten: Ohio State (8-0)
Big XII: Texas (9-0)
Big East: Virginia Tech & Miami (6-1)
Conference USA: Louisville (7-1)
Independent: Notre Dame 10-2
MAC: Marshall (8-1)
Mountain West: Colorado State (6-1)
Pac-10: UCLA (7-1)
SEC: Georgia (8-1)
Sun Belt: Mid Tenn State (6-1)
WAC: North Texas (7-1)

National Championship Game: #1 Texas vs #2 Ohio State; Texas wins 41-7
National Champion: Texas Longhorns

Award Winners
---------------
Heisman Winner: Quincy Stuart (Colorado State)
Maxwell Winner: Tory Dempsey (Marshall)
Best QB: Tory Dempsey (Marshall)
Best HB: Quincy Stuart (Colorado State)
Best WR: Nate Cleveland (Marshall)
Best OL: Joe Moore (Minnesota)
Bednarik: Damon Hill (Louisville)
Best DL: Damian Sheppard (New Mexico State)
Best LB: Damon Hill (Louisville)
Thorpe: Chaz McIntyre (Wyoming)
Groza: Rashad Carter (Fresno State)
Best Coach: Bob Pruett (Marshall)

Coaching Changes
-----------------
Fired:
Rutgers
Duke
Utah
Texas Tech
Temple
Indiana
Bowling Green
Utah State
UL-Lafayette
UAB
Troy State
Michigan State
Memphis
Illinois
Akron
Western Michigan
Fresno State

Left for Better Offer:
Kansas State
North Texas
Minnesota
Maryland

Conference Changes
-------------------
UConn replaces Rutgers in the Big East

Off-Season
------------------
Players Leaving:
WR - Charlie Holiday (Senior)
WR - Ahmaad Ballard (Senior)
WR - Lionel Patton (Senior)
WR - Bert Mosley (Senior)
TE - Nolan Riley (Senior)
LE - Antoine Hess (Senior)
MLB - Nick Crosby (Senior)

Recruited:
QB ***** - Gary Smith (FL)
DE ***** - Godfrey Sweeney (FL)
WR ***** - Deron Hernandez (LA)
OLB ***** - Ervin Bailey (VA)
DE ***** - Derrick Blanks (TN)
FS ***** - Jeff Hart (CA)
OLB ***** - Stacy Rowe (IL)
CB ***** - JaMaine Watson (MO)
TE ***** - Aaron Hutchins (LA)
CB **** - Stanford Haines (LA)
DT **** - Josh Hayes (MS)
WR **** - Ronald Joseph (MS)
WR **** - Eddie McKinney (TX)
WR **** - Davon Molina (TX)
WR **** - Cody Lee (LA)
OLB **** - Kendall Cummings (DE)
C *** - Jeff Bowers (AL)
G ** - Maurice Sweeney (MS)
MLB ** - Micky Best (MS)
P ** - Brian Bunlap (FL)
P * - Nate Mayer (AL)
WR * - Clinton Norman (NJ)

Top 10 for Draft Class:
1. Georgia
2. Mississippi State
3. Miami
4. Ohio State
5. Texas
6. UCLA
7. Maryland
8. Iowa
9. Arkansas
10. Oregon State

Conference Rankings for Draft Class:
1. Georgia
2. Mississippi State
9. Arkansas
13. Auburn
17. Florida
25. Tennessee
37. Ole Miss
48. LSU
50. South Carolina
76. Alabama
81. Kentucky
98. Vanderbilt

[ZeekLTK]

Mississippi State still intact to Start 2008
Starksville, MS - With only 7 players graduating, five of which were WRs or TEs, the Bulldogs only got better in the off-season. Sure they will miss their 5 senior receivers, but the coach did more than his fair share of work by recruiting tons of new ones to fill in. So now this year instead of 4 senior WRs opposing defenses will be lining up against 4 true freshman WRs. "Yeah, I'm a little worried about having our entire receiving core made up of true freshman, but hey, what happens, happens. Thurmond will be a third year starter this year, and Sterling has a year of experience under his belt now too. He could even get 1,000 yards this season." Replacing Riley at tight end will be last year's backup, Snells, who is now a senior. On the defensive side of the ball only 2 starters were lost to graduation, but more than 2 new faces will be seen as several great players were recruited in the off-season and are expected to make an immidiate impact. These players include Godfrey Sweeney, Derrick Blanks, Jeff Hart, JaMaine Watson, Stacey Rowe, and Josh Hayes. A few of them have earned starting roles, others will be coming in on special formations such as the dime or 4-4.

And to put the possible quarterback controversy to rest, coach Julson has red-shirted Gary Smith, one of the top QBs in the entire nation after his tremendous high school career, proclaiming that "this is Thurmond's last year, and he is going to be the one to lead us to victory. Besides, Smith needs a year of experience anyways... to adjust to the faster college game." The 7 seniors were not the only ones with a chance to get out of Starksville, as Coach Julson received a job offer from the Maryland Terrapins, the team that he defeated in the Bulldog's opening game last year, 17-14, as their coach had left for a "better offer". There were rumors that San Diego State might fire their coach if coach Julson would agree to take over with the Aztecs, but he declined this offer as well, saying "I just don't want to leave the SEC without a conference title. I got one with Idaho, I want one with Mississippi State. I think we've got a great shot, if not this year, then definitally next year. The Bulldogs will win it before 2010, I will guarentee that!"

And with that, Mississippi State's 2008 schedule was released. The team again has a brutal non-conference schedule, with games against Missouri (last year's Big XII Runner-Up and victor over Florida in the Cotton Bowl, a bowl the Bulldogs believed they belonged in), Iowa (who finished ranked #3 in the Big Ten and #2 in the nation after defeating Virginia Tech 36-10 in the Fiesta Bowl), Marshall (who had the absolute best passing attack in 2007, they might be without their star QB and WR, but they still have 3 very good WRs, and with the way Marshall produces QBs, it's no doubt that they have another great one to step in and take over. Bob Pruett also won coach of the year last season by going 12-1, with their only loss to... Akron, a team that Mississippi State beat 56-21), and finally the team who wanted to steal the Bulldog's coach, San Diego State. Last year Mississippi State went 2-2 in their non-conference schedule, defeating eventual ACC Runner-Up Maryland, and MAC cellar dwellar Akron while losing to Big Ten Champion Ohio State and Big XII North Runner-Up Kansas State. Again the Bulldogs will not get to play two of the top 3 teams in the SEC this year, as Georgia and Florida are still not on the schedule. Neither is South Carolina. Here is the full schedule for your 2008 Bulldogs:

Schedule
Week 1: BYE
Week 2: vs Missouri
Week 3: at Iowa
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: at Marshall
Week 6: at LSU
Week 7: at Vanderbilt
Week 8: BYE
Week 9: vs Auburn
Week 10: vs Kentucky
Week 11: vs San Diego State
Week 12: at Alabama
Week 13: vs Tennessee
Week 14: vs Arkansas
Week 15: at Ole Miss
Week 16: BYE

[ZeekLTK]

Well my f*cking computer did it again. I had my WHOLE Missouri post typed up and then like 5 seconds before I was about to hit submit it rebooted. I don't even think anyone is reading this though, I've had like 12 views in the last week and 7 of them have been me to post new stuff or edit other posts, so I'm just gonna post the box score and stats of both the Missouri and Iowa games:

Mississippi State vs Missouri Stats
------------------------------------
Box Score:
MIZZOU - 2 Yard Run by Hardee (Wynn PAT) - 2:05 1st Quarter
MIZZOU - 31 Yard Fumble Return by Cage (Missed PAT) - 1:51 1st Quarter
MISS ST - 31 Yard Interception Return by Reed (Magee PAT) - 0:00 1st Quarter
MIZZOU - 1 Yard Run by McClendon (Wynn PAT) - 3:28 2nd Quarter
MISS ST - 26 Yard Pass from Thurmond to McKinney (Magee PAT) - 0:16 2nd Quarter
MISS ST - Safety by Quinn - 0:47 3rd Quarter
MISS ST - 3 Yard Run by Gillespie (Magee PAT) - 2:32 4th Quarter

Mississippi State: 23, Missouri: 20

Game Stats:
MIZZOU - MISS ST
First Downs: 9-13
Total Offense: 205-257
Rushes/Yards: 17/21-27/65
COMP/ATT/TD: 11/26/0-10/24/1
Passing Yards: 184-192
Sacked: 5-4
3rd Down Conversions: 0/8(0%)-4/9(44%)
4th Down Conversions: 1/2(50%)-0/1(0%)
Redzone ATT/TD/FG: 2/2/0(100%)-2/1/0(50%)
Turnovers: 3-5
Fumbles/Lost: 0/0-1/1
Intercepted: 3-4
PR Yards: 14-60
KR Yards: 40-54
Total Yards: 259-371
Punts/Average: 3/34.7-3/45.7
Penalties/Yards: 2/10-6/55
T.O.P: 8:21-11:39

Key Stats:
MISS ST K-Reuben Magee 0/1 FG, 3/3 XP
MIZZOU K-John Wynn 0/2 FG, 2/3 XP

[ZeekLTK]

Mississippi State vs Iowa Stats
------------------------------------
Box Score:
IOWA - 69 Yard Run by Durham (Edmonds PAT) - 3:35 1st Quarter
MISS ST - 23 Yard Field Goal by Magee - 0:09 1st Quarter
MISS ST - 4 Yard Run by Gillespie (Magee PAT) - 3:06 2nd Quarter
IOWA - 19 Yard Field Goal by Edmonds - 0:56 2nd Quarter
IOWA - 21 Yard Field Goal by Edmonds - 4:31 4th Quarter
IOWA - 10 Yard Pass from Newton to Harden (Edmonds PAT) - 1:53 4th Quarter

Iowa: 20, Mississippi State: 10

Game Stats:
MISS ST - IOWA
First Downs: 12-9
Total Offense: 213-268
Rushes/Yards: 21/96-26/121
COMP/ATT/TD: 6/20/0-6/14/1
Passing Yards: 117-147
Sacked: 2-2
3rd Down Conversions: 1/6(16%)-5/10(50%)
4th Down Conversions: 0/1(0%)-0/0(0%)
Redzone ATT/TD/FG: 2/1/1(100%)-4/1/2(75%)
Turnovers: 3-0
Fumbles/Lost: 1/0-0/0
Intercepted: 3-0
PR Yards: 47-21
KR Yards: 58-60
Total Yards: 318-349
Punts/Average: 2/45.5-3/42.7
Penalties/Yards: 5/40-4/24
T.O.P: 10:27-9:33

Key Stats:
IOWA QB-Jackson Newton: 154.6 QB Rating, 6/14 for 147 Yards, 1 TD, 0 INTs
MISS ST QB-Daniel Thurmond: 49.1 QB Rating, 6/20 for 117 Yards, 0 TDs, 3 INTs

[ZeekLTK]

Mississippi State vs Marshall Stats
------------------------------------
Box Score:
MISS ST - 2 Yard Run by Gillespie (Magee PAT) - 2:32 1st Quarter
MARSH - 82 Yard Pass from McGrew to Pitts (Greer PAT) - 4:16 2nd Quarter
MISS ST - 32 Yard Pass from Thurmond to McKinney (Magee PAT) - 0:02 2nd Quarter
MARSH - 51 Yard Pass from McGrew to Holloway (Greer PAT) - 3:58 3rd Quarter
MISS ST - 3 Yard Run by Sterling (Magee PAT) - 2:52 3rd Quarter
MARSH - 100 Yard Kick Return by Pitts (Greer PAT) - 2:40 3rd Quarter
MISS ST - 30 Yard Run by Ali (Magee PAT) - 4:34 4th Quarter
MISS ST - 8 Yard Run by Ali (Magee PAT) - 1:30 4th Quarter
MARSH - 27 Yard Pass from McGrew to Pitts (Greer PAT) - 1:04 4th Quarter

Mississippi State: 35, Marshall: 28

Game Stats:
MISS ST - MARSH
First Downs: 20-7
Total Offense: 356-272
Rushes/Yards: 34/194-7/15
COMP/ATT/TD: 8/15/1-8/17/3
Passing Yards: 162-257
Sacked: 1-3
3rd Down Conversions: 3/6(50%)-1/4(25%)
4th Down Conversions: 0/0(0%)-0/0(0%)
Redzone ATT/TD/FG: 3/3/0(100%)-0/0/0(0%)
Turnovers: 2-1
Fumbles/Lost: 1/0-1/0
Intercepted: 2-1
PR Yards: 52-17
KR Yards: 138-255
Total Yards: 546-544
Punts/Average: 1/47.0-3/42.0
Penalties/Yards: 4/45-9/73
T.O.P: 12:30-7:30

[ZeekLTK]

Mississippi State vs LSU Stats
------------------------------------
Box Score:
LSU - 1 Yard Run by Jenkins (Erickson PAT) - 3:05 1st Quarter
MISS ST - 2 Yard Run by Gillespie (Magee PAT) - 1:35 2nd Quarter
MISS ST - 57 Yard Pass from Thurmond to Hernandez (Magee PAT) - 4:03 3rd Quarter
MISS ST - 12 Yard Run by Sterling (Magee PAT) - 2:49 3rd Quarter
LSU - 80 Yard Pass from Bingham to Jamison (Erickson PAT) - 2:38 3rd Quarter
LSU - 38 Yard Pass from Bingham to McNeal (Erickson PAT) - 0:13 3rd Quarter
MISS ST - 3 Yard Run by Sterling (Magee PAT) - 3:59 4th Quarter
LSU - 31 Yard Run by Jamison (Erickson PAT) - 3:15 4th Quarter
MISS ST - 33 Yard Field Goal by Magee - 0:00 4th Quarter

Mississippi State: 31, LSU: 28

*Note: LSU's Erickson missed a 48 yard field goal attempt with about a minute left in the 4th quarter as the ball bounced off the crossbar and then fell short.

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