OXFORD – In the luxurious afterglow of Mississippi State’s resounding 55-20 Egg Bowl victory Saturday, one player stood apart, like Caesar returning from some long journey and great conquest.
Nick Fitzgerald, the Bulldogs’ sophomore quarterback, had just ran for a school-record 258 yards and two touchdowns on a mere 14 carries and added three TD passes to turn what was supposed to have been an inglorious end to a disappointing season into an emphatic statement about a promising future.
How great a conquest it actually was is a matter of perspective – Walmart shoppers on Black Friday were surer tacklers than the Ole Miss defenders Saturday. Fitzgerald and sophomore running back Aeris Williams (25 carries for a bruising 191 yards and two scores), ran the Rebels ragged. It was about a sorry display of tackling you are ever likely to see outside the Lingerie Bowl.
For those with no ties to either team, this may have been two teams battling it out to see who would finish last in the SEC West. Ole Miss claimed that distinction – and earned it, too.
For the Bulldogs, it was easily the most satisfying win of the season.
At 5-7 (3-5 in SEC), Mississippi State may yet claim a spot in a low-level bowl game since the supply of bowls may well exceed the number of teams with the requisite six wins.
But if Saturday’s game was the final game for the 2016 Bulldogs, at least it ended well and gives MSU fans, who had not suffered through a losing season in the decade prior to this one, some cause for optimism for 2017.
Much of that optimism rests on the broad shoulders of the surprisingly fast, 6-foot-5, 230-pound quarterback, who entered the season as perhaps the team’s biggest question mark.
Fitzgerald wasn’t just the Bulldogs’ new starter this year. He was the guy replacing Dak Prescott, who is the Forever Caesar, as far as MSU is concerned.
“To an extent, Dak really was Mississippi State football,” Fitzgerald said. “To be the guy that comes in after him, you know you’re going to be compared to him, to what he did. I doubt if that is ever going to change.”
In September, it wasn’t certain Fitzgerald would be the one to carry that burden. He wasn’t named the starter until the week of the season-opener and he did little to distinguish himself in that game.
Fitzgerald went 0-for-3 passing, ran for 11 yards on two carries and didn’t manage a first down in the Bulldogs’ first two series. He was lifted for junior Damian Williams at that point. State suffered a gut-punch of a loss to South Alabama, and Fitzgerald spent a long Saturday night wondering if his shot had ended on the same day it began.
“I tried not to get too discouraged that night,” he said. “Then, on Sunday morning, I went to talk to the coaches and they said they were sticking with me. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs since then, and so has our team. I think about halfway through the season, I realized that I was the quarterback of this team and then it was a matter of getting better.”
Toward the end, especially, it’s been more ups than downs for Fitzgerald, who accounted for11 touchdowns in the last two games.
Fitzgerald has covered an awful lot of ground since September — quite literally.
His 1,243 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns is among tops in the SEC in both categories. He also passed for 2,287 yards and 21 scores.
“He’s fast,” Mullen said when asked to explain Fitzgerald’s ability to turn simple read-option runs into break-aways. Against the Rebels, Fitzgerald had runs of 70, 61, 30, 24 and 24 yards.
The question now pivots from if State has a quarterback to how good he can be.
“I think for Nick, this season has been a matter of him realizing who he is instead of who he isn’t,” Mullen said. “The next nine months is going to be a huge challenge for him. If you’re going to be the guy, be the guy. There’s no learning curve any more.
“If he’s going to be a great quarterback, for him, it starts today. A lot of people think the ‘It Factor’ is the guy in the huddle, that it shows up on Saturday. But it really shows up on a cold day in February or on a hot day in July. That’s when it happens.”
Fitzgerald seems to understand.
“There are a lot of things I need to improve on in the passing game – footwork, arm angle, even how you grip the ball,” he said.
But on Saturday, for a brief while in an emptied Ole Miss stadium, he was Caesar.
Hail State.
Hail Fitzgerald.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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