Former Mississippi State safety Keith Fitzhugh was always happy to fly into the offensive backfield and deliver a punishing tackle.
Too happy.
“That’s one of the things that I was a fan of doing a lot: being overaggressive, a run reader who always wanted to come down and hit,” Fitzhugh said.
But on Oct. 27, 2007, in a game at No. 14 Kentucky, Fitzhugh was best served staying back, reading his defensive keys and peeking at the eyes of Wildcats quarterback Andre’ Woodson.
By doing so, he secured a key second-half pick in the Bulldogs’ 31-14 upset win.
“As the play was evolving, I was able to be in the right place at the right time and make the interception,” Fitzhugh said.
Fitzhugh said the mindset of each player being responsible for one-11th of the team’s success led to his pick and the Bulldogs’ big win. Former Mississippi State tight end Jason Husband, who also played a big role in that not-so-long-ago victory, said the same.
“I have to do my job in order for the next person to do theirs,” Husband said.
Fourteen years later, the 2021 version of the Bulldogs has its own job to do. Mississippi State faces No. 12 Kentucky at 6 p.m. Saturday, and apart from swapping out Kroger Field in Lexington for Davis Wade Stadium in Starkville, the situation is much the same.
And Fitzhugh and Husband hope the result will be, too.
“Kentucky is a great team, and I think our Bulldogs are a great team as well,” Fitzhugh said. “We’re not going to tuck our tail. We’re just going to bite them back.”
Not afraid
Just look at the records of each team heading into Saturday’s contest, and it’s clear to see why Fitzhugh and Husband see similarities to the 2007 game they won’t soon forget.
This season, Mississippi State enters its matchup with Kentucky at 4-3 and 2-2 in the Southeastern Conference. The Wildcats are 6-1 with a 4-1 SEC record and are ranked 12th in the nation.
In 2007, MSU was 4-4 coming into the Kentucky game and 2-2 in the SEC. Kentucky was 6-2 — 2-2 in conference play — and held the No. 14 ranking.
Both Wildcats teams are even two weeks removed from facing the No. 1 team in the country. The 2021 squad lost at Georgia 30-13 on Oct. 16, while in 2007, Kentucky knocked off top-ranked LSU 43-37 in triple overtime.
“They were riding high,” said Fitzhugh, a junior in 2007. “They were a strong team themselves.”
Before Mississippi State faced the Wildcats in Lexington, coach Sylvester Croom put his shiftiest scout-team players on the practice field to replicate Kentucky’s speedsters — including future NFL wide receiver Stevie Johnson. Woodson was no slouch in the pocket, either.
“They had some very talented players,” Fitzhugh said.
But so did Mississippi State, and Husband — a senior that season — said he and his teammates didn’t see a talent gap on the field like that between the Bulldogs and that year’s LSU team, which rebounded from the overtime loss to win the BCS title that season.
“We had a great defense,” Husband said. “We had a bunch of hard-hitting guys. I definitely believed in our guys and their ability to hit, because some of those guys hit me in practice.”
But the disparity between the practice field and the playing field is a wide one, and the Bulldogs knew they couldn’t let themselves be intimidated by the Wildcats in Lexington.
Not that that was ever a problem.
“We were never scared of anything,” Fitzhugh said. “Never.”
‘Everything kind of clicked’
The Bulldogs showed that right away as their West Coast offense marched deliberately down the field on the first drive of the game.
Running back Anthony “Boobie” Dixon had eight carries on the possession as Mississippi State neared the end zone. On second-and-7 from the Kentucky 11-yard line, Husband had an option route: either a post or a crosser.
“My job was to make sure I created separation so I could get that ball,” he said.
He sprinted toward his defender, coming up to the toes of the Wildcats’ defensive back, then cut across the field. Freshman quarterback Wesley Carroll delivered a perfect pass — low and away from the defender — and Husband seized it in the end zone.
Mississippi State had made its statement.
“When you score on the first possession and you jump out there first, it kind of boosts everybody’s spirit, everybody’s confidence,” Fitzhugh said.
But when Kentucky scored, it wasn’t shaken. The Bulldogs trusted the defense that had already led them to so much success.
After MSU regained the lead on a 16-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that took nearly seven minutes off the clock, the Wildcats’ offense went as cold as Lexington in the autumn contests Husband remembers.
Kentucky punted on its next drive, and Lones Seiber missed a 34-yard field goal before the end of the first half. The Bulldogs went into the break with a 14-7 lead and no signs of losing it.
“I remember everybody functioning well,” Husband said. “It’s like everything kind of clicked.”
That continued in the second half for Mississippi State. Kentucky, meanwhile, fell apart.
An opening-drive field goal by the Bulldogs’ Adam Carlson pushed the MSU lead to 10 points, and it never got smaller. The Wildcats imploded, committing six turnovers in the second half — three interceptions and three fumbles.
Fitzhugh’s pick on a third-and-10 play a minute into the fourth quarter was the first thrown by Woodson, but De’Mon Glanton and Marcus Washington each got his own before the game was over.
Meanwhile, Husband’s 22-yard catch after a Kentucky fumble early in the half led to a Dixon touchdown. Christian Ducre added a 34-yard score in the fourth quarter.
When it was over, Mississippi State left Lexington with a 31-14 win. It hadn’t even been close.
“We knew it was going to be challenging going in, but it was a big deal for us to still make that statement, make a name for ourselves — which we were still trying to do — and leave our own stamp for the Mississippi State Bulldogs,” Fitzhugh said. “That’s what we had an opportunity to do, and we did it.”
A complete game
A decade and a half later, the 2021 Bulldogs have their own shot at replicating that signature moment in front of their home crowd.
It’s homecoming weekend, and the national title-winning Mississippi State baseball team receives its championship rings after the first quarter. With a big crowd, Fitzhugh and Husband hope the Bulldogs can play the perfect 60 minutes they haven’t exactly shown this season.
“If we could have a complete game, that could boost the confidence of all of our guys,” Husband said. “We’re a couple plays away from being undefeated barring the Alabama game. Let’s not just show up in the fourth quarter. Let’s play a complete game.”
The 2007 team is proof of the impact such a contest can have on the rest of the season. Two weeks after beating Kentucky, Mississippi State knocked off Alabama 17-12 in Starkville.
“I think it gave us a level of confidence knowing we could go into places and win,” Fitzhugh said. “I think that game, everything just kind of came together.”
After a loss to Arkansas, the Bulldogs beat Ole Miss 17-14 in the season-concluding Egg Bowl before heading to a special destination: a bowl game. Mississippi State hadn’t made one since beating Texas A&M in 2000, but that changed when the Bulldogs took on UCF in the 2007 Liberty Bowl in Memphis, Tennessee. They won, 10-3.
“I think for a lot of the guys, it was kind of their first experience at a bowl game,” Husband said. “Now we go pretty frequently. I think just being there was a sign of accomplishment, and the fact that we won while we were there, it was just kind of the cherry on top.”
Several of the players from the 2007 team remain close, including Husband and Fitzhugh. As recently as Wednesday afternoon, they spoke on the phone; both men invest in cryptocurrency, so their discussion centered on the spike of the “Shiba Inu” coin. A few players from the team have a Facebook group message.
Recently, though, they lost a teammate. Tyler Threadgill, a senior wide receiver on the 2007 squad, died Sept. 12 at age 36 from COVID-19 complications.
“We love him, and we miss him,” Husband said.
The former Bulldogs have been paying their respects to Threadgill ever since, and they hope Mississippi State can continue to honor his memory with another win Saturday.
After all, they’ve done it before.
“I think we’re in a good position,” Husband said.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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