STARKVILLE — So ends a regular season unlike any we’ve ever seen.
Saturday, Mississippi State throttled what looked like an upstart Missouri team by pulverizing the Tigers 51-32 in the final game at Davis Wade Stadium. It was a nice ending to what was otherwise a pretty tumultuous first season under the leadership of Mike Leach.
Outside of team captain Erroll Thompson getting ejected from his final home game on the second play of the contest after targeting, Saturday had almost everything a MSU fan could ask for. The air raid looked like what the offense is supposed to look like, a well-oiled machine with field general Will Rogers depleting the opposing defense by gaining intermediate chunks of yardage one play at a time. The other team was the one shooting itself in the foot this time around. Hell, Missouri let the long snapper score a touchdown (congrats Paul Blackwell, that’s certainly going to be the talk of his holiday). Most importantly, instead of talking about moral victories, Leach got to discuss an actual victory where the Bulldogs were by far the better team on the field.
“We’re not there yet, but we took a step today,” Leach said after the game.
Rogers, a freshman, turned in a fine performance in the finale of what could be considered a seven-game audition to be MSU’s starting quarterback for 2021. Against Missouri, he threw for 295 yards and three touchdowns. Rogers will have a chance to emerge as the frontrunner for the job in spring football before having to fend off Southern Miss transfer Jack Abraham and highly-touted incoming freshman Sawyer Robertson. Rogers was up and down in 2020 after throwing for 1,828 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and seven interceptions with a passer rating of 69.6, but he’ll need to improve his arm strength to make a strong claim to the job.
Wideout Jaden Walley continued to play like a star after putting Missouri defensive backs on skates after catching five passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. He can take a bow after setting a MSU record for most receiving yards in a freshman season with 691. Sophomore linebacker Aaron Brule, who flies around all facets of the field, gives the Bulldogs a crucial piece to build around in future years. It’s unfortunate Thompson, the heart and soul of the Bulldog defense, finished his MSU career watching his final home game from the sidelines. But of course, with all eligibility being a wash this season, he could always consider the option of returning to the team next year, however unlikely that possibility is.
Nevertheless, while the finale was fruitful, the ride to complete the 10-game Southeastern Conference grind was flat out bumpy.
From multiple postponements, to long rants, to a year that began with a monumental upset followed by a long losing streak, to a season that ended the same day the Southeastern Conference Championship was played; You name it, the 2020 Mississippi State football season had it. Well, with the exception of a few more wins the Bulldog faithful were hoping for.
Two weeks ago, Leach called 2020 the most joyless season ever. It’s unclear if he thought the year was joyless because of the meticulous but necessary COVID-19 protocols, or because his first year resulted in a 3-7 finish and a recruiting class that is going to need a lot of patchwork in February.
“I think it’s sometimes hard to get a tent over the circus,” Leach said postgame.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey, meanwhile, is probably thankful almost every team completed its proposed 10-game conference-only schedule. Mississippi State can be counted in that group. The Bulldogs played below the conference’s 53-man threshold of players available for most of the latter half of the season.
Of course, the season likely still isn’t even over yet. In such an unprecedented year, the NCAA granted a one-time waiver to remove any win requirements for bowl eligibility. Factoring in SEC bowl tie-ins and teams such as LSU self-implementing a bowl ban, it’s likely MSU will continue its school record bowl streak for an 11th straight season. There’s probably something to snicker about with a three-win team going to a bull game, but hey, the TV revenue money counts all the same. Will the Bulldogs be in Shreveport, Tampa Bay, Birmingham, somewhere in Texas, or maybe even nowhere at all? Who knows, but we’ll find out Sunday.
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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