AUBURN, Ala. — Will Rogers strode into the visitors’ locker room at halftime and told his teammates to listen up.

Mississippi State trailed No. 17 Auburn 28-10, and only 30 minutes separated the Bulldogs from another tough loss.

Rogers wasn’t about to let that happen.

“We get the ball first,” the sophomore quarterback said. “We’re going to score and get a stop. That’s the plan.”

Mississippi State did just that. Over and over and over again.

The Bulldogs (6-4, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) roared back from a 28-3 deficit, ripped off 40 unanswered points and stunned the Tigers (6-4, 3-3 SEC) by a score of 43-34 at Jordan-Hare Stadium. It was the largest comeback win in school history.

“We’re never out of the fight with anything that we do,” Rogers said. “We play hard, and we play ’til the fourth quarter.”

The Bulldogs earned their third win of the season over a team ranked in the top 25 at the time and clinched their berth in a bowl game for the 12th straight year.

Linebacker Aaron Brule said he can’t remember the last time MSU wasn’t bowl eligible, which was the 2009 season. Now, he won’t have to worry about getting a fresh reminder as the Bulldogs will play a 13th game by virtue of their sixth victory.

“I thought we could have been (bowl eligible) earlier, but we are this week, so that’s a good one,” head coach Mike Leach said. “I think we all look forward to going to a bowl. It’s really valuable, especially if you’re as young as we are. We get a couple extra practices.”

The youthful Bulldogs seemed like they might need them after an unsightly start Saturday, but Mississippi State scored a touchdown on its final possession before the half — Rogers called it “the biggest drive of the game” — and proceeded to do the same on its first five second-half drives.

Meanwhile, the Bulldogs’ defense kept Auburn scoreless, forcing two punts, a missed field goal and a turnover on downs. MSU led by as many as 15 points after trailing by 25 during the second quarter.

“I think the biggest thing is we didn’t get discouraged by the first half, and that would have been easy to do,” Leach said.

After everything seemed to break Auburn’s way in the first half hour of play, it was an understandable sentiment. The Bulldogs settled for an early field goal before punting twice, while the Tigers put the ball in the end zone on each of their first four drives. Auburn’s Kobe Hudson made an impressive one-handed touchdown catch with 6:10 to play in the half that seemed to signal Mississippi State wasn’t leaving The Plains on top.

But the Bulldogs never thought that way. Even when the defense was getting gouged by Bo Nix and the Auburn run game. Even when the offense was going nowhere fast.

“We never had a doubt that we were going to win the game,” linebacker Aaron Brule said.

Brule was one of the players Rogers approached on the sideline after an opening-drive touchdown in the third quarter. The quarterback came up to his defensive leaders — including Brule, defensive tackle Cameron Young and cornerbacks Emmanuel Forbes and Martin Emerson — with a plaintive demand.

“Just get me this ball back,” Rogers said.

They listened. Auburn got just one first down before having to punt the ball away.

Rogers never gave it back.

The sophomore wasn’t intercepted on a single one of his 55 passing attempts, completing 44 of them for 415 yards and six touchdown passes. He rebounded considerably after starting the game 12 of 20 for just 62 yards, hitting on 32 of his final 35 throws — including 17 straight.

“He needs to start throwing as well in the first half as he does the second half,” Leach said.

The Bulldogs’ coach pointed out the “help” Rogers had from his receivers as the signal-caller turned in another excellent performance. Ten MSU players had at least one reception, and all of them had 15 or more yards.

Jaden Walley led the way with 87 yards, while Makai Polk and Jamire Calvin had two touchdown catches apiece. Polk shushed the Auburn crowd after his first scoring grab with 1:55 to play in the first half, only to receive jeers about the scoreboard.

Polk wasn’t deterred.
“I was like, ‘I’m going to do it again when I score another time,’” Polk said.

When he put the Bulldogs ahead 29-28 with a 6-yard touchdown catch less than two minutes into the fourth quarter, he did the same gesture, and there was a lot less resistance.

“I felt like that was one of the daggers in the game, and it felt really good,” Polk said of the eventual winning score.

Calvin grabbed a 3-yard touchdown pass from Rogers four minutes later, and Malik Heath had a 6-yard scoring catch to ice the game before a late Auburn touchdown cut into the lead.

But safety Fred Peters intercepted Nix’s two-point conversion pass, keeping the advantage at nine points and two possessions. MSU forced a fumble on Auburn’s final drive and ran out the clock.

Peters’ pick was another instance of the Bulldogs’ defense stepping up big Saturday. Auburn had 325 total yards in the first half and just 158 in the second half as Mississippi State limited the Tigers to just six second-half points.

Brule credited defensive coordinator Zach Arnett’s adjustments for the sea change at the break.

“We’ve got to make the right plays after he gives us the right calls,” the linebacker said. “In the first half, he can always blame stuff on himself, but we could have done our job and made better plays for him. Going into the second half, he just dialed it up, and we just dialed up with him.”

Mississippi State can’t afford to lose that intensity with two regular-season games to go before the Bulldogs find out their bowl destination. The Egg Bowl rivalry game with Ole Miss at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 25 wraps up the campaign, but Mississippi State will first host Tennessee State at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“If you think this was a thriller, we’ve got a big one next week, and we’re looking forward to that one,” Leach said.

Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.