STARKVILLE — Nick Fitzgerald pitched the ball to the nearest official and made his way in the direction of Texas A&M’s sideline. He started shaking hands and stopped to have a long conversation with Texas A&M backup quarterback Nick Starkel.
By his conduct, the moment carried no meaning from any of the other 20 wins Fitzgerald has quarterbacked Mississippi State to, now in the back half of his third year as the starter. The celebratory hug from wide receiver Stephen Guidry and Fitzgerald’s backup Keytaon Thompson stopping by his side — all interrupting his conversation with Starkel — showed the emotion Fitzgerald wasn’t at the moment.
Fitzgerald continued to play it all as normal. He positioned himself as if he has to do a postgame interview, but was told he did not and went to join his team — only after receiving a hug from the coach’s wife, Jen Moorhead. The most emotion he showed was mouthing the, “damn right,” at the end of the song the band was playing before the alma mater.
Where Fitzgerald did not, those around him were able to communicate the emotion behind this win.
Entering Saturday’s game against No. 16 Texas A&M, Fitzgerald was suddenly a secondary character. The talk was not about the starting quarterback, but how much Thompson would play in his place. Fitzgerald responded with. 241 passing yards and 88 rushing yards, scoring two touchdowns each way, in MSU’s 28-13 win.
“For all the BS that that kid’s had to endure for parts of this season, and everything he has done to leave his heart and soul on the line and his body on the line for this university and have to listen to that stuff,” Joe Moorhead said, “for him to come out and play the way we talked about him playing — and we talked about it being a process and growing into this type of player — I’m happy for every single player in this program, but I’m especially happy for that kid. He deserves it.”
He did it in a way that brought to light the vision Moorhead had for him and this program from the beginning.
Moorhead is an aggressive playcaller, and he likes that about himself. When he evaluated himself over MSU’s recent struggles, he didn’t see that same aggression. He decided this was the week to bring it back, and he made sure he had a man at the helm ready to bring that aggression to light.
So he went out of his way to make sure Fitzgerald played with a certain mind-set. He was ready to put to bed the days of Fitzgerald thinking his way through every second of every play; he wanted Fitzgerald to see what he sees and play to it, to do what he’s done best.
“Instead of worrying about what could go wrong with protections and routes and throws, started thinking about what could go right as got after it,” Moorhead said. “You’re not going to create a ton of explosive plays, I don’t want to say with a conservative mindset, but with a run first mindset.”
So in the first quarter, Moorhead trusted Fitzgerald to go deep — and he did so successfully, connecting with Stephen Guidry on a 25-yard strike. He did the same early in the third quarter, connecting with Osirus Mitchell for a 38-yard score.
This came after weeks of being told he cannot pass. The Fitzgerald family — his parents, Derrick and Annetta — find it easiest to more or less take social media out of their lives in times like these. In this regard, Nick can only do so much.
“In this day and age, where everything is right on your fingertips on social media, everything is so connected 24/7, it’s hard not to see a lot of the hate,” Nick Fitzgerald said. “At the same time, I got a lot of messages from fans saying we support you, we love you, we got your back.”
Still, he fired those passes — and the 14 he completed on just 22 attempts — with confidence, with aggression. The way Moorhead designs it.
The coup de gras of a night the Fitzgerald family will never forget was Nick’s second rushing touchdown, a moment of celebration for a team and a player desperately needing it. Fitzgerald ran to his left for 76 yards through a gap partially created by left guard Darryl Williams, who ended the play on his knees as Fitzgerald ran by.
Fitzgerald continued putting distance between them, but Williams stayed put, knees in the ground and arms outstretched over his head. As Fitzgerald took on the final yards to the goal line, Williams let his body fall to the ground, the physical manifestation of the relief he felt — the relief of a struggling offense doing what was needed to topple a top 25 team.
Fitzgerald did more than take down a ranked opponent. He battled a career-defining moment and made it his own.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
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