NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Senior quarterback Tommy Stevens’ eyes were puffy and swollen before he even entered the press conference room beneath Nissan Stadium Monday night.
Slipping into the chair on the far left of the table just minutes after Mississippi State fell 38-28 to Louisville in the 2019 Music City Bowl, he grasped the sponsored sports drink before him, opened the cap and took a swig as he fought off his impending tears.
“Nothing really in life goes exactly how you think it’s going to go,” he said as water began to fill the ducts beneath his eyes. “With that being said, I mean, the picture or the plan, it’s — I’m so thankful.”
Monday was supposed to be a coronation of sorts. Stevens, who has battled a laundry list of injuries and inconsistent play this season, was granted the starting job against the Cardinals after freshman Garrett Shrader was injured in a fight at practice in the weeks leading up to the bowl game.
His final collegiate contest was now a chance to put a positive cap on what had been a turbulent tenure in Starkville.
“He’ll go in and make plays with his arm and his feet, and I know the guys have a ton of confidence in him,” coach Joe Moorhead said ahead of the game. “(For) a graduate transfer, senior quarterback to have an opportunity to lead his team to win in a bowl game, we’re very excited about that.”
For a brief moment Monday, Moorhead’s words rang true.
After the Bulldog defense secured a fumble on its own 1-yard line early in the first quarter, the former Nittany Lion marched his unit on an eight-play, 99-yard scoring drive while accounting for 72 of the yards personally — 27 through the air and 45 on the ground.
Racing to his right on a run-pass option inside the Louisville 5-yard line, he plunged through a Cardinal defender into the end zone for the game’s opening score. Picking himself off the turf, Stevens flexed his muscular 6-foot-5-inch frame in celebration.
Two drives later, he backed up the initial touchdown by leading the Bulldogs 80 yards to pay dirt and a 14-0 lead.
But in an instant, Stevens’ borderline renaissance turned sour.
Running to his left as he desperately tried to convert a third-and-22, Stevens was stripped from behind. Cardinals defensive back Khane Pass took the ensuing fumble 31 yards into the end zone for a scoop and score.
“I’ve got to take better care of the ball,” Stevens said postgame, barely able to muster the words as his voice creaked with each ensuing syllable. “Obviously a big play in the game. I’ve got to take better care of the ball.”
Stevens completed just four of his next nine throws as Louisville torched the downtrodden Bulldog defense for 31 straight points. The rout was on.
The player that had hit 29 of his first 40 passes for 341 yards and four touchdowns in parts of games against Louisiana and Southern Mississippi had suddenly disappeared. The middling play that saw him benched at halftime against Tennessee in mid-October returned, and with it, the Bulldogs and Stevens’ hopes of a fruitful on-field farewell dissipated.
Standing up from the table following his press conference, tears combined with the runny eye-black triangles that coated Stevens’ cheeks. Wandering into the hall side by side, he and Moorhead paused at the underground opening to the playing surface at Nissan Stadium to share a long embrace.
Not 30 yards behind them, Stevens concluded his collegiate career with a frenetic 17-for-26, 221-yard effort. Minutes prior, he said he didn’t regret his decision to come to MSU in the slightest. In the moment, heading to Starkville was the best decision for him.
Separating from their hug, Stevens and Moorhead headed down the concrete hallway toward the MSU locker room and continued trading words.
It’s been 227 days since Stevens announced his transfer to MSU. And in the waning minutes of his collegiate football career that began in eastern Pennsylvania and concluded in central Tennessee, it was Moorhead — his former offensive coordinator in Happy Valley — who stood by his side as the deep wounds of defeat weighed on the now former Bulldog quarterback.
“It’s like watching one of your own grow up,” Moorhead said of Stevens. “We have a relationship that dates back and I’ve known him for a long time, watched him grow as a player, watch him grown as a person … You know, whether it’s in the game of football playing, whether it’s in the game of football coaching, whatever he does in life, I know he’s made of the right things. He’s a good kid with great character and a great set of values, and whatever he sets his mind to, he’s going to accomplish. (I’m) proud to be associated with Tommy Stevens.”
Ben Portnoy reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @bportnoy15.
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