The Mississippi State University Bulldogs looked eagerly to redeem themselves after their recent loss to LSU but could not pull off a win against South Carolina Saturday night in Colombia.
This was the first time since 2016 that the Bulldogs and Gamecocks have squared off on the field.
MSU faced USC in an SEC match up for their first away game of the season. Mississippi State holds a record of 2-1 and South Carolina had a record of 1-2 going into the matchup. While the Bulldogs played hard and fought to stay in the game, they ultimately fell to a 30-37 to the Gamecocks.
South Carolina scored the first touchdown to take the lead early on, but the Bulldogs were able to get things moving and catch up quickly in the second quarter. The first half proved to be pretty competitive with a score of 20-17 as South Carolina took the lead at halftime. The game maintained its momentum up to the very end.
Quarterback Will Rogers completed 30 of his 48 pass attempts for a career-high 487 yards. This is a boost up from last week after throwing for a career-low of 103 yards against LSU.
Rogers was asked about the difference in mentality between last week and this week as his performance improved.
“I guess it just started this week in practice, you know, obviously you find a lot out about a person when things don’t go right. You know, I kind of made it a point this week to practice just as hard as I’ve ever practiced and like I said not enough, so I need to keep working and keep getting better,” Rogers said.
Senior wide receiver Lideatrick “Tulu” Griffin became MSU’s all-time, single-game record holder for receiving yards after he totaled 256 yards against South Carolina.
“I didn’t even know that I did that; until they told me when I was coming up here,” Griffin said, admittingly. “I really didn’t know.”
Griffin was the favorite target for most of the passes and even brought the Bulldogs back from South Carolina’s 14-0 lead in the second quarter.
Head coach Zach Arnett was much more pleased with the offense this week and said they truly put their best foot forward.
“I’m proud of the competitive spirit and fire we showed,” Arnett said. “They very easily could have put their heads down and quit, and it wouldn’t have been much of a football game. Instead, we went out and made a play and created some momentum.”
Mississippi State will host Alabama at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday at 8 p.m. and will be broadcast on ESPN.