For the first time since he’s been here, head coach Sylvester Croom heard crying in his locker room.
Mississippi State suffered a heartbreaking 27-24 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs Saturday.
State erased a 21-7 halftime deficit to pull to within three points of Georgia (6-2, 3-2), and, with 45 seconds to go in the ballgame, forced them to punt.
State (2-6, 0-4) took over at the MSU 19-yard line, and sophomore quarterback Mike Henig quickly drove the Bulldogs down to the Georgia 23-yard line on two long passes to Jamayel Smith and Tony Burks.
With 12 seconds remaining and no time outs, the Bulldogs opted not to kick a field goal on third down and tried instead to take one final shot for the end zone.
“We wanted to take a last shot in the end zone on the road,” Croom said. “With an overtime situation, we’re going to take every possibility to win the game before we leave. After the next play, we thought we’d have about 5 seconds left, try to kick the field goal and see if we can tie the game and go into overtime.”
Henig rolled out to his right with three receivers to his left, and after a few seconds spotted his target.
“We had a touchdown angle,” Henig said. “Jamayel Smith was wide open.”
The touchdown never materialized, though, as Henig was tackled by Georgia defensive end Charles Johnson and fumbled the ball. Georgia recovered to end the game.
“I saw he brought the ball down, and I just took a swipe at it,” Johnson said. “It was great that I was able to jump on the ball, and I’m hoping now we can ride that momentum of the win.”
After the game Croom called his team’s efforts the greatest he’s seen in his two and a half years at the helm of the program.
“For the past few years, a Mississippi State football team would’ve gotten beat 50-7 out there,” Croom said. “They didn’t today. That tells me it’s important to our people. As long as it’s important to them and we keep adding talent to the program, everything I’ve thought that we can accomplish is still out there to be done.”
Georgia scored first in the contest on a 2-yard Kregg Lumpkin run with 4:34 left in the first quarter. MSU answered with an Anthony Dixon rushing touchdown set up by a 46-yard interception return by cornerback Derek Pegues.
Georgia quarterback Matthew Stafford rattled off two second-quarter touchdown passes to give the Bulldogs a 21-7 lead at the half.
In the third quarter, MSU pulled to within seven on another Dixon touchdown, and then to within four after a 36-yard Adam Carlson field goal.
Georgia’s Brannan Southerland scored on a 1-yard run on the first play of the fourth quarter, but Andy Bailey missed the extra-point attempt. MSU’s Dixon scored his third rushing touchdown with just over10 minutes left in the game, and Carlson’s extra point gave State its final three-point deficit.
Sophomore Brandon Thornton paced the Bulldogs with 56 yards, and junior wide out Tony Burks tied Georgia’s Kenneth Harris for a game-high 106 receiving yards. Neither found the end zone in the game.
Pegues, a sophomore, had two key interceptions in the Bulldogs’ upset bid, extending his team lead.
The Bulldogs will return home this weekend to face the Kentucky Wildcats (3-4, 1-3) at 1:30 p.m.