The Bulldogs won their final game of the season, defeating Ole Miss 41-27 in the Egg Bowl Saturday. Mississippi State finished the season with a 5-7 record, but senior running back Anthony Dixon said beating the in-state rival was bigger than any postseason game the Dawgs could have hoped for.
“I think it was a bowl game,” he said. “I think it would have been bigger than a bowl game regardless of where we would have played, because it was against that team up north.”
After a slow start, Dixon finished the game with 133 yards on the ground, and he broke MSU’s single-season rushing record previously held by James Johnson. Coach Dan Mullen said it was easy to recognize the importance of Dixon breaking yet another record.
“I know everyone talks about Heisman trophies, he’s leading the SEC on a team that played the toughest schedule in the country, and he leads the league in rushing,” Mullen said.
Dixon finished the season with 1,391 yards on the ground, and he is also MSU’s all-time leader in all-purpose yards (4,443), rushing yards (3,994), attempts (910), touchdowns (42) and 100-yard games (17).
Dixon is a finalist for the Conerly Trophy awarded to Mississippi’s best college football player every year. He said he cannot wait to get to the ceremony and have friendly conversations with his Ole Miss fan friends who have been rubbing last year’s Egg Bowl loss in his face all year. He said he will make sure they know who is taking the Golden Egg home this year.
“It’s satisfying to have that,” Dixon said. “To be able to go back home to Jackson and see all my Ole Miss buddies and be like, ‘What’s up this time?’ Last time they talked to me bad when we lost 45 to zip, I caught a lot of stuff. Now I can be like, ‘What’s up man, what happened?'”
Sophomore quarterback Chris Relf finished with 131 yards on the ground. It was the first time an MSU quarterback had rushed for 100 yards since Wayne Madkin did it in 2000 against BYU. Relf scored one touchdown on the ground, and he also passed for two touchdowns. It was a big day for the sophomore who was suspended early in the season and saw limited action even after the suspension was lifted.
Relf said he was always confident in his ability and just had to work through the adversity.
“My dad always told me to just keep my head in the game,” he said. “I just tried to watch what Tyson does and learn from his mistakes so when I go in I won’t make those mistakes. I’m very confident in myself. I know if I go out and make the right reads I can make the play.”
The Dawg defense intercepted the much-hyped Jevan Snead three times and returned one of them for a touchdown. Junior defensive end Pernell McPhee said studying film of the Rebels all week paid big dividends.
“We knew they would max protect on pass plays and send two receivers out,” he said. “We felt like we could cover those two and not let them beat us. Our main plan was to stop [Dexter] McCluster.”
The final score was lopsided, but the Bulldogs actually trailed 13-10 at halftime. Mullen said he reminded the team of the clock which has been counting down to the Egg Bowl since he first came to Starkville. He told the team the clock had been counting down for 300 days, and now they only had 30 minutes to prove themselves. If the pep talk was not enough, Dixon said the coaching staff got the Bulldogs back on track on the field, as well.
“The coaches figured out what was gonna work, and that was all she wrote,” Dixon said. “They just started trusting me and giving me the ball, and I got the job done.”