With a school record 252 yards
on the ground, Mississippi State
senior running back Anthony
Dixon had yet another career day
while leading his team to victory,
this time a 31-24 win over the
Kentucky Wildcats. Dixon, who
earned SEC Player of the Week,
said setting the single-game rushing
record is yet another dream
come true, but his primary goal
was to get his team a win in
Lexington.
“I was just out there trying to
grind for my team tonight,” he
said. “I was telling the team, I
want to get as many [yards] as it
takes to get a W, and I did that
tonight.”
Dixon scored the first and
last Bulldog touchdowns of the
game, though MSU opened up
scoring with a 33-yard Derek
DePasquale field goal in the first
quarter. Senior running back
Christian Ducre, who rushed for
nine of MSU’s 348 rushing yards,
scored on a 2-yard touchdown
run early the third quarter. With
6:56 left in the third quarter, the
Bulldogs scored on a 67-yard
bomb from senior quarterback
Tyson Lee to freshman receiver
O’Neal Wilder.
The long reception was
Wilder’s first touchdown as a
Bulldog and was a redeeming
play for Lee, who was 9-of-16
for 78 yards and two interceptions.
MSU coach Dan Mullen
said he was proud of Lee for
not allowing himself to become
frustrated after early mistakes,
and said the touchdown play was
a game-changer for both Lee and
the team.
“We were able to run the ball
a lot, and we did a great job with
the play-action pass,” Mullen
said. “O’Neal got behind him
and Tyson didn’t lose his confidence,
delivered the ball, and I
think it was such a huge play in
the game. The score was going
back and forth, and that gave us
some momentum.”
As Dixon set personal single-
game highs in both carries
(33) and yards (252), the
offense garnered the majority of
the attention in the Bluegrass
state. However, senior linebacker
Jamar Chaney had one of the
best games of his career at MSU.
Chaney racked up a career-high
15 tackles, recorded an interception
to end what looked to be a
Wildcat scoring drive, recovered
a fumble and was credited with
half a sack.
Chaney said the turnover battle,
something the Bulldogs are
all too familiar with, was the
key to winning a game in which
he said the defense did not play
perfectly.
“At the end of the game, if
you look at who forced the most
turnovers, that’s usually who won
the game,” Chaney said. “We try
not to have turnovers on offense
and we create them on defense.
That’s the name of the game.”
Kentucky was looking to tie the
game and send it to overtime on
their final possession of the game,
but the Bulldog defense came up
with a game-saving fourth down
stop deep in their own territory
to seal the victory for MSU. On
fourth and five with just over
a minute remaining, Kentucky
freshman quarterback Morgan
Newton was sacked by Jamar
Chaney and Devin Jones.
Mullen said he gives credit to
the entire defensive unit, and said
the seniors’s experience proved to
be incredibly valuable.
“Our guys, and Jamar [Chaney]
and the seniors in that group,
they’ve seen a lot of football; they
never flinched,” Mullen said.
“At some point, they knew we
would make our play, and on
that fourth down, they did and
it couldn’t have been a bigger
one for us, these seniors or our
football program.”
With a 3-5 overall record (4-5
now), MSU players knew coming
into Kentucky it was a virtual
must-win if the team wanted
to play in a bowl game this
year. With home games against
Alabama and Ole Miss sandwiching
a road contest against
Arkansas left on the schedule,
the Bulldogs remain very much
in contention for a postseason
outing.
Dixon said he is happy to have
set another rushing record, but
working his way to a bowl game
is much more important to him.
“I am really trying to get to
that bowl game,” Dixon said.
“That is the thing that is on the
top of the list of goals this year.
With this win, we are inching
closer to that, and for that reason
I am happy.”