As the Bulldogs prepare for the Gator Bowl, questions swirl about many things, including how Mississippi State will stop Michigan’s lightning-fast quarterback Denard Robinson or who will replace Chad Bumphis as the go-to receiver.
However, one question was unrelated to the outcome of the game, but of great significance to MSU fans: Who will wear Nick Bell’s jersey?
Dan Mullen’s team lost a member of it’s family when sophomore defensive end Nick Bell died of brain cancer mid-season, and in MSU’s final three games, one of Bell’s former teammates wore his No. 36 jersey to honor him.
To continue the tradition in the Dawgs’ nationally-televised bowl game, Mullen selected quarterback Chris Relf.
“Why Chris? I don’t know, he hadn’t worn it,” Mullen said. “He told me he’d do it. He’s a junior, and a couple other guys have worn the jersey, and we weren’t going to let anyone go a second time in it.”
Previously, tight end Kendrick Cook, who was Bell’s fraternity brother, wore the jersey against Alabama, safety Charles Mitchell, Bell’s former roommate, donned the jersey for the game with Arkansas, and Pernell McPhee, who was a defensive end with Bell, wore it in the final regular-season game, the Egg Bowl.
Relf is the first player without a direct tie to Bell (other than being teammates, of course) to wear the 36 jersey. Mullen said there is a perfectly logical reason for it, though.
“I got a lot of emails saying it’d be neat, too, if Chris wore it,” Mullen said. “I showed them to him and he said, ‘I think it’d be great if I wore it, too.'”
To most, it will seem odd for a quarterback to be seen leading the offense in the number 36. To Mullen, however, it will be just like old times.
In high school, it was always Mullen’s number.
“I played quarterback and I was 36,” Mullen said. “In New Hampshire I was number 36, led the team as a quarterback. That was my jersey, 36.”
Mullen earned his degree at Ursinus College, where he again donned his favorite number, after a short hiatus.
“In college I moved to 10 for one year when I was a quarterback, then I moved to tight end and I took 36 away from whoever was wearing it,” he said. “I think a punter had it or something. I went and told him, ‘you’re now number 10.’ He said, ‘But, but, but,’ I said, ‘You’re now number 10, give me my 36 back.'”
While the bulk of the grief came in the days immediately following Bell’s passing, Mullen said the players still deal with it even now.
Mullen said he and the staff like to build a ‘family-oriented program,’ and he believes his players got through the tragedy by sticking together both as a team and as a family.
“You don’t prepare for that stuff. You don’t expect when you’re 19 or 20 years old for one of your teammates to pass away from cancer five weeks after he’s been diagnosed. There’s never a right way or a wrong way to feel about anything and any of that stuff. I think it really kept our team together. I mean, I think we were [already] a really close team,” Mullen said. “Everyone had to deal with it differently, and they’re still dealing with it today. They’ll deal with it for years to come. I think it shows how much our kids care about each other that they can stick together “