It truly was a battle of the Bulldogs Saturday night when Mississippi State took on Louisiana Tech in a game that saw several ties and lead changes. Ultimately, it was the Bulldogs in maroon, white and black jerseys who came up with the overtime win.
The game was scoreless in the first when junior Chad Bumphis returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown. The return was Bumphis’ first of the season, and he broke it for the score. Head coach Dan Mullen said the return was a huge play for his team.
“It was one of those where their kicker kicked it too good, and it let our return get set up downfield,” Mullen said. “Chad made a couple people miss and made an explosive big play to give us some momentum, especially at that point of the game.”
La. Tech then put together a nice drive that ended in a field goal to give State a 7-3 lead at the end of the first. MSU was fortunate to have the lead because La. Tech had 123 yards of offense in the first quarter, while a poor offensive performance by State left them with a mere 36 yards.
La. Tech’s true freshman quarterback, Nick Isham, led his offense down the field and took the lead on a four-yard touchdown run by Lennon Creer. The 17-year-old quarterback was poised throughout the game, and he finished the half with 119 yards on 16-20 passing against a tough SEC defense.
However, MSU regained the lead quickly in the second quarter. Freshman Jameon Lewis led the Bulldogs down the field with a 23-yard rush and a 16-yard catch. Senior Vick Ballard finished off the drive with an 11-yard touchdown run. A field goal by Derek DePasquale put State ahead 17-10 to end the half.
In the third quarter, a touchdown pass by Isham tied the game at 17, but another DePasquale field goal gave State the lead.
A La. Tech field goal kept them in the game, and Isham was driving late in the fourth when MSU safety Johnthan Banks intercepted Isham in the end zone, giving Banks a pick in three straight games.
State had an opportunity to put together a game winning drive as it had the ball with 1:15 left on its own 16 yard line. However, three straight rushes by Ballard put the ball at MSU’s 33 with just 30 seconds left. After two more rushes, the game headed into overtime.
Mullen said he wanted his team to break a run and get the ball to about the 40 so he could go for a score.
“I was hoping one more run would crease; then we would take a shot downfield, but we never really got out of our own end,” Mullen said. “Our defense had made two great stops back to back, and I didn’t want to throw them out there and make them do it a third time because we had made three incomplete passes and taken no time off the clock.”
La. Tech took control of the ball to begin overtime, but a pick by defensive back Nickoe Whitley sent State fans into an uproar. Whitley said the defense had been playing with the young quarterback all night.
“I just did what coach taught me to do, and the ball came to me,” Whitley said. “I could tell how the ball was coming that he was going to miss it.”
After an eight-yard run by Bumphis, Chris Relf threw a deep ball to Ladarius Perkins, who made the catch, striding into the end zone. Perkins said the play was one they had worked on in practice, and he was just making sure he was not out of bounds.
“At first I didn’t know Relf had thrown the ball because I was looking up the field, and when I looked up again I could see the ball in the light, so I knew I had to catch it,” Perkins said.
The win moved State back to .500 on the season and 3-4 all time in overtime games. Although it was not MSU’s greatest performance, there were some bright spots.
The Bulldogs’ defense came into the game ranked third in the SEC with 6.7 tackles for loss per game and continued this trend with seven against La. Tech. Senior linebacker Brandon Wilson recorded a career-best 18 tackles, the most in the SEC this season.
Also, the Bulldogs’ 168 rushing yards gave them 100 yards for the 27th time in 29 games under Mullen. Senior offensive lineman Quentin Saulsberry said the team kept playing hard to pick up the victory.
“We just gotta go out there and execute for the game,” Saulsberry said. “I think we made more mental mistakes than they did, but, at the same time, we gotta keep striving and come up with the win.”
Mullen said when it came to the end, his team made the big plays they needed to make to win the game.
“It’s hard to win a Division 1 football game; go ask the 60 teams that lost (Saturday) how hard it is to win,” Mullen said. “That’s a huge win for us and a big momentum builder for our guys. It gets us back on track where we need to be to get ready for a tough opponent next week.”