Sylvester Croom quickly got into his golf cart, floored the gas and sped off the practice field, boiling with anger. He had just witnessed another pathetic practice by his team, and in the middle of the season.
It was midway through the Bulldogs’ first bye week, only a couple of days after the homecoming loss to UAB and a week and a half before the game with Florida, which at the time looked like an impossible task.
‘Sluggish’ would be an understatement in describing State’s practice that day. Receivers were running the wrong routes, linemen were missing blocks and the entire atmosphere lacked any energy at all. And Sylvester Croom was livid, scolding his team throughout practice before he fled the field in disgust.
After beating a poor Tulane team to open the season, Mississippi State had lost five consecutive games including a turnover infested 9-7 loss to Division 1-AA Maine, the first loss to lowly Vanderbilt in 15 years and a 51-0 shellacking by a LSU club that turned the ball over four times in the game. The Bulldogs were outscored 161-47 in that stretch.
The team’s awful play in those five games was reflected in that horrible day of practice. But the next day at practice was different. Croom’s team came out with a better attitude…a winning attitude. It was that day of practice that the Bulldogs began to develop into a team. Starting quarterback Omarr Conner, who was sidelined for two games due to an injury he suffered in the LSU game, returned to practice, and brought with him leadership, enthusiasm and a passing game, something the Bulldogs had been lacking since his injury.
Friday’s walk thru prior to the game against the No.20 Gators went well. The defense was going to start some young but talented players, and the offense was going to rely on the legs of Jerious Norwood and on the accuracy of Omarr Conner. But no one, except for fellow sports writer R.J. Morgan, who picks State to win every game every year, would have predicted the next day’s events.
Mississippi State bested Florida’s immense talent with heart and passion en route to an astonishing 38-31 victory that caused Sylvester Croom to race across the field with his arms raised toward the sky and tears in his eyes. Maroon-clad fans crashed onto Scott Field and ripped the north goal posts up for the first time in four years. One student tore her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) trying to hurdle the bushes that encase Scott Field. Players even lent a helping hand by hoisting fans up onto the goal posts in order to rip them down.
It was no doubt the turning point to a season that had taken a turn for the worse.
The Mississippi State offense exploded on that memorable Saturday afternoon, amassing 409 total yards and putting 38 points on the Gator defense. Conner only through 24 passes, but completed 15 of those for 158 yards and a touchdown. Jerious “J-Rock” Norwood racked up 174 yards on 29 carries and blew past the supposedly “lighting fast” Gator defense for a game winning 37-yard touchdown scamper with 32 seconds left.
The victory over Florida sparked a chain of events. It pushed UF head coach Ron Zook off the cliff that he had been dangling over for the past two years, giving Illinois a new head coach (if you didn’t know “the Zooker” took over as head coach at Illinois). It illustrated to the nation that talent can be toppled with heart and a will to win. The win also carried over to the next weekend when the Bulldogs’ suffocating defense held Kentucky to seven points. Mississippi State whipped the Wildcats 22-7, marking the first time since 2000 that State had won consecutive conference games.
Although the Bulldogs dropped their last three games, they fought valiantly at Alabama and against Arkansas. MSU was only three points behind the Crimson Tide with more than ten minutes to go in the third quarter, but State’s offense went scoreless for the final quarter and a half of play. Arkansas received some early Christmas presents from the sorry Southeastern Conference officiating crew in their 24-21 edging of the Bulldogs.
But the Florida game was the turning point to the 2004 season. It will forever be remembered in the hearts of every Bulldog fan and every MSU player. Twenty years from now when a person asks, “Did Sylvester Croom do any good in his first season as head coach at MSU?” the answer will be quick and to the point, “Hell yea. He beat Florida.”