Mizzou Football’s best moments against Mississippi State

Nov 22, 2024 | Uncategorized

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NCAA Football: Mississippi State at Missouri
Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

There hasn’t been much roaring and barking between these two teams, but there’ve been a handful of interesting memories in this series, including two huge Tiger wins.

The morning before each Mizzou football game in 2024, Rock M’s Quentin Corpuel will look back at MU’s best moments versus that week’s opponent. This week: Mississippi State.

Mississippi State

Opponent: Mississippi State Bulldogs

Gametime: Saturday, Nov. 23 at 3:15 p.m. CST

Location: Davis Wade Stadium, Starkville, Mississippi

Record versus Mississippi State: 2-2

Here’s a video of a French bulldog encountering a tiger at the Hanover Zoo in Germany.

While the 24-second clip from 2008 seems irrelevant to American college football in 2024, the truth is quite the contrary. It’s an accurate portrayal of Mizzou and Mississippi State’s head-to-head history, which heavily lacks familiarity. Entering 2024, there were three SEC teams that the Tigers had played just four times – Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State. The (American) Bulldogs have only played one SEC team less than four times; that would be Oklahoma, a matchup that has never happened.

This year will mark Mizzou’s first non-COVID trip to Starkville. When the Tigers made the trek to The Magnolia State in 1981, the game was played at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, Mississippi, where both MSU and Ole Miss played occasional home games.

On paper, MU has the upper-hand; Mississippi State, who currently sits at 2-8, is in real danger of ending this season 2-10, as its last game is a road trip to No. 9 Ole Miss in the 121st Egg Bowl. Unlike the wildly popular Saturday Night Live skit featuring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken, the Tigers will probably want less cowbell when they enter Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday.

Honorable mention: Russell’s plunge (11/5/2015)

Considering how dark the fall of 2015 was for both Mizzou football and the University of Missouri, I was surprised by how often games from then have appeared in this series. Perhaps this time around, the scarcity of moments against Mississippi State necessitated a dip into 2015.

The last meeting between the Bulldogs and Tigers in Columbia was at the height of tensions at MU, tensions that were catalyzed by numerous racist incidents. Three days prior to the contest, which was played on a Thursday, Mizzou grad student Jonathan Butler announced that he would embark on a hunger strike until then-UM System President Tim Wolfe, whose lack of action surrounding the racist incidents understandably angered many, was removed from office. The day before the game, freshman wide receiver J’Mon Moore told Butler that the black players on the football team had pondered striking if Wolfe didn’t remove himself from office, according to the Columbia Missourian.

The actual contest was more exciting than the 31-13 final score might indicate. Mizzou played the No. 24-ranked Bulldogs close in the first half, only trailing 14-13 after two quarters. But Mississippi State took control in the second half, winning the third quarter 17-0; an eight-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to Fred Brown late in the third quarter ended up being the game’s final points, handing MU its fourth straight loss.

However, peak excitement was reached in Faurot Field with just under two minutes left in the first half. Amidst heavy rain, Russell Hansbrough, took a halfback draw, followed some incredible blocking and leapt into the end zone for Mizzou’s first touchdown in over 14 quarters.

That Saturday, all of the team’s black players announced in a tweet from the Legion of Black Collegians account that they would no longer participate in any football-related activities until Wolfe was removed from office. On Sunday, head coach Gary Pinkel tweeted that the rest of the football team was behind the black players who were boycotting team activities. The next day, Wolfe resigned.

#5: Rountree rock (12/19/2020)

Speaking of games played under non-normal circumstances, arguably no post-war college football season has been as such like 2020 was. In Mizzou’s only other trip to Starkville, MU made the pilgrimage having been decimated by injuries, opt-outs and COVID-19 cases, with the latter ultimately canceling the Music City Bowl matchup against Iowa.

The torn and tattered Tigers were forced to reshuffle personnel like never before. Shawn Robinson, Mizzou’s starting quarterback to begin the season, played in the secondary and actually picked off a pass. Michael Maietti, the team’s starting center, played defensive tackle. Mizzou got blown out by the two-win Bulldogs 51-32 and trailed by as much as 26, dropping to 5-5. Connor Bazelak threw for 225 yards and two touchdowns, but also a trio of interceptions; heck, his second touchdown pass was a prayer into heavy coverage that Niko Hea snared seemingly out of nowhere.

One positive, however, was Larry Rountree III rushing for 121 yards and two touchdowns. His first was the game’s opening score, an act of resilience that was topped off with him representing the Omega Psi Phi fraternity after scoring; Rountree was part of the Epsilon Delta chapter at Mizzou.

But Rountree’s second touchdown of the game was arguably a lot tougher.

#4: Rountree goes ‘round (12/19/2020)

Down by 26 almost midway through the fourth quarter, a comeback was extremely unlikely for the Tigers. However, effort wasn’t completely lost on the road team’s sideline, as Rountree continued to fight for his second touchdown of the game

unners staying upright through several would-be tacklers has appeared many times in this series. Let’s add one more to the collection.

#3: Mississippi State tries to tackle Tyler Hunt (11/5/2015)

Statistically speaking, Tyler Hunt was unremarkable. In four seasons with the Tigers, he ran for 195 yards (185 coming in 2015) on 45 carries and scored just one touchdown. In 2014, his junior season, he was occasionally used on defense and kick returns.

However, the numbers tell far from a complete story. Hunt was a football and baseball star at Westran High School in Huntsville, Missouri. On the gridiron, he passed for 4,977 yards and 56 touchdowns while also rushing for 5,172 yards and 71 touchdowns over the course of his high school career. He earned Missouri Class 1 Player of the Year honors as a senior in 2010 along with being named first team All-State. On the baseball field, he was a three-time All-State selection and was on pace to break Westran’s all-time career strikeout record before suffering an elbow injury playing football.

After high school, he passed up a full-ride baseball scholarship at the junior college level to take a walk-on spot with Mizzou football. Hunt eventually earned a scholarship; although he didn’t stuff the stat sheet like Cody Schrader would almost a decade later for the Tigers, he followed a similar path as Schrader in regards to not getting seriously looked at by Division I schools.

Hunt also ran with a similar fire as Schrader did; Hunt’s lone touchdown in a Mizzou uniform was a one-yard ram into the end zone that padded MU’s lead the following week against BYU. But Hunt’s finest moment came against MSU when he simply never stopped running.

2: A big-time rebound (9/22/1984)

For as uninspiring as Mizzou’s two defeats were in this series, its two wins were jam-packed with quality football from the Tigers, one of which came in 1984.

Mizzou had started the season with defeats to Illinois and Wisconsin by a combined seven points; Mississippi State, on the other hand, had rocked Tulane and survived Colorado State. The Bulldogs took a 23-14 lead, but their momentum was soon vanquished, as the Tigers ended the game on a 33-7 scoring run to pick up their first win of the season. Quarterback Marion Adler threw for 258 yards and a pair of touchdowns in relief for Warren Seitz, who exited the game midway through the first half with a rib injury. Fullback Eric Drain scored three touchdowns of his own.

Neither team would complete their respective seasons ceremoniously. Mizzou would finish 3-7-1, its only other wins coming against 1-10 Colorado and 3-7-1 Kansas State. Mississippi State would win just two games the rest of the way, but its season ended up being fascinating. The Bulldogs lost three games to opponents that finished in the AP top 20 – Kentucky, Auburn and LSU – by a combined nine points. However, they also lost games to Memphis and Ole Miss, both of whom finished with losing records, by two possessions each.

#1: Muzzling the Bulldogs (10/3/1981)

Mississippi State seemed to be right there.

The Bulldogs put together a nine-win campaign in 1980, which included their fifth-ever postseason appearance in the Sun Bowl, albeit a loss to Nebraska. MSU entered 1981 ranked No. 14 in the AP Poll and rolled in its first three games against Memphis, Vanderbilt and Florida, defeating those three teams by a combined score of 77-19.

Mizzou, however, was also in a groove leading up to its matchup with Mississippi State in Jackson. The Tigers has dominated Army, Rice and Louisville by a combined score of 100-23. They were also looking to build upon a solid 1980, an eight-win campaign with a Liberty Bowl appearance, a loss to Purdue.

In a battle of hot squads, MSU’s offense melted. The Bulldogs struck first with a 42-yard field goal, but their wishbone was broken at the hands of a stifling Mizzou defense. Mississippi State mustered just 237 yards of total offense in a 14-3 defeat, which rocketed the Tigers to No. 13 in the ensuing AP Poll.

Unlike 1984, 1981 saw both Mizzou and Mississippi State finish the season in not-terrible fashion. Both teams would go 8-4, including bowl game victories. The Bulldogs took down Kansas 10-0 in the Hall of Fame Bowl, while the Tigers defeated Southern Mississippi 19-17 in the Tangerine Bowl.

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