History of Alabama vs. MSU: the Battle for Highway 82

How about we start with 1941, when Mississippi State beat Alabama…on the road, 14-0. MSU finished that season 8-1-1 (although 3 of the wins were against non-division I teams), and Alabama finished 8-2 (losing to Vanderbilt as well) and ranked #20. Yet somehow they finagled the NCAA record book to include them as 1 of 3 national champions that year.

From there, MSU lost 9 in a row to the Tide until they tied 7-7 in 1953. State won three out of the next four, but then Alabama hired Bear Bryant and they won the next 22 in the series…even beating State in 1974 when they went 9-3 and ’76 when they went 9-2.

Then in 1980 the big one happened, State beat #1 Alabama 6-3. The Dawgs had previously faced Alabama under Bryant when they were ranked in the Top 5 eleven times but come up short including them being #1 in ’79. The Crimson Tide had won 28 straight games (and 27 straight SEC games) coming in and were two-time defending SEC and

National Champions. But State was able to hold the vaunted Bama wishbone attack to 116 yards rushing (they had been averaging over 300) and 180 total yards. The goal line fumble recovery sealed the win in Jackson, MS on November 1, 1980 as one of the greatest victories in MSU history. This also set Alabama back as they would not regain the #1 ranking (in the regular season) again until 2008 – a couple weeks before they faced MSU.

Unfortunately, that did not change the Tide (bad pun) vs. MSU as we lost the next 15 to Bama until former Alabama player Jackie Sherrill led the Bulldogs to a 17-16 victory in 1996. Once that glass ceiling was shattered for MSU they were able to beat Alabama in 1997, ’98, and again in 2000 making it four out of five years.

With the aide of a scheduling quirk (revolving around the change to one permanent cross-divisional rival in lieu of two) which allowed Alabama to have the 2001 and 2002 games in Tuscaloosa, the Tide won the next five games in the series. But in 2006, MSU effectively

sealed the fate of Mike Shula with a 24-16 road win. In Nick Saban’s first season as head coach, he lost the game 17-12 (in front of a record-breaking crowd at the time) with the help of a fantastic interception return for a touchdown by Anthony Johnson. Since then it’s been all Alabama, as they’ve had an average national ranking of #5 coming into this game.

In a statistic that might make you sick, Alabama has shut out State 26 times. With Bama’s 2011 defense, State will have to come to play to prevent number 27. MSU has also only beaten Bama 17 times and this series dates back to 1896…so not only would a victory over the #3 team be huge for 2011, but a win over the Tide is always a precious commodity.

These two schools are the closest of all the SEC schools, however, until 1986 MSU used the home field for this game in Jackson, and Alabama chose to play it in Birmingham on several occasions. But the game is in Starkville this year, where State has won 4 of the last 7 against Bama.