MSU Football History: Remembering the Maine
Mississippi State will host Northwestern State out of the FCS on Saturday. Recent struggles by FBS teams against the lower division has reminded me of the 2004 historically bad loss to the Maine Black Bears. You must remember your history or you’ll be doomed to repeat it [is my defense for writing this post].
When MSU lost to Maine in 2004, it was a time when losing to a FCS team (Division 1-AA at the time) was unheard of. The only SEC team to lose to one was Arkansas when they lost to The Citadel in 1992 – their first year in the league (South Carolina has lost to two FCS teams but it was prior to joining the SEC). Since 2004, Ole Miss lost to Jacksonville State in 2010, Florida lost to Georgia Southern in 2013 and then Auburn narrowly escaped Jacksonville State last week – not a loss but close enough. Nationally, prominent programs like Michigan (Appalachian State, 2007) and Virginia Tech (James Madison, 2010) have gone down as well as many others.
The weather was beautiful the day of the Maine game. Despite three consecutive bad seasons in Starkville, optimism was pretty high with new coach Sylvester Croom who had won his first ever game two weeks prior. We knew this team wouldn’t be very good, but we thought the future could be bright and were certainly expecting the second win of the season against Maine.
I still remember having a lot of fun at the tailgate watching the eventual undefeated SEC champion Auburn Tigers defeat the defending SEC and national champion LSU Tigers, 7-3. Then I proceeded to go into Davis Wade where there would be no more fun on this day.
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Omarr Conner led a nice drive in the 1st quarter to gain a 7-0 lead, but that was it. Maine hung around and capitalized on Bulldog miscues like a shanked punt that gave them starting field position at the MSU 35 yard line. Then in the fourth quarter State drove all the way down to the two yard line looking to put the game away, but instead a fumble turned the ball over and Maine drove the field for a go-ahead touchdown. They would miss the extra point, however, opening the door for a field goal to win it.
But alas, Sly Croom was making the decisions. He decided to punt the ball with only one minute remaining in the game so that despite stopping Maine on three plays, the offense only had 13 seconds to engineer a game-winning drive. The contest ended in a 9-7 final score.
Davis Wade Stadium has never been more eerily quiet than that September night. In 2012, Maine named it their greatest achievement in football history. It was an embarrassment, and ultimately foreshadowing of the Croom era.
As I went back to my tailgate that night, my friends and I just sat in our lawn chairs and stared off into space wondering when MSU football would ever be good again. We wouldn’t find that answer for another six years.
Next: Need to get the running game going vs. Northwestern State