9:15 a.m.
The sky was gray. Clouds hung low, staining our faces with mist. Something was in the air, a chill perhaps, but along with it, a certain smell. I've smelled it before. What is it? Popcorn? No. Burgers being cooked on an open flame grill? No. The overwhelming pungency of sorority girls doused in the latest J.Lo perfume? No. Wait... (sniff, sniff) I think I know what it is... it's...it's... VICTORY!!!
source
For those of you unfortunate fans who were not able to attend this weekend's match-up between no. 14 University of Kentucky Wildcats and the 4-4 Mississippi State Bulldogs, let me give a recap:
The Bulldogs took their opening drive 70 yards for an early touchdown. Carroll's 15-yard toss to Eric Butler was one of three third-down conversions on the 14-play march that ended with Carroll's 11-yard scoring strike to Jason Husband.
Kentucky answered right back with the ball in the hands of its star quarterback Woodson. After three consecutive Derrick Locke runs and an incompletion, Woodson threw a 31-yard pass to Dicky Lyons down to the Mississippi State 30-yard line. Woodson finished off the touchdown march with an 18-yard completion to Johnson.
Mississippi State continued its offensive onslaught on the next series, marching 80 yards for another score. The methodical drive included several key pass plays, including a 12-yard strike to Eric Hoskins, putting the football at the Wildcats 24-yard line. The Bulldogs punched it into the end zone via the air attack from in close, as Carroll lobbed a one-yard touchdown to Dixon.
The wildcats marched towards a tie late in the half, a drive aided by a questionable personal foul penalty as Woodson lunged for a first down near the right sideline. However, Lones Seiber misfired wide right from 34 yards away to keep the deficit at 14-7. Kentucky then fumbled the opening kickoff of the second half that set up a field goal for the Bulldogs. The Wildcats then fumbled on their next possession, setting up another score for Miss. when Anthony Dixon crossed the goal line from a yard out and boosted the score to 24-7.
Woodson was able to pull the Wildcats to withing ten after hitting Steve Johnson on a 37-yard toss with 5:15 left in the third quarter but the Bulldogs put the game away in the fourth when Christian Ducre busted through the middle on his way to a 34-yard touchdown run. The Wildcats turned the ball over on three of their next five drives, with one punt and the other ending on downs.
Kentucky has dropped three of four since a 5-0 start. Its only win in that time was a triple overtime victory over then-No.1 LSU. Mississippi State improved to 5-4 on the year and 2-3 in the SEC, while Kentucky dropped to 6-3 and 2-3 in the SEC.
This was the first Mississippi State football game I have attended in a few years. The last game I saw was in 2004 when we beat University of Florida 38-31. Following that loss, the Gators' coach, Ron Zook, experienced what is known as being "Croomed."
For those of you who don't know what getting "Croomed" is, let me explain.
For the past few seasons, Mississippi State hasn't really been known for their skills on the football field. In fact, in the past three seasons, the Bulldogs have only won three games in each. However, in each of those seasons, they managed to pull out huge victories over teams with winning records, in turn, causing the football coach for each respective team to get fired, or "Croomed." Five of the 10 coaches Mississippi State's Croom has defeated since 2004 are no longer coaching at the same school.
Here's what happened to the SEC coaches who have lost to Croom:
2004
Ron Zook, Florida: Fired in 2004
2005
Joe Pannunzio, Murray State: Fired in 2005
Chris Scelfo, Tulane: Fired in 2006
2006:
Mike Shula, Alabama: Fired in 2006
Watson Brown, UAB: Resigned in 2006 for Tennessee Tech
2007
?
Who let the dogs out? Croom did.
Sources: Solomon's Wisdom
Transworld News
The Sports Network
No comments:
Post a Comment