Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Bulldog Celebration
Sunday
September 24, 2006
"It doesn't matter what my name is!"
-Unidentified woman, to me, at Bell Bottoms last night
Last night I attended the Mississippi State overtime win over UAB at Legion Field. The game itself wasn't very pretty, with dropped passes, penalties galore (especially delays of game on UAB), and the Mississippi State Gulf Coast Offense (as my bro Matt calls it) creating a less-than-ideal situation for a Division I-A football game. But, thanks to MSU QB Omar Conner, things took a turn for the exciting.
Quick setup: 4th and 2 from the UAB 3, and trailing 7-3 in the 4th quarter, Mississippi State's incompetent coaching staff initially sent its kicking team onto the field. Conner, who lead the Bulldogs into the red zone (despite being under heavy pressure for most of the drive, as well as the game for that matter) tried to wave them off in a scene reminiscent of Peyton Manning. Apparently Omar doesn't have the same clout as Manning, as the punt team continued onto the field... until confusion hit hard and Mississippi State had to burn a timeout.
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed, and MSU gave the ball to Conner on a QB keeper. He got the first down, and while he didn't score on the play, State punched it in to take a 10-7 lead.
UAB made a field goal to send it to OT. In the overtime session, State intercepted a UAB pass on the Blazers' possession. Then with the ball and a chance to win, Conner sprinted toward the end zone, slamming into two defenders like Randall Cunningham in his prime, and making it in and scoring the game-winning TD.
The excitement from the MSU fans was incredible. You don't normally see an SEC team celebrate an OT win over a Conference USA opponent, but for long-suffering Miss. State fans, this was reason to celebrate. It was the first win of the year, and more importantly it was a road victory. To put it in perspective, Matt couldn't even recall offhand the last time M-State had won on the road. And from what I heard at the game, Mississippi State's athletic director has a sum-zero outlook on budgeting, which doesn't bode well for long-term growth for the program.
But, Mississippi State won. And for the nearly 50% of the people at the game who were supporting the Bulldogs, it was a night to be happy.
To celebrate, the five of us who'd been at the game (my bro, John Pouncey, Pouncey's dad and his dad's girlfriend) all went to Hooters. The idea had been to catch the end of the UFC PPV, but by the time we arrived it had already ended. I was playing the role of sober driver, but seeing Pouncey and Matt play good cop/bad cop with Foxi Roxi the waitress was high comedy.
From there it was on to Bell Bottoms, where I ended up having a really fun time. I drank maybe 5 of those overpriced bottles of water that you get at a club, but despite the lack of alcohol in my system, I had a blast. Bell Bottoms stays open until 5 AM, which is ridiculous for me anymore, but we ended up staying there until just before closing time. So my sleep schedule is messed up, and tomorrow I'll probably be exhausted, but it was wooooorth it.
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