Winning the Egg Bowl and Getting to a Bowl is not Enough

Winning the Egg Bowl and Getting to a Bowl is not Enough by Justin Strawn

For the first time since 1990 Mississippi State will play Southern Miss on August 30th. Why did we quit playing the Golden Eagles? Well, they kept beating us for one thing.

USM has won 10 of the last 14 meetings.

Ouch.

All the more reason to stomp them come opening kickoff.

This used to be an annual matchup. The Bulldogs and mustard buzzards met every year from 1964-1990 (except 1971 and 1974). And that’s pretty much the entire series except for a couple of Mississippi State wins in 1935 and 1947. On the field MSU leads the overall series 14-12-1, but due to probation in 1975 and ’76 Southern Miss leads in the record book 14-12-1.

It’s shocking. It’s disturbing. It needs to change. 2014 and 2015 present an opportunity to at least tie up the series, it shouldn’t even be close enough for them to take the lead on a technicality.

Early on the games were always held in Starkville….11 straight to be exact after the first matchup was in Hattiesburg. The Dawgs were 8-2-1 in those games. Then in 1976 we begun to alternate and everything changed from there. While State won that particular game on the field, it was forfeited due to the Larry Gilliard “discount”.

Then Southern pulled off a string of seven consecutive victories.

After Bulldog wins in 1984 and ’85, the Golden Eagles regained momentum to win another four straight. Finally, Rockey Felker’s crew won in 1989 and 1990 before the series was discontinued until now.

The 1980s were a miserable time for MSU to play USM. Every game from 1981-88 was played in Jackson, MS and it was rough on the Dawgs. The final two games were shifted back to the campuses and State fared much better.

The 1981 game was the only time both teams were ranked….#20 USM beat #15 MSU 7-6. Perhaps the high note in the 80s was in 1989 when MSU beat #18 USM 26-23 – it was only the second time they had been ranked when playing State.

The 1980 season was a great one featuring wins over #1 Alabama, #18 Miami (FL), Auburn, LSU and Ole Miss; but it also featured a 42-14 loss to Southern Miss at home. In 1986, a newly expanded Scott Field and new head coach Rockey Felker started the season 6-1 including a win over #8 Tennessee, and they soared to #13 in the polls…but that one loss was to USM.

It’s a new era so what happened several decades ago is just that. But those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. Take heart, Dawgs…let’s take back this series…at least for your father’s Dawgs’ sake.