Mississippi State Recap

So what happened is that Ryan Smith hit Relf so hard in the legs that Relf went straight down rather than falling forward. This is a tackle that I will always remember as we beat a team and a coach that we NEEDED to beat.


Phillip Marshall

AUBURN – The capacity Jordan-Hare Stadium crowd was up and screaming as the scoreboard clock rolled inside the final minute Saturday. And Mississippi State drove relentlessly, intent on snatching a victory away from the defending national champions.


Chris Relf comes up short on the final play of the game/Todd Van EmstWith 24 seconds left, Mississippi State faced second-and-five at the Auburn 8, trailing 41-34. Tailback Vick Ballard sprinted to his right and drove for the end zone. He went airborne, coming up just short. It was first-and-goal at the 1. Eighteen seconds remained.

What happened in those 18 seconds sent the Jordan-Hare crowd into full celebration mode. It was a goal line stand that will live in Auburn lore.

On first down, Ballard got a handoff, but sophomore linebacker Jake Holland and safety Neiko Thorpe hit him hard. They were joined by teammates and Ballard went down at the 2. Ten seconds remained.

After an Auburn timeout, it was down to one play. Mississippi State needed just six feet to send the game into overtime or maybe even win. Chris Relf, Mississippi State’s 6-foot-4, 245-pound quarterback, took the snap, went to his left and turned hard upfield.

But sophomore Auburn safety Ryan Smith cam even harder. He threw himself into Relf’s legs so hard that Relf went straight down, helmet first, and hit the ground inches short of the goal line. As the noise from the crowd grew louder and louder, the final seconds ticked off the clock.

Auburn had won 41-34.

The defending national champions, stung by being dropped out of the Associated Press poll days earlier and by being labeled an underdog on their home field, had made their point against No. 17 Mississippi State.

Nothing approaching perfection had come to this party. Mississippi State had run 97 plays, 38 more than Auburn, had made 31 first downs, rushed for 333 yards and had 531 yards total offense. Auburn gave up 11-of-20 third-down conversions, many of them long-yardage.

But the longest yard was the one the Bulldogs couldn’t make at the end.

“That was a brawl out there today,” Auburn coach Gene Chizik said. “It was hot. It was physical. Both sides were tired. It became one of those old heavyweight fights. It was the last man standing.”

And for the 17th consecutive time, it was Auburn that was standing at the end.

Relf said he thought he had enough room to get into the end zone. He was wrong. Barely.

“I was looking at the corner coming upfield, so I was going to take it in,” Relf said. “The guy (Smith) came back-side and chopped me. It was just a matter of inches. I had the option to pitch, but the corner came upfield. I just didn’t get it in.”

The Tigers, who beat Utah State 42-38 with a miraculous rally a week earlier, found another way to beat Mississippi State. But they moved to 2-0 and surely are poised to climb in the coaches poll and move back into the Associated Press poll.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled with a win against an extremely good football team,” Chizik said. “That was a very confident team, a very productive team, very well-coached, a lot of veterans. We beat a good football team today. It’s that simple.”

Mississippi State came to town as a media darling, a 7-point favorite over a team it had beaten once in 10 years.

Auburn jumped out 14-0 on a 35-yard Mike Dyer run and a 43-yard interception return by Demetruce McNeal. Mississippi State went up 21-14, the go-ahead touchdown coming on an interception of an ill-advised Barrett Trotter pass. But from that point until the final half of the fourth quarter, Auburn’s defense gave better than it got. Trotter hit Emory Blake for a 46-yard touchdown and Dyer ran two yards for a touchdown. Cody Parkey kicked the first two field goals of his college career. After Trotter hit Philip
Lutzenkirchen with a 10-yard touchdown pass with 14:03 left in the game, it was 41-27 and the Tigers were in control. Or so it seemed.

But Mississippi State charged 83 yards in 12 plays to make it 41-34 with 4:51 left. Auburn’s offense couldn’t the first down it needed to put the Bulldogs down for the count, and they went marching again from their own 33, setting the stage for the drama in the final seconds.

Dyer ran for 150 yards for Auburn. Relf, who played at Montgomery’s Carver High School but attracted no interest from Auburn, ran for 106 yards on 27 tough carries.

Trotter, in his second start, completed 16-of-23 passes for 146 yards and two touchdowns. Ballard ran for 135 yards, most of them late, for Mississippi State. Blake caught seven passes for a career-high 108 yards. Auburn’s special teams came up big for the second consecutive week. Freshman Tre Mason had 172 yards on four kickoff returns. Cody Parkey kicked his first two career field goals from 43 and 37 yards and four touchbacks on kickoffs. Steven Clark averaged 45.7 yards per punt.

But in the end the game wasn’t about numbers. It was having what it took to make a play when it had to be made.

Auburn had it. And Auburn won the game.