Toughing It Out – Mississippi State

STARKVILLE – It was back on August 27 – a week before Mississippi State’s season started – when Bulldogs head coach Mike Leach gathered his team near the home sideline at Davis Wade Stadium. In the middle of a scrimmage session, Leach had an important message to deliver.

It was likely at some point in the year to come that MSU might run into an overtime situation. Leach emphatically expressed his expectations for his squad.

“Team after team after team, when it hits overtime, there is disarray on their sideline. There is not disarray on ours,” Leach told his players at the time. “We already know what we’re going to do…It doesn’t matter what happened before overtime, good or bad. When you get to overtime, win the game. That’s it. You’re locked in. We don’t have anybody moping about some last play or thinking they’re some hot shot because of some big play. All you’re thinking about is winning.”

Ten weeks later, it happened. Lo and behold, the Dawgs remembered their lesson from late August.

On Saturday, in 60 wild minutes of football, State built a big lead over Auburn, saw it disappear, then rallied to give itself an overtime chance. And if it’s a war of attrition these Dawgs have to fight, well you best not be against them. They’ll out-tough you just about every single time.

“I think it speaks a lot about the players and the coaches that we have here that when it’s time to make a play and it’s the fourth quarter or overtime or something, when it’s time to make a play, we’re going to make the play,” MSU quarterback Will Rogers said.

State indeed made the plays when they counted. The Bulldogs topped the Tigers 39-33 in overtime. Now ideally, the game wouldn’t have taken extra time. MSU saw a 24-3 lead get away, then had to stage a couple of late comebacks of its own just to earn new life.

But despite a few self-inflicted wounds and despite an energized Auburn team motivated by a newly-named interim head coach whose group had all the late momentum, Mississippi State refused to give in. It’s not in the Bulldogs’ nature.

“Wins are hard, no matter who you are,” Leach said. “Sometimes there’s games like that. The toughest team sticks in there, battles through and wins. I did feel like that was the case. I do think we have some things to address…But we were tough enough to fight through some awfully…