SEC Review, Week 12: A lone cowbell at Mississippi State, but Hogs prevail

story by Chris Rushing, College Sports Matchups (CSM is a content partner with The City Wire)
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Nick Bell would have been proud.

With a picturesque backdrop surrounding Davis-Wade Stadium, the public address announcer requested a moment of silence from the packed stands to honor the former MSU defensive end, who lost a tragic battle with cancer earlier this month. After a few seconds of stillness, a lone cowbell began to ring.

The gargantuan jumbotron had live video of Bell’s mother, Linda Bell, ringing that solitary cowbell. Soon, the crowd joined in. There were not many dry eyes left in the stadium when the moment had passed.

Like I said, Nick Bell would have been proud.

Of course, that wasn’t all that was on the docket for Saturday night. We had a little football action to tend to as well.

In one of the most entertaining contests I’ve attended this season, Arkansas football kept its Bowl Championship Series bowl berth hopes alive with a thrilling 38-31 victory over Mississippi State football in double-overtime. The Razorbacks needed a couple of huge plays from running back Knile Davis and Ryan Mallett, but it was enough to escape Scott Field with their ninth triumph in 11 tries.

Elsewhere, Les Miles ate some more grass and drew up another closer-than-expected win, this one coming at the expense of Houston Nutt and the Ole Miss football Rebels.

Derek Dooley got his troops one game closer to reaching the postseason in his first year at the helm as Tennessee football edged out ahead of Vanderbilt football. Florida football unleashed some frustrations on Appalachian State.

We’ll have updates on these and some bowl projections later on, but for now, let’s get back to the MSU-Arkansas tilt.

Can you believe that State ran 100 plays from scrimmage? That’s insane. I was there, but I would have never guessed that many snaps were taken by Chris Relf. Also, how about that clock management at the end of regulation from Dan Mullen? Getting the field goal unit on the field and set with time continuously clicking away was a thing of beauty.

Several MSU supporters I have talked to were a little down that Mullen didn’t attempt at least one pass into the end zone on the final drive that culminated in the game-tying field goal at the conclusion of regulation. With the way the crowd was amped and all the momentum on MSU’s side, I don’t disagree with Mullen’s call to get the field goal. It’s never ideal to play for overtime at home, but in this case, it was absolutely the correct decision – despite the outcome.

However, this was a game that the Bulldogs could have (and arguably should have) won. I got a text message from an Arkansas buddy during the fourth quarter that stated: “I don’t care how, I just want us to get out of here with a win.” Mallett wasn’t on his A-game, but that was still good enough to rack up another 300-plus (305 to be exact) yard night in the air.

The real story, though, was the tough runs that Davis rattled off. State prides itself on a very physical ground defense, and Davis definitely earned every one of his 187 yards as the sophomore tailback eclipsed the 1,000-yard plateau for the year. His first quarter 62-yard score was a thing of beauty as he bounced outside and raced down the Arkansas sideline untouched.
 
Davis almost was the goat of the night, however, after fumbling away possession of the pigskin with the Hogs clinging to a 31-28 lead with less than two minutes remaining. If UA holds onto the ball and gets another first down, the two overtimes would not have been necessary.

Of course, Davis made up for it when he grabbed Mallett’s final throw of the night and slipped into the endzone in the second overtime to provide the winning margin of 38-31.

Davis provides Bobby Petrino another huge weapon, which is even more important after losing such a main playmaker like Greg Childs for the season. It will be difficult for LSU to quiet both the ground and air attacks from Arkansas this upcoming weekend, which is perfectly fine with Petrino and Co.

• Alabama 63, Georgia State 7
The only thing worth reporting on in this one was Bill Curry’s pre-game speech aired by ESPNU.

Curry had me ready to run through a wall after his diatribe to his first-year players. The whole “No one said you could but you did” angle was inspiring. Granted, it didn’t work but this program will make plenty of noise sooner than many experts would have guessed.

Alabama got an easy win and will use some solid performances from Greg McElroy, Mark Ingram and Julio Jones to propel preparations for No. 2-ranked Auburn.

• Florida 48, Appalachian State 10
Not going to spend very much time on this, but after such a pitiful performance the prior weekend against South Carolina, this is just the output Gator fans were hoping for from Steve Addazio’s offense as UF prepares for the Florida State showdown.

John Brantley was 16-of-22 for 222 yards and Jordan Reed added three rushing scores on 11 carries for the Gators. It’s hard to imagine how impressive the UF offense will be in a couple of years when guys like Trey Burton and Reed are upperclassmen.

• South Carolina 69, Troy 24
This game was ugly from the get-go. Troy could do absolutely nothing right in Williams-Brice Stadium, while South Carolina football could do no wrong.

The Gamecocks produced 28 points in each of the first two quarters and led 56-7 at the halftime break. A twitter status said it all: “Troy is still not ready to compete at a D-I level.” Of course, the Trojans have pulled their share of upsets and are more than deserving of being a Football Bowl Subdivision, but Larry Blakeney’s squad looked thoroughly overmatched Saturday afternoon.

Two of Marcus Lattimore’s first three touches were touchdowns, and the freshman phenom racked up three on the afternoon via seven carries (102 yards). Not a bad outing for a couple of quarters.

• LSU 43, Ole Miss 36
This game was a wild one as Ole Miss did everything within its power to walk out of Tiger Stadium with a win and its bleak bowl dreams still alive.

However, the Rebels will be the lone Southeastern Conference Western Division team to be home for the holidays after suffering their seventh loss of 2010, this one a 43-36 setback at the hands of LSU. The Tigers’ victory snapped a two-game losing streak to the Rebels.

Jordan Jefferson earned SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors for his career-high 254-yard performance (13-of-17) against the Ole Miss defense. He was 5-of-6 out of the gate as the Bayou Bengals won their sixth game of 2010 with a point margin of a touchdown or less.

Nutt pulled out all the stops, attempting for and achieving first downs on fourth down conversions four times. It appeared as though the game would at least head to overtime after Markeith Summers hauled in a 65-yard scoring strike from Jeremiah Masoli with 4:57 remaining. However, Summers dove into the end zone since he felt it was more necessary than the officials and drew a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct flag which was assessed on the kickoff.

Good field position was made even greater after Patrick Peterson returned the ensuing kick 39 yards and LSU was getting its final drive started just shy of midfield. Just over four minutes later, a 36-35 Ole Miss advantage was turned into a 43-36 LSU lead and victory.

• Tennessee 24, Vanderbilt 10
Tyler Bray continued his strong performance as UT’s starting quarterback with two touchdown passes against Vanderbilt Saturday night as the Vols inched closer to bowl eligibility at 5-6.

Tennessee has now won three-straight with Bray guiding the offense, and the freshman has been lights out after completing 53-of-94 attempts for 880 yards and 10 scores.

The Commodores narrowed the Tennessee advantage to 17-10 after a 16-yard touchdown pass from Jared Funk to Jordan Matthews with 2:33 remaining in the contest. UT recovered the onsides kick attempt and added another seven points with 1:22 to play to secure the 24-10 triumph – its third-straight in the VU series.

• Bowl Projections
BCS Championship Game: Auburn vs. BCS
AllState Sugar Bowl: Arkansas vs. BCS
Capital One Bowl: Alabama vs. Big Ten
Outback Bowl: South Carolina vs. Big Ten
Cotton Bowl: LSU vs. Big Ten
Chick-fil-A Bowl: Mississippi State vs. ACC
Gaylord Hotels Music City Bowl: Tennessee vs. ACC
Liberty Bowl: Kentucky vs. C-USA
Gator Bowl: Florida vs. Big Ten