Posted on 11/28/2005 5:33:54 PM PST by somniferum
Jerious Norwood backed up his coach's big talk.
Norwood scored four touchdowns in his final game at Mississippi State, leading the host Bulldogs to a 35-14 victory against rival Mississippi on Saturday in the Egg Bowl.
His big performance came after coach Sylvester Croom spiced up the rivalry when he said ''we're going to beat their butt,'' then stuck by those strong words in the days before the game.
Norwood rushed for 204 yards and three touchdowns on 34 carries, and caught a 5-yard scoring pass from Mike Henig in leading the worst offense in the Southeastern Conference to 409 total yards -- 146 more than its average.
He scored on runs of 1, 2 and 33 yards in surpassing 200 yards rushing for the second time this season, and helped Mississippi State outrush Ole Miss 304-31. The Bulldogs (3-8, 1-7) won the Battle for the Golden Egg for the first time since 2001.
''We own Mississippi,'' receiver Omarr Conner said. ``We're a program on the rise. If this doesn't make you believe, then you're in the wrong place.''
Flashbulbs popped, cowbells clanged and the Bulldogs hopped up and down at midfield before hoisting the 78-year-old, gold-plated Golden Egg trophy.
And after his team backed up his strong comments, Croom refused to back off of them.
''I said it. I meant it,'' he said.
Norwood briefly left the game with leg cramps on the fifth play of the third quarter. He returned for the final play of the quarter and keyed two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter.
''Sometimes you have to play through that kind of pain,'' Norwood said. ``I didn't think I would come back that strong.''
Ole Miss finished 3-8, 1-7.
(Excerpt) Read more at miami.com ...
Egg bowl ping
Next year and the year after will be big ones for Croom. The time is arriving where it will be his team and not Sherill's.
This should be in breaking news ping.
ROFLOL
and just what do you find so funny may I ask? :>)
I'm pessimistic about State. They lost several games this year that they should have won. I wonder if Croom's penchant for playing musical positions doesn't allow his players enough time to grow into their current positions.
Hmmm.
Ole Miss = 3 wins
Mississippi State = 3 wins
Southern Miss = 6 wins
OM + MSU = USM?
*snort* Go Golden Eagles!
The Egg Bowl is a nickname given to the annual college football game between Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss"). The official name of the game is "The Battle for the Golden Egg." The name derives from a large trophy which has been awarded to the winning team each year since the 1920s. The trophy consists of a large football-shaped brass piece mounted to a wooden base and traditionally symbolizes supremacy in college football in the state of Mississippi for the year (although there is now a third Division I-A team in the state, the University of Southern Mississippi, that is often competitive with Ole Miss and MSU). The footballs used in American football in the 1920s were considerably more ovoid and blunter than those in use today and similar to the balls still used in rugby; the shape of the football on the trophy naturally depicts a football from the era when the trophy was first awarded. The trophy thus to modern eyes more resembles an egg than a football; for many years the game has thus been called the "Egg Bowl" and the "Battle for the Golden Egg".
The game is a typical example of the intrastate rivalries between several public universities in the U.S.. These games are usually between a state's so-called "flagship university", usually the one bearing the state's name alone, and the land-grant university, often styled as "State University". The "flagship schools" usually tend to educate the children of urban, sophisticated, and wealthy citizens who are socially prominent in liberal arts and pre-professional programs (particularly "pre-law" and "pre-med"); the land-grant institutions, established to teach especially agriculture, engineering, and military science, generally appeal to the offspring of the residents of rural areas and small towns, often catering to young people who are the first members of their families to go to college. While this is obviously a vast, somewhat stereotypical oversimplification and there are many exceptions to these generalities, there is a core of truth that plays into such rivalries, and the Ole Miss-MSU one is no exception. Like most such rivalries, it is contested at the end of the regular season, in this case on Thanksgiving weekend, sometimes on Thanksgiving Day (or, in recent years, Thanksgiving Night) itself. At one point the level of rivalry was such that a victory by one of the schools in this game could salvage what had otherwise been a poor season; this was proven not to be the current case when in 2004 Ole Miss won the game and fired its coach, David Cutcliffe, the next week.
For many years this game was contested at Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson, which seats approximately 62,000 spectators. There were several reasons behind this. Largely, it was the only venue in the state capable of seating the anticipated crowd; for many years Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford seated only about 32,000 and Scott Field in Starkville seated only about 41,000. Both have been considerably expanded and are now capable of accommodating the crowds which can realistically be expected, and both on-campus venues have been continually upgraded to the point where they are actually superior in amenities to Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium, so the decision was made to move the game into a home-and-home series in the 1990s. It was decided that the on-campus atmosphere is generally a better one; the game is now more useful for both schools as a recruiting tool, and this has the additional advantage of only requiring the bulk of one team's core fan base to make a road trip rather than both of them as was previously the case.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egg_Bowl"
State did win in 2001, not like this was ages ago.
the more I think about it, though, the more it makes sense for USM. the golden eagles should use their few out of conference slots to play the likes of nebraska, cal, and VT (next year).
I do respect the USM program, with which Bower has done an admirable job, but all the chest-puffing gets mighty old. Let them play an SEC schedule instead of CUSA, and see how things turn out for them. Neither Ole Miss nor State plays them because there's nothing to gain and everything to lose by doing so.
MM
Remember, along with the SEC schedule, we'd have improvements in recruiting and that BCS welfare check.
I like our chances.
and you're protesting "chest-puffing" by more chest-puffing . . .
"...Bulldogs to a 35-14 victory against rival Mississippi on Saturday in the Egg Bowl."
Is this a sign of the end times? ;o)
"This should be in breaking news ping."
LOLOL!
Funny ping. ;o)
"...cowbells clanged..."
Are the cowbells back?
If so...yippeeeee!
They were the BEST part of State sports!
Weren't you the one who was lementing the
demise of the cowbells with me, wardaddy?
Yes, the cowbells are back with a vengeance. I was at the game and there were so many cowbells ringing in the student section that you couldnt hear yourself think!
It was one of the most fun games I have ever been to, which was especially cool since it was my last game as a State student :)
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