Dan Mullen shares favorite Egg Bowl memory from coaching days

Now in the booth at ESPN after a four-year stint coaching at Florida, former Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen has a bit more time to reflect back on his coaching days. And ahead of a Thanksgiving Day slate of games that will pit Mississippi State and Ole Miss against each other in the first of many heated rivalry-week showdowns, Mullen recalled his favorite Egg Bowl memory.

It was in 2013, his fifth year in charge of the Bulldogs.

“I remember a Thanksgiving night, an interesting deal we were playing, we had to win to get bowl eligible,” Mullen explained. “Ole Miss was a really good team that year. We were going to have to play our third-string quarterback. Damian Williams was going to be playing as a true freshman.

“Dak Prescott had this really weird nerve injury that he had suffered a couple weeks earlier and he could not lift his arm for weeks. And the doctor said, ‘Hey, there’s really no chance. If we’re able to win, he might be able to come back for a bowl game.'”

It's rivalry week in CFB and the classic Egg Bowl match-up between @OleMissFB and @HailStateFB will be on ESPNU Radio Channel 84 Thursday night at 7 PM ET.

Former MSU head coach @CoachDanMullen shared one of his favorite Egg Bowl memories of @dak this week on Full Ride. pic.twitter.com/7WfK4z90Ie

— College Sports on SiriusXM (@SXMCollege) November 23, 2022

Fate would have other things in store for an Egg Bowl that became an instant classic.

With Mississippi State trailing 10-7 in the fourth quarter and Williams at just 82 yards passing with an interception, Mullen turned on the sidelines. Prescott was right there looking at him.

“We’re losing and we get into the fourth quarter of the game and I look at him and he said, ‘Coach, put me in,'” Mullen said. “The place went out of control. We were at home. He was like a Willis Reed coming off the bench.”

Dak Prescott’s ‘miracle’ recovery created indelible Egg Bowl memory

So how exactly did Prescott end up playing at the last second?

As Mullen describes it, it was a ‘miracle.’ Prescott hadn’t played in the team’s previous two games due to the nerve injury in his non-throwing shoulder.

An update from a specialist just before the game changed everything against the Rebels.

“Right before the game they came to us and the doctor that went to see him, the nerve specialist came in and said, ‘There’s no medical explanation for this, but it’s a miracle. I’m going to clear him to play the game. Like he might be able to play one play and be out, but medically safe, it might just go back and reaggravate, he might not be able to use his arm again. But he’s not going to be injured worse,'” Mullen explained.

Even then, Mullen wasn’t sold.

“So we kind of sat him,” Mullen said. “I said, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to do that.'”

But with the game on the line and Prescott urging him to make the move, Mullen caved. The rest, as they say, is history.

Prescott led the Bulldogs on a drive to kick a game-tying field goal, then scored a touchdown in overtime, helping Mississippi State claim a 17-10 win to earn its bowl eligibility.

“He came in and he led us to a couple of touchdowns,” Mullen said. “He scored running the ball in in overtime. And an unbelievable play by a guy named Nickoe Whitley to knock a ball out of the quarterback’s hand running into the end zone for us to recover it. It was an unbelievable scene of Dak Prescott and a miracle of him being able to play in that game.”

Will we get another unforgettable Egg Bowl moment on Thanksgiving Day this time around?

That remains to be seen, but Mullen loves the game being on America’s big day.

“It means everything and the game being played on Thanksgiving night is fantastic,” Mullen said. “I just think it makes it so much more of a special deal.”