100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 64 Days - 64 Bulldog wins in the 1990s

Jeff Lebby’s era of Mississippi State football has arrived.

The Bulldogs are on their third coach in as many years as Mike Leach’s tragic passing opened the door for defensive coordinator Zach Arnett’s debut as head coach last year. That experiment failed before the year even ended for State and now it’s Lebby’s turn to take the wheel.

While there is always a risk in hiring first time head coaches, Lebby brings to Starkville an exciting offensive scheme that has been productive everywhere he’s been. The coach has also brought with him some swagger that has the fanbase ready to see what’s next.

Over the course of the next 100 days, we will take a look at Lebby’s roster and even some fun historical rewinds that will bring back memories for Dawg fans of all ages.

Today, we look back at one of MSU’s greatest decades in football.

100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 64 Days – 64 Bulldog wins in the 1990s  

To be frank, MSU was at the bottom of the Southeastern Conference totem pole after nearly 100 years of football and it didn’t appear it was getting any better as they moved from the 1980’s into the ‘90s.

There had been 37 winning seasons in 90 years of football in Starkville and only a couple of those teams even came close to winning an SEC Championship with Allyn McKeen’s squads being highly competitive and bringing home the school’s only title in 1941. The decision to fire McKeen during the winningest stretch in the history of the school felt like a curse put on the program and they felt it as they participated in four bowl games over the course of 40 years following that firing.

Former player Rockey Felker did his best to sustain some success at the end of the 1980’s but couldn’t build on a six-win opening season in 1986 and the Bulldogs won 15 games in four years as Felker ended his tenure in 1990.

Finally, MSU found some stability.

After nine coaches in four decades, the ‘90s would belong to Jackie Sherrill. MSU had seen coaches like Darrel Royal and Murray Warmath leave Starkville and produce at a high level elsewhere but they finally had a coach that had a pedigree coming to their own campus. Sherrill had incredible success at Pittsburgh where he went 50-9 in five seasons and was a perennial top 10 team each year.

From there, Sherrill was back in his roots down south. A former player at Alabama under Bear Bryant, Sherrill took over one of Bryant’s former teams at Texas A&M. He started slow, with only one winning season in his first three years but in 1985, Sherrill began a string of three-straight Southwest Conference championships. The Aggies won 10, 9 and 10 games from ’85-87 and went to the Cotton Bowl three years in a row with two wins.

NCAA probation came to College Station in ’88, and though he wasn’t held responsible, Sherrill stepped down as head coach. MSU would be his new home a couple of years later after stepping away from football, and Sherrill was rejuvenated.

The rejuvenation was evident right out of the gates. Sherrill’s Bulldogs plowed through Cal State Fullerton in his first game 47-3 and then had a major test coming to Scott Field in the form of the No. 13 Texas Longhorns. State took down the Longhorns 13-6 and followed that up with a thorough beating of Tulane 48-0 for a hot 3-0 start.

State couldn’t hold up all season, but they were clearly a rising squad in the SEC under Sherrill as they finished the year 7-5 and 4-3 in the SEC with their first bowl game in 10 years against Air Force in the Liberty Bowl.

Sherrill followed up a seven-win year in ’91 with another one in ’92. Included in that season was State marching to Austin and giving Texas another loss with a 28-10 win, just days after Sherrill had a live bull castrated on the practice fields at MSU. The Bulldogs were becoming regulars in the top 25 that season and earned a win over No. 13 Florida but finished the year on a sour note with three-straight losses to other top-25 foes: Alabama, Ole Miss and North Carolina in the Peach Bowl.

Sandwiched between losing seasons in 1993 and 1995 was an 8-4 1994. The Bulldogs triumphed No. 23 Tennessee and freshman quarterback Peyton Manning and earned an Egg Bowl win over Ole Miss on the road as they rose to as high as No. 19 nationally. But pressure began to build on Sherrill after he had three losing seasons in four years, and he came into 1997 having to prove himself.

’97 was an interesting year for the Bulldogs. State had a good team. The Bulldogs went 7-4 and 4-4 in the SEC, they went through a brutal stretch late in the year with wins on the road at Auburn and Alabama and they were on the verge of another Egg Bowl win at home before a two-point conversion in the final seconds spoiled it.

After that run, State was left out of bowl contention. However, the administration, Sherrill, the players and fans knew that big things were on the way.

1998 would be one of the best years in MSU history. State reeled off dominating conference wins over Vanderbilt, South Carolina and Auburn to start the year and the defense was emerging as one of the best in the country under Joe Lee Dunn. State’s relentless pursuit to the ball was starting to turn heads and the swagger on the field was undeniable.

As State came into the final stretch of games, they carried a 3-2 conference mark. They needed to close strong to compete for a conference title and they would do just that. It began with an unprecedented third-consecutive win over Alabama. In one of the most memorable moments of Bulldog lore, Brian Hazelwood sailed a game-winning field goal through the uprights and State beat No. 9 Arkansas to firmly stake claim in the Western Division. The Bulldogs finished things off on Thanksgiving with a 28-6 whooping of Ole Miss and they were headed to Atlanta for the SEC Championship.

It was the first trip ever for MSU to the SEC Title game after the conference put the event into play in 1992. They were playing for their first outright title since the ’41 season under McKeen and it felt like the curse was officially broken. Though MSU would fall just short of the title against the eventual national champs at Tennessee, they had arrived and they finished the year 8-5.

Back to McKeen, State hadn’t had a 10-win season since ’40. They would change that in ’99. The rugged Bulldogs were no longer at the bottom of the totem pole- they were at the top and they played like it. MSU rushed out to a school-record 8-0 start and holding opponents to an average of 12 points a game. There were unforgettable moments like Matt Wyatt leading a comeback charge on the road against Auburn, Rod Gibson’s controversial dive into the end zone to beat LSU, Scott Westerfield’s game-winner against Kentucky and the tip, kick and pick against Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl.

It all culminated with MSU finishing the year and the decade off with a bang with a 10-2 record and back-to-back 6-2 marks in the SEC. They fell short of another SEC Title appearance, but Sherrill won his first bowl game as a Bulldog coach when MSU beat Clemson 17-7 in the Peach Bowl.

The ‘90s set the stage for what would come 10 years later when MSU erased its past and came to the forefront in the SEC and nationally as a top-25 regular. In many ways, Sherrill turned the tide of MSU football but also MSU athletics. The ‘90s started a trend of success across multiple sports that will go down as one of the greatest decades in the history of MSU athletics.