100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 86 Days - Flashing back to Rockey Felker's year one at MSU

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 an MSU legend who returned home to coach the Dawgs in 1986.  

100 Day Bulldog Countdown: 86 Days – Flashing back to Rockey Felker’s year one at MSU

A young boy from Jackson, Tenn., landed in Starkville to play football and he ended up staying for most of his life after that. Felker became the Bulldog quarterback under Charlie Shira and Bob Tyler in the early 1970’s and made MSU a winner as the SEC Player of the Year at quarterback.

Felker’s senior year saw him lead the team to a 9-3 record and the team’s first Egg Bowl victory in three years earning him legendary status among many of the MSU faithful. That status would only intensify after he finished his career with an NFL Draft selection and went into coaching.

After spending 10 years as an assistant coach at MSU, Texas Tech, Memphis and Alabama, Felker came home and replaced Emory Bellard in 1986. He rejuvenated the fanbase as one of their own had taken over and was going to bring hope and prosperity to Starkville again after four-straight losing seasons.

It couldn’t have started much better for Felker in his first year. State went to Syracuse and Tennessee out of the jump and earned upsets The win over the Vols especially rang true to State fans across the country. UT were defending SEC Champions and one of the teams to beat in the conference again in 1986. A 62-yard touchdown run from quarterback Don Smith still resonates with the MSU faithful as they think back to that memorable day at Neyland Stadium.

A loss to Southern Miss in game three couldn’t slow them down too badly as they beat Florida, Memphis, Arkansas State and Tulane to jump inside the top 25. Unfortunately, the back-half of the schedule wasn’t as kind. Felker’s team lost four-straight games. Three of them were to ranked opponents Auburn, Alabama and LSU and then the team lost a 24-3 ball game to Ole Miss at Jackson. They finished 6-5 but sent quarterback Smith off on a strong note.

It wasn’t until Dak Prescott came along that Smith would be passed as the school’s all-time leader in total offense with his 7,097 yards. He moved down to three behind Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald over the last few years, but he still has his career stamped across the record books and it’s thanks in large part to his final year on campus under Felker.

Felker couldn’t replicate the success he had in year one the rest of the way. He finished with four-straight losing seasons after that six-win opening year and had a 21-34 record overall with just five wins. After being replaced by Jackie Sherrill in 1991, Felker moved on to run the offense at Tulsa and Arkansas before coming back and joining Sherrill’s staff in 2002 as a member of football operations. He spent time on Sylvester Croom and Dan Mullen’s staff before retiring in 2017.

For over five decades, Felker has called Starkville and MSU home and he’s been humble in success and gracious in defeat. Not many can call themselves true maroon quite like Rockey.