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Mississippi St. Outlasts UCF

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By CHRIS TALBOTT, The Associated Press

Published: December 30, 2007

Updated: 12/30/2007 12:33 am

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Mississippi State's win in the Liberty Bowl was the kind of game Coach Sylvester Croom's mentor would have loved.

Playing at the site of the Paul "Bear" Bryant's final game 25 years ago, the Bulldogs used power running and a dominant defense to beat Central Florida 10-3 on Saturday and earn a milestone win for the once dormant program.

"I've said quite often we don't need style points," said Croom, the Southeastern Conference coach of the year who played and coached under Bryant at Alabama for 11 seasons. "We just find a way to win."
Anthony Dixon powered in from the 1 for the winning touchdown with 1:54 to go and most valuable player Derek Pegues picked off two passes in a game featuring 17 punts.

The Bulldogs (8-5) kept the Knights (10-4) out of the end zone and Kevin Smith from breaking the single-season rushing record. The junior finished with 119 yards, leaving him 61 shy of Barry Sanders' mark of 2,628 yards set for Oklahoma State in 1988.

"I was trying to find the holes, but they were playing faster than us," said Smith, who has already said he will return for his senior season.

It was the lowest scoring Liberty Bowl since Penn State beat Tulane 9-6 in 1979, but the pro-Mississippi State record crowd of 63,816 was rewarded for its patience as Dixon and the Bulldogs offense came alive late in the fourth quarter.

Croom, in his fourth season with Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs have played this way all year, resurrecting a program that hadn't won more than three games in six seasons.

As the Bulldogs did in big wins against Auburn, Kentucky and Alabama this season, they concentrated on the running game - both on offense and defense. Smith found the going difficult in the second half and finished with an average of 3.4 yards per carry after rushing for 188.3 yards per game during the regular season.

"One thing about Mississippi State football is we pride ourselves in stopping the run, and I feel like we went out and showed the world how physical and how tough the defense is," defensive end Titus Brown said.

Dixon finished with 86 yards and became the seventh Bulldogs runner to go over 1,000 yards (1,066). But like the rest of the Bulldogs, he was ineffective much of the game.

The teams were tied 3-3 at halftime, mostly due to conservative play-calling and poor play from the quarterbacks. Passes were rarely aimed more than 5 yards downfield, and when they were thrown deep they were dropped or picked off.

Neither team converted a third down in the first half (0-for-16).

Central Florida's Kyle Israel had 12 yards passing and two interceptions by halftime and Mississippi State's Wes Carroll had 15 yards and an interception. UCF also didn't get much help from kicker Michael Torres, who gave the Knights a 3-0 lead in the second quarter with a 45-yard field goal, but missed from 32 and 37 in the second half.

"I think those missed field goals were big momentum breakers," Central Florida coach George O'Leary said. "Give Mississippi State credit. They fought hard and didn't turn the ball over. That usually means you're going to come up with a close win like that."

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