Sep. 2—Every week, our Mississippi State athletics reporter Stefan Krajisnik will provide a ‘rewatchable’ in which he’ll reach into the archives and find a game, play or moment relevant to that week’s upcoming matchup for MSU and relive it. Ahead of Week 1, here’s a look back at an unforgettable moment from a 2017 game between Mississippi State and Louisiana Tech.
STARKVILLE — C.J. Morgan has seen all things Mississippi State football since he arrived as a freshman in 2016.
From a “peeing dog” celebration costing Ole Miss an Egg Bowl to a pandemic giving him another year of eligibility following a season-ending injury in 2019, Morgan has developed into the old guy in the locker room leading with wisdom.
But through all those memories, few if any can spark this reaction:
“That’ll definitely be something I remember until the day I die,” Morgan says. “For real.”
Morgan is reflecting on a play from Sept. 9, 2017, when Mississippi State was on the road taking on Louisiana Tech — the team it welcomes to Starkville on Saturday for its 2021 season opener.
MSU had a 57-14 edge early in the fourth quarter with La. Tech in a second-and-goal situation just six yards from the end zone.
It appeared La. Tech was approaching a rare, positive moment in the game, until Ethan Reed’s snap shot by the head of quarterback, J’Mar Smith.
Upon review, Smith quickly appears ready to recover it for only a 20-yard loss.
Until he doesn’t.
Smith tries to slide and secure the football, but instead the ball just ricochets off his body and keeps moving away from the line of scrimmage.
Four MSU defenders — Morgan, Maurice Smitherman, Marquiss Spencer and Tre Brown — are the only players in the CBS Sports frame along with Smith, who is still laying on the ground. The ball is at the feet of Smitherman with 70 yards of open grass in front of him.
He tries to pick it up, but instead Smitherman boots it another 10 yards. He still has a chance to redeem himself, but Spencer goes after the ball at the same time and the two look like kids kicking the same rock on their walk home from elementary school.
Spencer falls while Smitherman stays with it, but you know where this is headed.
“The greased pig,” is how CBS Sports play-by-play announcer Carter Blackburn described the football.
Smitherman misses it once more as the ball moves over to the feet of Morgan who auditions for starting punter — twice.
“Every time I go home, I see one of my friends from La. Tech and they never let me live it down,” the Bossier City, Louisiana, native Morgan said. “Neither does my family.”
Morgan’s second kick rolls 30 yards before Willie Gay Jr. makes a Harry Houdini appearance in the screen running alongside La. Tech’s Cee Jay Powell.
Powell recovers the ball at La. Tech’s 7-yard line.
“Looked worse than Liverpool did this morning,” then-MSU coach Dan Mullen said postgame, alluding to Liverpool’s 5-0 loss to Manchester City in English soccer play.
Good news for La. Tech: it recovered the ball in a goal-to-go situation.
Bad news for La. Tech: it’s third-and-93.
MSU receiver Austin Williams redshirted his true freshman season in 2017, but he’s one of the few remaining players who remembers the chaos.
“That was wild,” Williams said. “It went viral on Twitter, all that, ESPN. It didn’t seem real almost. It just kept on going, but that was something for the books.”
The third-and-93 awaiting La. Tech is believed to be the longest down and distance in college football.
Mississippi State’s defense appears the greatest in forcing these insurmountable situations.
Before third-and 93, the record was believed to be a third-and-57 caused by two poor snaps over then-Florida quarterback Rex Grossman’s head inside MSU’s Davis Wade Stadium.
Georgia tied that effort in 2011. It faced three holding penalties, a personal foul and a 1-yard loss on a running play to gives itself third-and-57 in a game against Tennessee.
Louisiana Tech rebounded against MSU with a gain of 21 yards for a slightly more manageable fourth-and-72.