What a game! I went to the game today fully expecting a loss–a significant loss. The Bulldogs have been trying but I just didn’t think they were up for the job. Then we scored first. I was happy and commented that Florida may well win but at least we scored, and scored first. Then we went into the half with the lead and I knew Florida was going to get some serious butt chewing from their coach and I fully expected a brand new Florida for the second half. It never happened.

Somewhere in the third quarter I commented to my wife that I thought we just might win this game. She didn’t believe me and, had others been there that I usually talk to, they wouldn’t have believed me either. Well it was close, there were times I thought I saw overtime in the future, but we pulled it off. And what a sweet win it was. Croom deserved a major win and the team was playing the best I’ve seen in over a year. They wanted to win and it showed.

Why? Why were the Bulldogs able to pull this one off? I think part of it that Croom is finally starting to sink into the team. He keeps talking attitude and discipline and it seems like it is sinking in to the player’s heads. If you believe you can win you may not win, but if don’t believe you can win then you certainly won’t. Croom seems to be getting through.

The other reason was that the officials were not as bad as in the past. Now I know it is not proper to criticize, for some reason that is taboo, but when they are bad they are bad. The last game we played against the University of Alabama Birmingham, they were awful. Today they missed some calls but they were much fairer. While there is truth in the statement that officials do not win or lose games, there is also truth that they have an impact. In past games, some bone-headed calls have broken the MSU momentum and definitely affected the outcome of the game. Today that didn’t happen. The calls that were made needed to be made and they did result in a little loss of momentum but the team got it back. If the officials are not seeing things no one else can see, and when they are not blatantly biased, then the Bulldogs have a shot.

I hate the crowd was not larger. The students seemed to come out sometime during the first half and I think there were some nearby tailgaters who came in once we scored. I’ve been a Bulldog fan long enough to know that you never know. We have been an excellent team in the past and lost to absolute nobodies. We’ve been pretty bad in the past and we’ve beaten some really good teams. You just never know. That is why all bets are always off for the Egg Bowl; you never know what will happen when Mississippi State plays the University of Mississippi. Of course I will not see that game in person having sworn off ever attending an athletic event on the University of Mississippi campus after encountering some of the rudest, drunkest, most obnoxious fans of life a few years ago. And that was when they won!

Now, just a few more games to go before the end of the season is upon us. And of course the NCAA sanctions that are due soon.