Mississippi State Stuns Florida to End Streak

The latest low point in Ron Zook’s tenure at Florida even has the coach wondering what went wrong.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Croom’s first big victory at Mississippi State has given the Bulldogs and their fans a reason to believe in their first-year coach.

Jerious Norwood’s 37-yard touchdown run with 32 seconds remaining lifted the Bulldogs to a 38-31 upset of the 20th-ranked Gators on Saturday.

“This is embarrassing for us,” Zook said. “We thought we were ready to play.”

Norwood rushed for 174 yards in 29 carries and scored twice for the Bulldogs (2-5, 1-3 Southeastern Conference), who had lost five in a row since beating Tulane in their first game under Croom, the first black head coach in SEC history.

“This is just the beginning,” Croom said. “We’re building to a championship program.”

Jeramie Johnson set up Norwood’s game-winner when he intercepted Chris Leak at the Mississippi State 44 with two minutes remaining.

“All that we had done to that point basically came down to one play,” Croom said. “We had to have the ball back because the one thing I did not want to do was go into overtime.”

After four running plays moved the ball to the 37, Norwood took the handoff around left end, spun past a defender, then ran through another Gator at the goal line.

“I just ran to the open space,” Norwood said. “Next thing I knew, I was in the secondary, and after that, I was in the end zone.”

Florida (4-3, 2-3) couldn’t get out of its own end on its final possession, and tried some trickery on its last play.

Leak passed to Dallas Baker, who lateraled to O.J. Small. He pitched back to Leak, who fumbled, and Willie Evans recovered as time expired to set off a raucous celebration. Cowbells clanged, and fans stormed the field at the buzzer and tore down one of the goal posts.

It was reminiscent of Florida’s last trip to Starkville in 2000, when the Gators’ 72-game streak against unranked opponents ended in a 47-35 loss.

That was under Coach Steve Spurrier, when it was big news almost any time the Gators lost. Florida hasn’t been as tough to beat under Zook, who was 8-5 in each of his first two seasons after replacing Spurrier.