Remembering the Alabama vs. Mississippi State rivalry before it fades away

You won’t find this week’s matchup in anyone’s top-10 list of college football rivalries. Even calling the annual game between Alabama and Mississippi State a rivalry is debatable.

Since the two teams began playing in 1896, Alabama holds a commanding 87-17-3 advantage. Mississippi State has never won more than three straight games against the Crimson Tide and has recorded consecutive victories just seven times throughout the series. Alabama, on the other hand, strung together 22 straight wins over the Bulldogs from 1958 to1979 and is looking to extend its current streak in the series to 16 games Saturday when it travels to Starkville, Mississippi for an 8 p.m. CT kickoff inside Davis Wade Stadium.

Still, the “Battle for Highway 82” carries its own bit of charm.

Separated by 82 miles, Alabama and Mississippi State are the closest two campuses in the SEC, a refreshing distance in the age of cross-country conference realignment. The other intriguing facet of the series is its consistency. The Bulldogs and Crimson Tide have met in each of the past 75 seasons, a streak that will end after this year when the SEC moves into a division-less format.

That said, you won’t find many people lamenting the loss of this game.

Most Mississippi State fans welcome a reprieve from what has predominantly become an annual humbling from their neighbors to the east. For Alabama fans, the matchup against the Bulldogs has become nothing more than a blip on the radar, generally allowing the Crimson Tide to either lick its wounds after tough losses or prepare for bigger games down the road.

Nick Saban expressed his respect for Mississippi State, calling the Bulldogs the toughest team Alabama has faced since its Week 2 loss to Texas. However, even he wasn’t willing to break away from his methodical mindset this week in order to deliver any type of eulogy for the diminishing rivalry.

“I think there's a time and place to commiserate or celebrate or whatever you want to do relative to rivalries and the changing environment and landscape of college football,” Saban said Monday. “But to me, everything is about this game, our team, trying to get our team better, and get our team to play winning football against a good team. I don't have a lot of thoughts or spend a lot of time, at this time, thinking about those kinds of things.”

Barring a shocking upset from Mississippi State, the “Battle for Highway 82” will take its usual understated role this weekend, as its late-night start time figures to be lost among a slew of better matchups. However, before the rivalry fades away into a sporadic occurrence, it’s worth examining what makes it unique.

Given the stature of both programs, the mindset heading into this matchup is a bit different in Tuscaloosa than it is in Starkville. No one knows that better than Sylvester Croom, who has experienced both sides of the rivalry.

Croom, a Tuscaloosa native, played center for Alabama from 1972-74 before serving as an assistant under his former head coach, Paul “Bear” Bryant, from 1976-86. He later became Mississippi State’s head coach, overseeing the Bulldogs from 2004-08.

During his time as a player and an assistant with the Crimson Tide, Croom went a combined 13-1 against Mississippi State. However, when he thinks back on preparing for the Bulldogs one of the first things that comes to his mind is how Bryant used to stress over the matchup.

“That week was always one of those weeks where as players we were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to win this game,’ but at the same time, Coach Bryant was always worried about our preparation heading into that game,” Croom recalled. “You could tell that, especially when I was coaching for him. Everything was ramped up during that week in order to make sure that we were on point and ready to play the game.”

Saban seems to be taking a similar approach with his players this week, stressing the importance of attention to detail in all of his media availabilities.

On the flip side, Croom had no problem keeping his team focused while preparing for the Crimson Tide during his time as a head coach on the other side of the rivalry. Inheriting a Mississippi State program hampered by NCAA sanctions, he managed to go 2-3 against his alma mater, challenging his players to ignore Alabama’s prestige and tradition while proving themselves with their physicality on the field.

“Our idea was that we would beat them at their own game,” Croom said. “We just wanted to out-hit them for 60 minutes. We thought if we didn’t make a mistake and kept the game close, then hopefully at the end, that we’d be able to force them into a mistake or make a play to win the game.”

That message resonated well with a roster of local players who were primarily overlooked in the recruiting process.

“Half of our team was from either Mississippi or from Alabama,” said Titus Brown, a Tuscaloosa native who served as a standout edge rusher at Mississippi State from 2004-07 after failing to land a scholarship offer from the Crimson Tide out of high school. “We were a closely-recruited team. A lot of guys were like me and didn’t have the opportunity to play for Alabama. A lot of people were fired up to play. No one had to amp us up to play in that game. We already had a fire lit up under us.”

Brown grew up in the shadows of Bryant-Denny Stadium and spent his childhood dreaming of suiting up for the Crimson Tide. He was 5 years old when Gene Stallings led Alabama to its 12th national title in 1992 and stuck with his hometown team during its up-and-down performances throughout the 90s.

Brown developed into a star at Hillcrest High School and was ranked as one of the top linebackers in the southeast by PrepStar magazine. However, after initially showing some interest in the recruiting process, an Alabama team coached by Mike Shula never pulled the trigger on an offer.

“It created a big chip for me,” Brown said. “I was one of the best at my position in the state coming out of high school. For them not to give me that offer, plus some of the guys they did offer over me, it didn’t sit well with me. Every time I played those guys, I wanted to show them that they made a mistake.”

After committing to Mississippi State, Brown did just that. In his four games against Alabama, he tallied a combined 19 tackles, including 3.5 for a loss with two sacks, to go with a 44-yard fumble return while leading the Bulldogs to back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007.

In fact, it was Brown who delivered the final blow in Mississippi State’s 17-12 victory over Saban’s Alabama team in 2007. With the Crimson Tide facing a first-and-10 from the Bulldogs' 46-yard line with 14 seconds remaining, the defender slipped past offensive lineman Mike Johnson before charging into the backfield where he recorded the game-ending sack on John Parker Wilson.

“We smelled blood in the water, and we attacked,” Brown said recalling the sack. “That was the end of the game, no more John Parker, no more Alabama. That was one of the biggest games I’ve ever been a part of, college pro or high school. It was one of the best feelings ever.”

There aren’t many Alabama players who have been snubbed by the Bulldogs, but the Crimson Tide has had its share of Mississippi State connections in recent years.

Meridian, Mississippi native Raekwon Davis flirted with his home-state Bulldogs while going back and forth on his Alabama commitment during the 2016 recruiting cycle. The four-star defensive tackle stuck with the Crimson Tide and ended up recording a combined 16 tackles, including a sack, with a forced fumble over four wins against Mississippi State.

The rivalry has also split up families. Former Alabama safety Jared Mayden squared off against his younger brother, Jalen, a backup quarterback at Mississippi State, during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. This year’s matchup also features a sibling rivalry as Alabama sophomore Shazz Preston will be on the opposite sideline from his older brother, Shawn Preston Jr., a starting defensive back for the Bulldogs.

For the three Mississippi natives on Alabma’s roster — freshman defensive back Bray Hubbard, sophomore defensive tackle Jaheim Oatis and walk-on sophomore snapper Alex Rozier, this week’s matchup offers a chance at bragging rights over the folks back home

“Yeah, I got a lot of Mississippi State fans in my family,” Oatis said this week. “But we play around. This week, we’re talking noise to them.”

Now that he has retired, Croom said he’s gone back to pulling for his alma mater. Still, a smile comes over his face when he thinks about being the last Mississippi State head coach to beat Alabama and the only one to get the best of Saban during his time in charge of the Crimson Tide.

“Oh, it crosses my mind about once a year,” Croom said with a laugh. “About this time of year, I think about it and just reflect on the game, the players and everything that went into those victories. In 2006 and 2007, those wins were big for us.”

Brown is also honored by having his name associated with a win over Saban. However, unlike Croom, he’s hoping his reign as one of the last Bulldogs players to beat the Crimson Tide ends sooner rather than later.

Since Mississippi State’s last win over Alabama in 2007, only two games have been decided by a single-digit margin. In 2014, the then top-ranked Bulldogs nearly erased a 19-0 deficit before falling 25-20 to the Crimson Tide inside Bryant-Denny Stadium. Mississippi State came even closer in 2017 when Alabama needed a last-minute touchdown from Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith to escape Davis Wade Stadium with a 31-24 victory.

No. 12 Alabama is currently a 14.5-point favorite in this year’s matchup, but that hasn’t stopped Brown from holding out a bit of hope for his Bulldogs to pull off the upset.

“It just depends on who’s feeling it,” he said. “The quarterback could be feeling it. The wide receivers could be feeling it. The day we beat Alabama, we were all gelling. It was one of those days where we were playing great football, and that can happen to any team.”