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National Football League
Draft King Analysis
November 16, 2009
Lou Pickney, DraftKing.com
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If you've never been to an SEC college football game, you're missing out. There is a unique atmosphere involved with Southeastern Conference games, a mix of southern charm and whiskey drinking and ass kicking and friends and fun that you have to be there to truly appreciate. If nothing else, understand this: college football is VERY important to a large number of people who live in the southeastern United States, and being part of it is usually an exciting experience.
When the 2009 schedule came out for Mississippi State, I asked my brother Matt (a Mississippi State graduate and season-ticket holder) to save me a spot for the Alabama game. Florida was tempting as well, but there were a number of players for Alabama who I wanted to see in person for the purposes of Draft King, so it won out for me.
 | Titus was in his element in Starkville.
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Tailgating before the game began for me at 11 a.m., hours ahead of a 6 p.m. kickoff. My friend Carla's father has a beautiful RV that he sets up the day before home games in the parking lot. That was our central location where we watched the CBS SEC double-header in the shade, drank some cold beer, and sampled some delicious southern dishes. Carla's boyfriend Mike made some amazing gumbo. Even though M-State was an underdog, fans were excited and looking forward to the showdown.
Matt brought his english bulldog Titus with him, and T-Pain (as we call him sometimes) received near rock-star treatment from people everywhere we went. Even Alabama fans were praising him as being a good looking bully. Random people posed for pictures with him, often with parents having their kids take a photo with him. Titus was patient with everyone, loving the attention.
Some highlights and other thoughts from the day:
-JT Bowtie (a character portrayed by Taylor Fortinberry as an obnoxious Alabama fan who riled up enemy fan bases) I'm told was spotted in the tailgate area before the game. From what I heard, someone dumped a beer on him in "The Junction" at the Mississippi State game, and apparently he may have received some threats from people who perhaps took his character a bit too seriously. So, as of today, Fortinberry has retired the JT Bowtie character, pulled all the old Bowtie videos down and issued an apology for hurting people's feelings.
|  | The JT Bowtie character has been retired.
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I had just recently heard about JT Bowtie, learning about him on the car ride down to the game from Matt, who said he would have been a great pro wrestling heel manager. I agree; JT Bowtie was an idea 25 years too late. In 1984 he could have parlayed that into a wrestling managerial career in the Memphis territory and beyond.
-My seats for the event were great, located ten rows from the front on the Mississippi State sideline. In front of a nationwide audience on ESPN, the record-breaking crowd of 58,013 was intense and electric, ringing cowbells and shouting loudly. It wasn't LSU at night or Michigan with 100,000 plus, but the energy in the stadium packed a punch. It was the polar opposite of the apathetic scene I saw in 2003 when M-State barely beat Troy on Homecoming weekend.
-At one point ESPN reporter Erin Andrews walked behind the Mississippi State sidelines, and I swear there were at least 15-20 guys on the Bulldogs team who I saw turn and stare at her when she walked by. Luckily none of them pulled a Rey Maualuga on her.
-The Crimson Tide faced a hyped-up opponent with M-State, but Alabama simply had too much talent for the Bulldogs to contain for a full sixty minutes. I've come around on Mark Ingram. Before I thought he was just a good running back, but now I'll put it in writing: Ingram is a very special player. Inside the tackles he didn't have dominating success (save for his breakaway TD run as M-State ran out of juice on defense late), but outside the tackles Ingram has rare speed. Seeing him in person made me switch over on his Heisman talk: if Mark Ingram wins the Heisman, I'm just fine with that.
You have to see how quick Ingram is in person to really appreciate it, kind of like how it is for Chris Johnson or Maurice Jones-Drew in the NFL. I imagine Darren Sproles is similar, but I've not yet seen him in action in person (though that might change if I go to the Titans/Chargers game the day after Christmas).
-Bulldog senior RB Anthony Dixon is a solid player who should be able to perform well on the NFL level. He might be the most underrated player in the SEC. I could see Dixon going anywhere from rounds 2-4 and being a key performer for whatever team he ends up with. But, with that written, Dixon didn't have much success running against the talented Alabama defense, particularly with the massive Terrence Cody plugging the middle at nose tackle. Dixon kept plugging away, with 22 carries on the night, but with M-State's passing game not being particularly on target it was tough for Dixon to break through against a concentrated effort by Alabama to stop the run.
-It was 17-0 when Mississippi State freshman Chad Bumphis returned a punt for what appeared to be a touchdown. The sold-out stadium erupted in cheers (save for the pockets of Alabama fans who were in attendance), only to have the wind taken out of their sails because a ref on the sideline ruled incorrectly that Bumphis had stepped out of bounds. It was non-reviewable; once the whistle blows in that situation (not that we could hear it as the stadium roared) the play is over, even though Bumphis made it all the way to the end zone. Any chance the Bulldogs had of winning ended then and there.
Alabama vs. Florida should be a very, very good game. If the Alabama team that I saw on Saturday night shows up in Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game, it will be a very difficult fight for Florida.
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