Inside The Final Moments Of MSU’s 1980 Win Over Alabama
October 15, 2021 | Football, Joel Coleman
Three former Bulldogs help tell the story of an unforgettable day in Bulldog history.
STARKVILLE – Former Mississippi State defensive lineman Tyrone Keys can remember it all clearly.
It was midway through the 1980 football season and the Bulldogs had just suffered their second loss, falling to Southern Miss. MSU dropped to 4-2 for the year. The frustration had led to a determination.
"We had a team-only meeting after that game and said we were going to win the rest of our games," Keys recalled. "Reporters came later and asked, 'You realize Alabama is still on the schedule?' We just said, 'We're going to win the rest of our games.'"
This Saturday, when MSU welcomes Alabama to Davis Wade Stadium for a 6 p.m. game, Keys and many of his former teammates from the 1980 squad will be in attendance for a 40-year anniversary celebration, one year delayed due to the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic. It'll be a coming together of the men who put together an incredibly special season, with the highlight being one of the most memorable wins in Mississippi State history.
It was November 1, 1980, down in Jackson, and MSU was on the cusp of knocking off an Alabama team led by legendary head coach Bear Bryant that'd won 28 straight games and back-to-back national championships. If State was going to continue its stated mission to win the rest of its games, well, they had to get this one.
Here's an inside look at the closing moments of an unforgettable Saturday.
2:13 To Go
There was good news and bad news for the Bulldogs in the waning moments of the contest. First, the good news. MSU led 6-3.
After Alabama's Peter Kim kicked a 49-yard field goal in the first half, State's Dana Moore responded with a 37-yarder in the third quarter that tied the game and a 22-yarder early in the fourth quarter that had put the Bulldogs in front.
Now for the bad news. Alabama had the football with a chance to break Bulldog hearts.
"In that fourth quarter, Alabama just knew that they were going to find a way to win because they'd won so many games late like that," Keys said.
It wasn't long before the Crimson Tide was indeed on the move. A controversial call seemed to spark the Alabama rally. Backed up to their own 42-yard line and facing a 3rd and 20 with only 1:30 left, it appeared the Crimson Tide was hit with a delay of game penalty that would've pushed them back even more.
Now it bears noting, in this era of football, quarterbacks could tell the officials the crowd was too loud, and the clock could be stopped. That never happened on this particular play.
So it looked as though the Tide would be penalized. Then, they weren't.
"They're not going to penalize them because of the crowd noise," legendary MSU radio announcer Jack Cristil said on the broadcast. "Well I guess Mr. Bear Bryant had something to say about that."
Down on the MSU sideline, State quarterback John Bond saw things much the same way as what Cristil saw in his view from the booth.
"They threw the flag for delay of game, but they went over and talked to Coach Bryant and Coach Bryant talked them out of it," Bond said with a chuckle.
Alabama quickly took advantage of its good fortune. Tide quarterback Don Jacobs immediately hit Major Ogilvie on a 25-yard pass that took Alabama all the way to the MSU 33. First down Tide.
Jacobs followed that up with a 14-yard completion to Jesse Bendross and a 16-yard strike to Bart Krout. Suddenly, the football was on the Mississippi State three-yard line with only 25 seconds left. The Bulldogs were on the verge of suffering a gut-wrenching defeat.
0:25 To Go
Alabama had no timeouts left, so the clock was running. Down to 24 seconds, then 23, 22…
The Crimson Tide was in the wishbone formation trying to win the game. On the State side was a head coach that knew all about that look.
Emory Bellard was credited with developing the wishbone offense. Earlier in the week, he'd told the MSU defense he had a plan to stop Alabama.
"He told us, 'Just do everything that I tell you from a defensive standpoint,'" Keys remembered. "He said, 'We're not going to only beat them, but we can annihilate their offense. I know what I'm talking about because I invented it.'"
It's ironic. The only thing that stood between MSU winning this football game, or walking away disappointed, was the very offensive scheme State's leader had crafted himself. But State had limited it all day. The Bulldogs just needed to do so one more time.
"I'll never forget, [former MSU defensive lineman] Glen Collins says all the time, 'I kept saying somebody is going to make a big play. Somebody is going to make a big play,'" Keys shared.
Somebody did. And it just so happened to be Keys.
Bulldogs Recover
Former State defensive lineman Billy Jackson can remember the call designed to stop Alabama.
"We called it a C-Charge," Jackson said. "We'd come down and attack the quarterback with the ball. So we ended up with a double C-Charge. We had Tyrone and myself coming down hard like a hard pinch. We knew we had to make that stop or if not, they were going to score."
Keys remembers it this way: "It was a crash. We had to go in and crash and create havoc. We had to crash the whole thing."
Jacobs took the snap for Alabama, faked a handoff to his fullback, kept the football and ran to his right which just so happened to be Keys' side of the field.
"I couldn't believe they'd come that way again," Keys said, citing MSU's success on that side of the field that day.
But Alabama did come that way and Keys was waiting. He hit Jacobs, the ball came loose and was lying on the field.
"Fumble," MSU color commentator John Correro could be heard yelling on the radio broadcast.
On the gridiron, Jackson had zeroed in on the football.
"My eyes got big and all I could do was just jump on it and try to get up really quick before anyone could try to snatch it away from me," Jackson said.
Then came the now-legendary call from Cristil: "BULLDOGS RECOVER! BULLDOGS RECOVER! BULLDOGS RECOVER!"
It appeared victory was in hand. But, there was still one last bit of drama left.
5 Seconds, 4 Seconds, 3 Seconds
Victory formations are usually somewhat stress free. For Bond, this one was not.
For one, State was backed up on its own two-yard line. Not to mention…
"We were calling victory against the No. 1 team in the country," Bond said. "It was a team that hadn't lost a game in two years. So yeah, there was a little bit of stress on it."
It'd get more even more stressful.
State snapped the ball to try and run out the final seconds. Bond never even touched the football though. Once again, it was loose on the field and the game hung in the balance.
"That No. 50 [Randy Scott] for Bama walked up and was hovering over the ball [before the snap], right over it," Bond said. "He was really offsides, but they didn't call it. But as soon as [center] Kent [Hull] snapped the ball, it shot right by me. [Scott] slapped it before it ever touched my hands. You can see it if you look closely at the film. It flies right by my head and my head turns. My hands don't even move. I never got it."
Bond was in a panic.
"I was down there hollering, 'Kent, who's got it? Who's got it? Who's got it?'" Bond said.
Finally, Bond could exhale.
"I heard Donald Ray say, 'I got it,'" Bond said.
That'd be running back Donald Ray King. King might not have had the most memorable fumble recovery in this classic, but it was just as important as the one that had happened only seconds before.
Time ran out as the football was held onto by King. Mississippi State could check another off the list in their quest to win the rest of their 1980 games. Mighty Alabama had fallen at the hands of MSU.
A Visit From The Bear
One of the most memorable moments to the MSU players involved in this game came out of sight of the public. The Bulldogs were celebrating in their locker room when the party got cut short.
"We were celebrating and all of a sudden, we were told to get quiet," Keys said. "[Bryant] came in there. Nobody was doing stuff like that back then. At that time, I'd never witnessed anything like that from a sportsmanship standpoint."
Bryant simply wanted to give Mississippi State credit. He had the Bulldogs' full attention.
"You could hear a pin drop," Jackson said.
Keys listened to what Bryant had to say. This wasn't the first time for him he'd given the iconic coach an audience either. Bryant had once recruited Keys to come to play at Alabama.
"But I told him I want to be on a team that can one day beat you," Keys said.
Mission accomplished.
Makes You Feel Great
MSU played five regular season games following the Southern Miss loss. The Bulldogs won all five to finish the regular season 9-2 and earn a Sun Bowl berth.
It was the third game in that five-game winning streak though that will never be forgotten by those who don maroon.
When Keys, Bond and Jackson are back in Starkville this weekend, you can almost certainly count on stories being told regarding the 1980 Alabama game. The guys never really seem to tire of reliving it.
"It makes you feel great," Jackson said. "You think about what happened and the players you did it with, and you go back to Mississippi State and there are still fans who talk about that play and that game. You have some fans that were there and can talk to you about it. It just makes you feel good."
And it surely always will.