Had a discussion with friends about Billy Puckett and how if he does anything to help us win, it'd be our greatest R.A.T. moment. This lead to the question, have we ever had a R.A.T. that actually went our way?
R.A.T. moments at State
- Thread starter columbiadawg2
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Orlando Lundie against LSU in 1984. He beat them almost by himself.
Ron Polk wanted Lundie for his Shortstop, but Football won out.
In 1999, Matt Wyatt coming in to replace an ineffective Wayne Madkin wasn't exactly random. It happened more than just at Auburn.
Nor would I call Wyatt's performances anything groundbreaking. He made some plays and helped us win some games. But it doesn't rise to the level of RAT.
Let's give credit where credit is due, Wyatt did manage to phase a football completely through the body of an Auburn defender into the hands of Matthew Butler that day.
I still think Butler to this day doesn't realize he caught that ball. He never saw the damn thing. But you are correct. It was a ball that probably should've been intercepted.
Well, I was going to post a link to the lexicon, but I just realized RAT isn't in there. @dawgstudent, didn't it used to be? Or was it never enshrined?
I thought, by definition, that a R. A. T. is always a player on the opponent's team.
Feels like a solid portion of our 8-0 start that season involved late game heroics from Matt.
The Random ******* Theory - has to be a random guy on an opposing team that beats Mississippi State almost single handedly. By rule, Mississippi State can not have a RAT.
Original RATs were Erik Kimrey and Brad Boyd. Kimrey came in and threw a 25 yard TD pass late to beat us at South Carolina in 2000. Boyd could not miss in the 02-03 opener at the Hump against Louisiana-Lafayette. We had a finger up his nose and he was hitting from the logo, dropping 43 on one of Stans' best teams and one of the few times we were preseason ranked.
Kimrey was a walk on at South Carolina who threw for 248 yards and one touchdown in his career. Boyd ended up averaging 10 points a game for his career, but coming into that night, he had averaged 6 points a game off the bench.
Kimrey is coaching Manning's kid at Baylor School in Chattanooga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Kimrey
Boyd is coaching high school basketball in Louisiana.
Story on Kimrey's TD pass against us. Seventh string QB.
Original RATs were Erik Kimrey and Brad Boyd. Kimrey came in and threw a 25 yard TD pass late to beat us at South Carolina in 2000. Boyd could not miss in the 02-03 opener at the Hump against Louisiana-Lafayette. We had a finger up his nose and he was hitting from the logo, dropping 43 on one of Stans' best teams and one of the few times we were preseason ranked.
Kimrey was a walk on at South Carolina who threw for 248 yards and one touchdown in his career. Boyd ended up averaging 10 points a game for his career, but coming into that night, he had averaged 6 points a game off the bench.
Kimrey is coaching Manning's kid at Baylor School in Chattanooga: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Kimrey
Boyd is coaching high school basketball in Louisiana.
Story on Kimrey's TD pass against us. Seventh string QB.
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Yes. But as I recall the "heroics" part was pretty limited to the Auburn and Kentucky games.
He started the OSU game I think, and won that one.
He came into the Arkansas game but didn't get it done.
And then curiously, Sherrill stuck with Madkin in the Egg Bowl and that decision ultimately paid off.
Yeah. Wyatt had been a starter before and still got a lot of playing time that year.
Dak in the 2013 Egg Bowl had a miraculous comeback feel, but I wouldn't call him a "RAT". Everyone knew who he was, but no one expected him to play.
The biggest RAT I can think of that went our way was Simeon Price in the 2023 Outback Bowl. He rushed for 68 yards on seven carries, including a long run on the last drive that put us down inside the 10 to where we could kick a field goal to win the game. The 68 yards he had in that game accounted for more than a third of the total rushing yardage he had in his three years at State. He then transferred to Coastal Carolina, where he ran for 136 yards in 2024 and then Colorado, where he ran for 143 yards in 2025. He finished his five-year college career with 470 rushing yards.
Random A$$hole Theory of MSU opponents. As soon as you get excited about your opponent missing some key player(s), some random a$$hole is certain to show up and have a heisman day against MSU. As defined, we cannot have a RAT for us.
All time MSU RAT.
Donte Jones caught fire in the ‘96 postseason. He transformed a top 20 team into a top 3 team overnight.
Donte Jones caught fire in the ‘96 postseason. He transformed a top 20 team into a top 3 team overnight.
Should have been the Top team. He and that team were that good. Richard just got outcoached by Boeheim. And while I still can't believe Marcus was on the take, he certainly choked the chicken.
Would have been fun to see a rematch with Kentucky.
Brayland Skinner at LSU in 2021? He’d barely played for us to that point and finished the year hitting .205. But on a Friday night at Alex Box he went 3-3 with a homer and 3 RBI. I believe that was his only career homer too. We ended up winning the series which at the time was not thing a we did against LSU in baseball, I think that was only our second series win against them in a 15 year stretch.
Nothing random about Dontae either. State had to fight hard to get him eligible, and then he was a starter.
He was also part of the reason SI picked us in preseason to get to the Final Four.
Funny how memory works. 18 year old me would tell you Wyatt came in to save the day more than those two games.
I think he may have made a difference in the game vs Vandy that year too. But yeah, KY and AU were the big ones. If he had been able to do it vs Arkansas, We'd have gone to Atlanta that year.
If we're talking single plays, then Tanner Leggett should get a mention.
But my thinking were that RATs were folks who came in and made a consistent contribution during the game.
Single plays can count if they directly result in winning the game. That's how Kimrey got on there. We were up 19-13 late. SC's started got hurt on a 3rd and long and Kimrey came in on 4th and forever and threw one pass and beat us.
I hate that guy and he probably cost us an SEC Championship appearance that year. We remain the only school ever to beat both SEC Championship Game participants in the regular season.
I got to see that Kimrey pass live. Drove all the way there for that crap. I had no idea that I had witnessed the birth of the RAT.
To this day, I'm convinced that State was the best team in the country by the end of the '96 season. UK was obviously the more talented team and they possibly had one of the most talent-rich college rosters of all time, but State was the better team at that point in time.
Dawgzilla2 said:
Nothing random about Dontae either. State had to fight hard to get him eligible
Correction - THANKS USM
Early 80’s, Tim Parenton started in place of John Bond and led us to a win over LSU. Game was in Jackson. Never did learn exactly why Bond didn’t play that day. Rumor was that he got in trouble over something and it wasn’t injury related. The real reason never came out.
That was the last time I talked s*** on an opposing team's message board. Prior to the game.
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