2000 Independence Bowl

[o_dawgnabit]

FYI, the replay of that game is about to come on ESPNU. 10et

 

[RocketDawg]

FYI, the replay of that game is about to come on ESPNU. 10et

I think that's the coldest game I've ever been to, even worse than the game we lost earlier that year in Starkville to Arkansas. If we'dve won, we would have been inside in Atlanta instead of outside in Shreveport (I think I'm remembering the scenario correctly). Hate to admit it, but we left at halftime and got to our hotel in some little town east of there around 2 in the morning. Traffic was terrible on the icy roads.

 

[RocketDawg]

Did Jackie ever write that book?

 

[PineGroveBully]

Didnt it snow in North Mississippi that night also, I watched the game at my basketball coach’s house and seems like it was snowing pretty good up here.

 

[Maroon90]

Forgot how RED the team’s sideline gear and face masks were.

 

[dawgdoug1962]

N. Ms. got a huge snow fall that night. I was headed from Desoto County into Memphis to a wedding, but got caught in a traffic mess trying to climb a hill....glad we were able to turn onto a side road and made it back home in time to watch the game. LOL.

Didnt it snow in North Mississippi that night also, I watched the game at my basketball coach’s house and seems like it was snowing pretty good up here.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

Yes. I was watching at home on Christmas break at my parents. It was snowing like crazy.

 

[Jeffreauxdawg]

I wasn't wearing socks that night... Seriously.

I swear it was 50° or more when we parked and the first snowflakes started falling. I thought it was ashes and was looking around for some kind of big memorial Aggie bonfire or something. By the time we got to the stadium I was freezing my nads off.

Worth it.

 

[MSUDC11]

I think that's the coldest game I've ever been to, even worse than the game we lost earlier that year in Starkville to Arkansas. If we'dve won, we would have been inside in Atlanta instead of outside in Shreveport (I think I'm remembering the scenario correctly). Hate to admit it, but we left at halftime and got to our hotel in some little town east of there around 2 in the morning. Traffic was terrible on the icy roads.

If I’m not mistaken that 2000 team blew double digit leads in each of our four losses. I know we did in at least three, can’t remember exactly how big our lead was at South Carolina but they definitely came from behind to beat us that day.

The Snow Bowl was fun, but that team is a big what if. Beat both division winners and somehow went 2-4 against the rest of the league. We controlled our own destiny to win the West going into our last two games and didn’t win either of them. The Arkansas game at home was just a bad loss to a not good team, and we had a 16-0 lead in the Egg Bowl before we proceeded to let Deuce run wild on us the rest of the night.

 

[G-Dawg]

Buddy of mine and I had a hotel booked in Ruston for after the game. They closed the interstate so we ended up staying with some friends from RUF that we found at the game in their room in Shreveport. I think there ended up being like 10-11 people in that one hotel room sleeping anywhere we could find a spot. Took 8 hours to drive back to Jackson the next day.

 

[PBRME]

Can confirm snow in N Ms/Memphis area. I was on Beale St after the game, celebrating NYE, and having snowball fights.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

The now defunct Greater Jackson Bulldog Club chartered a bus for the trip. There were 40ish folks on the bus & must have been 20 cases of beer. The return trip was "legendary". It was well after daylight when we got back to Jackson.

 

[DoggieDaddy13]

That was a disappointing season. Yes, we blew leads in all four of our losses. The UM and LSU loss were the worse!

Still that Independence Bowl game remains one of the most exciting games in the history of all bowl games. You couldn't beat it for the elements and the drama.

 

[Go Budaw]

That was a disappointing season. Yes, we blew leads in all four of our losses. The UM and LSU loss were the worse!

Still that Independence Bowl game remains one of the most exciting games in the history of all bowl games. You couldn't beat it for the elements and the drama.

I still think the worst loss was probably the Arkansas sleet game. Wr were at home (unlike the LSU / USC / OM losses), and Arkansas really wasn’t worth a crap. We were tied at 10, got a long catch and run with Dicenzo to get us in chip shot field goal range right before the end of regulation. Then, we had to send Dicenzo right back out there when he was winded to be the holder, in the snow, for the would-be game winning field goal. The snap was of course bobbled, leading to a terrible kick that was blocked, but wouldn’t have been any good anyways. Then Dontae got stuffed on 4th and goal from the half yard line in our OT possession, and Arkansas punched in a TD on their possession for the win. I’ll never to this day understand why Jackie had all his special teams quirks with the swinging gate XP, and having our damn starting RB also doubling as our holder, but it certainly bit us in the *** that day.

I also think that Egg Bowl would have gone much differently if we had pulled out the Arkansas game. We would have been playing for Atlanta, and certainly wouldn’t have been as deflated as we were (especially on defense) after having such a gut punch just 4 days prior.

 

[patdog]

Everyone points to the 2001 South Carolina game as the start of Jackie's decline, but for me it was in Baton Rouge in October 2000. Blew two separate 14-point leads before losing in OT. That was the night Joe Lee's defense went from great to terrible and it really never got any better.

 

[Go Budaw]

Everyone points to the 2001 South Carolina game as the start of Jackie's decline, but for me it was in Baton Rouge in October 2000. Blew two separate 14-point leads before losing in OT. That was the night Joe Lee's defense went from great to terrible and it really never got any better.

True, but we also got a really bad break from officials on the Toefield fumble TD. Would have been an obvious overturn by replay if it existed at the time, and would have really turned the momentum even more in our favor.

 

[patdog]

No doubt that was one of the worst calls I've ever seen. But if we weren't already in serious decline, we still win that game by at least 2 touchdowns. Our defense was exposed that night. And Dontae was already a cancer in the locker room and weight room.

 

[KingBarkus]

Everyone points to the 2001 South Carolina game as the start of Jackie's decline, but for me it was in Baton Rouge in October 2000. Blew two separate 14-point leads before losing in OT. That was the night Joe Lee's defense went from great to terrible and it really never got any better.

Bitter loss for those of us that hate lsu. Stadium had just been expanded, Saban's first year at lsu, rollercoaster of a game. I'm convinced lsu had JLD's signals as they ran a toss sweep outside when we blitzed up the middle, and ran it up the gut when we crashed the outside. Last drive to tie it up was epic. Pork Chop limping around, could not hear squat, FB catching the tying score with a broken hand. I begged Jackie to go for 2 as our defense was dead tired. I was with a friend and could not hear her speak, only see her lips moving. What a year 2000 was. The florida, Auburn, and Bama beatdowns and the lsu/Arkansas misery.

 

[Mobile Bay]

Didnt it snow in North Mississippi that night also, I watched the game at my basketball coach’s house and seems like it was snowing pretty good up here.

Yes it did. Then the roads froze. Which is how 2000 people and I became stuck at the Silver Star with no rooms. They had been booked full for months. People were just sleeping in the halls. I got something of a nap on a unused poker table. I finally got out of there about 8AM and back home to Starkville about 10:30.

I won about $700 that night though. So it was all good.

 

[Mjoelner]

Everyone points to the 2001 South Carolina game as the start of Jackie's decline, but for me it was in Baton Rouge in October 2000. Blew two separate 14-point leads before losing in OT. That was the night Joe Lee's defense went from great to terrible and it really never got any better.

The second 14 point lead we blew was in the 4th quarter and what made it worse, LSU did it on the ground right up the middle. They just put in a fullback, ran right up the middle and were getting 5 to 8 yards before first contact. I spent the whole 4th quarter screaming for Jo Lee to walk the linebackers up to the line instead of playing them back.

 

[Mjoelner]

True, but we also got a really bad break from officials on the Toefield fumble TD. Would have been an obvious overturn by replay if it existed at the time, and would have really turned the momentum even more in our favor.

Another break from the officials happened too. Actually multiple times. In the first quarter everytime Madkin would drop back to pass, some jerkoff in the stands would blow a whistle. Our guys would slack up and LSU would keep coming. It got so bad that they stopped the game and Saban walked to midfield and was given a mic and put on the PA telling them to quit. Not one flag was thrown yet we would get penalized and/or fined for ringing cowbells during a play at home.

 

[MSUDC11]

Everyone points to the 2001 South Carolina game as the start of Jackie's decline, but for me it was in Baton Rouge in October 2000. Blew two separate 14-point leads before losing in OT. That was the night Joe Lee's defense went from great to terrible and it really never got any better.

You make a good point, though we still had a lot of hype going into 2001 and I bought into it. I chalked up 2000 as just losing three close games on the road to good teams, but all of those teams had to come to us the following year, and I thought the Arkansas game was just a fluke because of the weather (probably still true). Still thought we’d be an 8 or 9 win team that contended for Atlanta again.

For me the big sign that things were off was the Memphis game on Labor Day 2001. That was a bad Memphis team and we really struggled with them for three quarters. Had a really strong sense we were overrated on that night.

 

[StillTbonewannabe]

I still think the worst loss was probably the Arkansas sleet game. Wr were at home (unlike the LSU / USC / OM losses), and Arkansas really wasn’t worth a crap. We were tied at 10, got a long catch and run with Dicenzo to get us in chip shot field goal range right before the end of regulation. Then, we had to send Dicenzo right back out there when he was winded to be the holder, in the snow, for the would-be game winning field goal. The snap was of course bobbled, leading to a terrible kick that was blocked, but wouldn’t have been any good anyways. Then Dontae got stuffed on 4th and goal from the half yard line in our OT possession, and Arkansas punched in a TD on their possession for the win. I’ll never to this day understand why Jackie had all his special teams quirks with the swinging gate XP, and having our damn starting RB also doubling as our holder, but it certainly bit us in the *** that day.

I also think that Egg Bowl would have gone much differently if we had pulled out the Arkansas game. We would have been playing for Atlanta, and certainly wouldn’t have been as deflated as we were (especially on defense) after having such a gut punch just 4 days prior.

We had a lot of injuries on the Dline that Egg Bowl game. We started a walk on because of injuries.

The Ark game fg at the end, I heard that we asked for a dry football since the one on the field was water logged and was denied by the refs. Made it a bad snap and hold.