Mississippi State bags Gators with last-minute TD

STARKVILLE, Miss. — The latest low point in Ron Zook’s tenure at Florida even has the coach wondering what went wrong.

Meanwhile, Sylvester Croom’s first big win at Mississippi State has given the Bulldogs and their fans a reason to believe in their first-year leader.

Jerious Norwood’s 37-yard touchdown run with 32 seconds remaining lifted the Bulldogs to a 38-31 upset of the 20th-ranked Gators on Saturday.

“This is embarrassing for us,” Zook said. “We thought we were ready to play.”

Norwood rushed for 174 yards on 29 carries and scored twice for the Bulldogs (2-5, 1-3 Southeastern Conference), who had lost five consecutive games since beating Tulane in their first game under Croom.

“This is just the beginning,” Croom said. “We’re building to a championship program.”

Jeramie Johnson set up Norwood’s game-winning score when he intercepted Chris Leak at the Mississippi State 44-yard line with two minutes remaining.

“All that we had done to that point basically came down to one play,” Croom said. “We had to have the ball back because the one thing I did not want to do was go into overtime.”

After four running plays moved the ball to the 37, Norwood took the handoff around left end, spun past a defender, then ran through another Gator at the goal line.

“I just ran to the open space,” Norwood said. “Next thing I knew, I was in the secondary, and after that, I was in the end zone.”

Florida couldn’t move the ball on its final possession, and tried trickery at the end.

Leak passed to Dallas Baker, who lateraled to O.J. Small. He pitched back to Leak, who fumbled, and Willie Evans recovered as time expired.

Cowbells clanged, and fans stormed the field and tore down one of the goal posts.

It was reminiscent of Florida’s last trip to Starkville in 2000, when the Gators had a 72-game winning streak against unranked opponents snapped in a 47-35 loss.