The 1980 MSU/Alabama Game
With the big USC/Notre Dame game coming up this weekend, many are saying it is the first true test of the season for the Trojans.
Si.com writer Pete McEntegart takes a look back through the years at 10 teams that thought they were indestructible, and were proven otherwise by unlikely opponents.
One of those games is the 1980 MSU/Alabama game.
Mississippi State 6, Alabama 3, Nov. 1, 1980: Bear Bryant’s Crimson Tide were ranked No. 1 and, like this year’s Trojans, were shooting for an unprecedented third straight national title. That dream ended in Jackson, Miss., against a Bulldogs team that had lost to Southern Miss, 42-12, earlier in the season. Alabama had a chance to win it late, but fumbled inside the Mississippi State 5-yard line with 15 seconds left. The Bulldogs recovered with six seconds remaining, but amazingly fumbled on the very next play. MSU fullback Donald Ray King won the furious scramble for the ball on the one-half yard line to preserve the victory.
