History lesson: NC State football vs. Mississippi State

NC State and South Florida will kick off the regular season for both teams on Sept. 2 at Carter-Finley Stadium.

The Wolfpack has some history with the Bulls. Here’s a look back at the three games between the two in football plus some notable recruiting battles.

Three times NC State and Mississippi State have played in bowl games. One may have been the coldest, another in the most comfortable setting and the most previous perhaps the wettest.

The teams have only played three times in the regular season, all before World War II. The Wolfpack won back-to-back shutouts in 1930 (14-0 in Raleigh) and '31 (6-0 in Starkville). The Bulldogs won 26-10 in Riddick in 1940.

The 1963 Liberty Bowl was played at 102,000-seat Municipal Stadium with just 8,309 fans in attendance on a blustery day that featured 19-degree temperatures and a 17 mile-per-hour wind. It was the last time the Liberty Bowl was played in the City of Brotherly Love, moving to Memphis, Tenn., after a one-year layover in Atlantic City, N.J.

The '63 game was just the second bowl game in Wolfpack history. Under the guidance of Beattie Feathers, the Wolfpack traveled to the 1947 Gator Bowl to face Oklahoma, but suffered a 34-13 loss to the better-prepared Sooners.

The Pack was ranked No. 19 in the nation going into the contest, while the Bulldogs were No. 11. Mississippi State, using a blocked kick and a shanked punt, jumped out to a 13-point first-quarter lead, as the entire opening period was played in Wolfpack territory. They bumped the lead up to 16 points with an impressive field goal into the stiff wind in the second quarter, but Wolfpack quarterback Jim Rossi scored on a one-yard run just before halftime to close the gap to 16-6.

State's offense dominated play in the second half, but had trouble finding the windswept end zones at massive Municipal Stadium.

The Pack scored a second touchdown with 2:28 to play, when Rossi hit Ray Barlow with a five-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion failed, however, and the Pack did not get the ball again in a 16-12 loss.

Rossi earned the game's outstanding back award for rushing the ball 18 times for 67 yards and passing for 58 more. Mississippi State was led by Hoyle Granger, who carried 13 times for 94 yards.

The two teams met again in 31 seasons later in Atlanta, at the end of Mike O'Cain's second year as head coach of the Wolfpack. The 1995 Peach Bowl was played in the climate-controlled comfort of the Georgia Dome, in front of the second largest crowd (at that time) to ever see a game there.

Junior quarterback Terry Harvey and freshman tailback Tremayne Stephens passed and carried the Wolfpack to a 28-24 victory on that New Year's night game.

Harvey's performance that night was clutch, even though the native of Lawrenceville, Ga., was pulled out from under center in the middle part of the game in favor of backup Geoff Bender. He returned with fourth-quarter heroics to lead the Pack to its first bowl win since 1990.

With the Bulldogs leading 21-13 and his team facing a third-and-10 on the Mississippi State 18-yard line, Harvey dropped back to pass, then took off up the middle for a 14-yard gain. Three plays later, he hit teammate Dallas Dickerson on a three-yard touchdown pass and ran for a two-point conversion to tie the game at 21.

On its next possession, Harvey hit receiver Jimmy Grissett on a 62-yard pass play down the sideline that put the Wolfpack inside the 10-yard line. Carlos King scored from eight yards away to put the Wolfpack in the lead for good.

The Pack's defense was outstanding. Mississippi State had the ball inside State's 21-yard line six times and inside the 14 four times, yet was unable to score a single touchdown, with two of the drives ending with interceptions and another ending on a fourth-down pass that fell incomplete in a crowded secondary.

The third meeting came in 2015, when the two teams met in Charlotte on Dec. 30 for the Belk Bowl. For over three hours, both teams and fans endured a persistent light rain. In a game that featured a pair of NFL quarterbacks, it was clear the weather would not bother Dak Prescott of the Bulldogs.

Prescott threw a pair of first quarter touchdown passes, and Mississippi State quickly was up 21-0 early in the second quarter. The Pack rallied behind quarterback Jacoby Brissett, but Prescott and Mississippi State’s offense was too much.

Mississippi State scored three unanswered touchdowns, two of them Prescott TD throws, to take a commanding 51-21 lead in the fourth quarter. A late touchdown by NC State would close out the scoring in a 51-28 defeat.

In his final game in a Mississippi State uniform, Prescott completed 25 of 42 passes for 380 yards and four scores with just one pick and also ran 12 times for a team-high 47 yards.

When head coach Dave Doeren first arrived at NC State, the two teams went head-to-head quite a bit on the recruiting trail, almost all of it to the Wolfpack's favor.

Doeren successfully flipped offensive lineman Tyler Jones from the Bulldogs to the Wolfpack. He also beat out Mississippi State in the recruitments of current NFL starters defensive end Bradley Chubb and defensive tackle Justin Jones, former All-American offensive lineman Terronne Prescod and multi-year starting tight end Cole Cook.

All of that came in the 2014 class, but oddly since then the two teams have not met up much on the trail.

NC State did sign class of 2020 linebacker Jayland Parker out of Macon (Ga.) Westside High, who strongly considered Mississippi State after his decommitment from Colorado. On the flip side, a pair of linebackers on the Bulldogs roster looked at NC State: class of 2021's Timar Rogers from DeLand (Fla.) High and class of 2020's Jamari Stewart from Fort Pierce (Fla.) St. Lucie West Centennial.

Stewart however opted out last season and then transferred to South Florida, ironically NC State's week one opponent.

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