McDirt's Army - 5.1 at Michigan State

What a game! "It looked bleak that's for sure. Down 31-14 with a minute or two left in the 3rd. Looker was down and we were having to bring in Garrison who just got to campus about 3 weeks ago. Not the ideal place to be." McDirt said. But it ended up being exactly where the Red Raiders needed to be. With the backup QB in the game and desperately needing a TD the running attack went to work and moved the ball to the Spartans 31 yd line. Facing his a tough 3rd & 5 Garrison rolled out and found Keenoy for a first down. "That was a huge play for CG. It really settled him down." McDirt said. Two plays later the Red Raiders faced another 3rd down and this time Garrison delivered a bullet for a TD to Turban to bring the score to 31-20. The offense didn't complete the comeback alone though. The Black Shirts answered the call by the offense and immediately forced a 3 & out. The Red Raider offense went into hyper-mode again. This time taking just 3 plays to punch it in the endzone again. After the 2-pt conversion it was 31-28 and all the sudden the ruccous Spartan crowd was eerily quiet. "Angel and Clarke put us on their back. Once Looker went down, I'm not going to lie I was nervous, but those dudes calmed me down by taking the game over. It's easy to call hut and pitch the ball to those dudes." Garrison said. The Miami transfer and new addition to the Red Raider backfield rushed for 201 yds and 2 TDs in his debut. The Black Shirts once again answered the bell. Another 3 & out gave the Red Raiders offense the ball with 4 minutes left to go in the 4th down 3. The Spartan defense that had held up for the majority of the game this time was on their heels as the Red Raider offense hit them with multiple RPOs and an PA pass for a TD, Garrison's 2nd of the game. The Red Raiders had stormed back to take a 35-31 lead. But the defending champs weren't going to go down without a fight. Hemphill made a clutch throw on 3rd and 10 to get the drive going and on the next play found the endzone on an RPO slant that was taken the distance. It was like the championship heavyweight fight that we were told it would be. Garrison, Angel, and Clarke were not phased. The Red Raiders were calm, cool, and collected. Exactly how you would expect a McDirt led team to be. Facing a 4th and 5 with 1:40 on the clock Angel found Clarke on the option pitch and moved the chains. And with 1:29 on the clock Garrison and a LB in his face Garrison made a perfect throw to Hardy for the go ahead score. The Spartans took the ball down the field, but Hemphill was sacked on 4th down and the Red Raiders knew they escaped. They added a garbage TD late to win it 48-38. The Red Raiders outscored the Spartans 28-7 in the 4th quarter to steal a victory. Garrsion finished 9/12 for 141 yds and 4 TDs. 5 different Red Raiders caught TD passes, the most in the McDirt era.