A gigantic fight erupted after Mississippi State’s 28-26 win against Tulsa in the Armed Forces Bowl on Thursday.
What initially began with some shoving near midfield during the postgame handshakes devolved into a full-on melee and spilled toward and down one of the sidelines.
After everything was said and done, an obvious question emerged on the minds of some fans: what was Mississippi State head coach Mike Leach doing during this whole fiasco? Now we know.
Leach has always been something of a unique character, which is why he got such an interesting contract this past year, so nothing he does should come as much of a surprise at this point.
After the fact, the Mississippi State head coach said he didn’t know what led up to the big brawl.
“It’s dumb,” he said.
“The root of it’s dumb, no matter what the root of it is. The root of it’s dumb and the continuation of it’s dumb. I would have that solidly in the category of dumb. Now where the dumb started, I’m not entirely sure.”
Tulsa coach Philip Montgomery was similarly unsure of what led to the fight.
“The one thing I’ll say is our program, our guys, we’re a team that is going to stand up for each other and we’re going to battle,” Montgomery said.
“We talked about faith, family, football, and family is going to take care of family. We’re a team that has battled all year long. We battled again today, and from that standpoint, our guys are going to continue to protect each other and go from there.”
Mississippi State and Tulsa combined for 18 penalties in their game, so in some ways the chippy atmosphere after the fact was not especially surprising.
That said – nobody expects a riot to break out after a bowl game.
It remains to be seen what actions will ultimately be taken to punish all participating parties.
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