A huge fight broke out Thursday in the moments after the Armed Forces Bowl, which slammed Mississippi State’s 28-26 victory over Tulsa in Fort Worth, Texas.
It is unclear what sparked the fight, which included kicking and punching and involving several members of both teams. What started with a bit near the midfield during the handshake to the sideline, washed down to the sideline.
“It’s dumb. Its root is dumb, no matter what its root is. Its root is dumb and its continuation is dumb,” Mississippi State coach Mike Leach said. “I would have it solidly in the dumb category. Now that the stupidity started, I’m not entirely sure.”
Tulsa coach Phillip Montgomery also gave no reason why the fight started.
“The one thing I will say is our program, our guys, we are a team that will stand up for each other and we will fight,” Montgomery said. “We talked about faith, family, football and family is going to take care of the family. We are a team that has struggled all year long. We fought again today and from that point of view our guys are going to keep protecting each other and go from there. .
Leach said a group of Tulsa players circle and ‘talk’ around the warm-ups of the Mississippi state, but they will not speculate further on what could cause matters to escalate.
“I haven’t seen enough movie or anything like that to let us down the thing completely,” Leach said.
After the incident, the game was fun. The teams passed with 18 penalty goals.
Tulsa’s safety, Kendarin Ray, was helped off the field when things calmed down.
“I think he probably has a version of a concussion, and we’ll allow that,” Montgomery said.