This afternoon in Charlotte, N.C., Dak Prescott will play his final game in a Mississippi State University uniform. Regardless the outcome, he will leave the field as the most accomplished player in the 116-year history of Mississippi State football.
Prescott will take the field as the quarterback of an 8-4 Bulldog football team making its school-record sixth consecutive bowl appearance.
He will leave it as a bona fide Bulldog legend.
His No. 15 MSU jersey will be to MSU fans what No. 18 means to Ole Miss fans. The number will be synonymous with the player who wore it. Prescott will be to MSU what Archie Manning was to Ole Miss. That’s saying something.
Prescott’s achievements warrant such status. The numbers tell the story, at least statistically. He holds 38 school records. Fittingly, two of those records are 15 career records, 15 single-season records. He also holds eight single-game records and ranks in the all-time Top 10 in the SEC in seven categories, including third in total offense with more 11,470 yards.
In 2014, Prescott led MSU to its first No. 1 ranking, a spot it held for five weeks, en route to a 10-3 season. For his efforts, he finished eighth in the voting for the Heisman Trophy.
With MSU unable to duplicate its success in 2014, Prescott did not receive Heisman consideration, although in many ways, his play in 2015 was even better than in 2014, all things considered.
This season, he passed for 25 touchdowns, ran for 10 more and threw just four interceptions. On a team that struggled to run the football, the Bulldogs relied inordinately on Prescott’s strong right arm. More times than not, he was equal to the challenge.
For all those achievements, the statistics do not capture the full story of what Prescott has meant.
This week, Prescott was named as the national Senior CLASS Award winner, a distinction awarded to the most outstanding senior student-athlete based on the player’s achievements both on and off the field, including service to the community.
The fifth-year senior holds both a undergraduate degree in psychology and a master’s degree in workforce leadership.
Prescott was a “master in workforce leadership” on the field, too.
It is the nature of sports that success is shared widely while failure finds more specific targets.
To suggest that Prescott was alone responsible for the Bulldogs success of late would be inaccurate. Much credit belongs to seventh-year Bulldogs’ coach Dan Mullen and his staff, which has led MSU to six bowl games in row. Credit too, must go to a host of other players whose contributions over this remarkable run should not go without note.
Yet Prescott stands apart as the face of the program, a transcendent performer whose contributions have extended beyond the playing field. MSU has never had a more powerful marketing tool than the player who plays his final game for the Bulldogs today. In many ways, this kid from Haughton, Louisiana, is the story of MSU football, whose fortunes have almost always rested on lightly-regarded, small-town players who were asked to exceed expectations.
No one has ever done that better than Dak Prescott.
While today’s Belk Bowl is not among the most anticipated of bowl games this year, it provides a last opportunity to bear witness to the curtain call of a legitimate legend.
It may be Dak Prescott’s final game in an MSU uniform, but his status is fixed in the Bulldogs’ firmament of stars,where it will long shine brightest among the legendary names of MSU football.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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