22 as in… this is probably going to be the toughest call of all season. Or any season. In fact I can't in good Bulldog conscience focus on just one double-deuce dayte. There are too many great, not good but great, choices. And I know I'll miss others who most assuredly belong so indulgence is asked.
So, we combine and compact beginning with the farthest-back on our short list. He is none other than Art Davis, a Ring of Honor member and easily one of the top-ten and probably top-five Bulldogs ever to call Scott Field home. A Clarksdale native who missed almost all his senior high school season he was still Mr. CHS before signing with Mississippi State College and Coach Murray Warmath.
Able to play as a freshman he immediately started at defensive back and against national champs Tennessee no less. Davis has the unmatchable distinction of scoring the first State touchdown called by Jack Cristil, in 1953 against Memphis State. Then he caught Jackie Parker's touchdown pass for a 7-7 final score that knocked Ole Miss out of the Cotton Bowl.
Playing for Darrel Royal two years, Davis was SEC Best Offensive Back in 1954 playing al sixty minutes in six of ten games. As a 1955 senior he was co-captain, first-team All-American, the SEC's Best Defensive Back and runner-up for Best Offensive Back!
He was voted Mr. Mississippi State by the campus body, played in the major All-Star games of the day, and had a short NFL career due to injuries. Davis coached high school and college football working for legends Paul Dietzel, Bobby Dodd, and his former coach Royal before retiring. He was put in the Ring of Honor in 2018, three years before his passing.
Moving up in time, 22 was worn well by James Jones, the Vicksburg native whose legacy was limited by a senior season injury in 1979. Before that, Jones was right up there with the best the SEC had to offer at the running back position. The junior year was his big one as despite State switching mid-stream to an offense emphasizing Dave Marler-to-Mardye McDole (sensibly so), Jones was able to rush for 687 yards and ten touchdowns along with three receiving touchdowns. And on the day of his life, he threw two halfback option touchdowns in a huge comeback home win over Florida State.
The arrival of Emory Bellard's wishbone for 1979 boded well for Jones until game three, when he and for that matter several more Dogs were lost to injury in a Memphis whipping of Tennessee. Jones recovered to be a third-round Dallas Cowboy selection where he would be an all-purpose back and primary return man. But in 1982 another knee injury struck and while Jones would stay on the roster as a situational runner for two more years the best was behind.
Two decades later another 22 came to campus and for a more modern audience James 'JJ' Johnson remains a favorite Bulldog back. I won't argue. One of the many juco players Jackie Sherrill signed in 1997 to get around NCAA penalties, Johnson fit his gameplans perfectly. Maybe more so, even, than the back whose place JJ took after the tragic drowning of Keffer McGee (wait for tomorrow).
Big, strong, fast, Johnson had all the tools for a late-90s running back. In two seasons he would pound out 2,452 yards and each year he scored a dozen touchdowns. Yes, we who were there will always wonder. Had Johnson been pulled from the Alabama game earlier—Sherrill naturally wanted to keep pounding his alma mater and JJ got 237 yards—and not hurt the hamstring, how would the 1998 SEC Championship Game have played out?
As it was JJ powered State to the West title that year and was a consensus first-team All-SEC as well as Conerly Trophy winner. Playing just two seasons he is still 10th in career rushing yardage. Only Boobie Dixon had a better single-season rushing average and Johnson is first for career average as well as tied for most 200-yard games (two, along with Jerous Norwood).
Johnson went to the NFL Combine and was second-round pick of Miami, playing three years with the Dolphins and one more with Cleveland.
And finally, because it is still fresh in our own MSU memory…'22 was Mike Leach's finest season on the Bulldog sideline, bringing his lone Egg Bowl win too in what would be his last game before the tragic passing. It all seems still so surreal…
