Very rarely do we get the opportunity to see the top two recruits from a previous spring's recruiting class square off, but Thursday night we got that chance. It may have been a bit weird though that both were defensive lineman.
Robert Nkemdiche of Ole Miss and Chris Jones of Mississippi State, arguably the nation's best two recruits from a year ago, got a chance to face off in last night's Egg Bowl. On a crucial 3rd and 2 inside the redzone, the Rebels opted to put their talented freshman DL at running back, hoping that he could pick up the needed yardage and bring them closer to scoring the game's first points. The only issue was that Chris Jones (and Bernardrick McKinney, to be fair) were in the way:
[video via ESPN]
The stop on third down would prove to be big, as the Rebels wound up missing a chipshot field goal on the next play, keeping the game scoreless.
We should note that the Rebels first broke out the use of Nkemdiche at tailback earlier in the game, and the giant rampaged his way to big gains. It seemed like MSU wouldn't be able to stop him as long as he got the ball, but credit the MSU defense for plugging up Robert the rest of the night when he touched the ball on offense.