2000 Independence Bowl The 2000 Sanford Independence Bowl , part of the 2000 – 01 NCAA football bowl season , took place on December 31 , 2000 at Independence Stadium in Shreveport , Louisiana . The competing teams were the Mississippi State Bulldogs , representing the Southeastern Conference , and the Texas A & M Aggies from the Big 12 Conference . A freak snowstorm began just before kickoff , blanketing the field in powder ; the entire game was played under extremely wintry conditions , a rarity for Shreveport . Mississippi St . won the bowl in overtime , 43 – 41 . Game summary . Prior to the game , the Bulldogs ( 8 - 4 ) had not scored in overtime in regular - season losses to Louisiana State and Arkansas . And things looked bleak for Mississippi State after Texas A & M ' s Ja ' Mar Toombs rambled 25 yards for a touchdown on the first play of overtime . But defensive tackle Willie Blade blocked the extra point . Eugene Clinton grabbed the ball and lateraled to Julius Griffith , who went the distance to cut the deficit to 41 - 37 . " They were blocking down on me , but I kept fighting and fighting to get through and finish the play , " Blade said . On the Bulldogs ' first play from scrimmage , Madkin turned a busted play into a 19 - yard gain . After Dontae Walker lost a yard , Madkin went up the middle from the 7 - yard line to give Mississippi State its second straight bowl win after four consecutive losses . " All I know is that I broke containment and I was trying to stretch ( the ball ) out as far as I could , " Madkin said . " I knew I had scored when my teammates started to jump on me . " Playing in a steady snow that obscured the yard markers and made footing treacherous , Madkin completed 9 - of - 19 passes for 71 yards and a pair of touchdowns . Walker carried 16 times for 143 yards and three scores . " There might have been a different football game under normal conditions , but our team just never gave up , " said Mississippi State coach Jackie Sherrill , who held the same post at Texas A & M from 1982 - 88 . " I was surprised both teams scored as many points as we did in the snow . " Toombs set a Texas A & M bowl record with 35 carries for 193 yards and three TDs . The yardage was the second - highest total in Aggies ' bowl history , trailing only the 276 Curtis Dickey rolled up in the 1978 Hall of Fame Bowl . " I haven ' t given the records any thought , " Toombs said . " I ' m a team guy and my only concern is the team . " Trailing 21 - 20 after three quarters , Texas A & M grabbed the lead on a 35 - yard touchdown pass from Mark Farris to Bethel Johnson . Richard Whitaker ran for the two - point conversion and Toombs scored on a 13 - yard run to give the Aggies a 35 - 21 cushion . Just over a minute later , Walker broke off a 32 - yard touchdown . With less than three minutes remaining , safety Marco Minor intercepted Farris at the Aggies ' 4 - yard line . Madkin threw a three - yard TD toss to Donald Lee to tie it with 90 seconds left . " I saw our defensive line going in pretty hard and my guy stopped , " Minor said . " So I just stepped in front of him as soon as possible to make a play . That ' s what I did . " Whitaker and Toombs ran for first - quarter touchdowns to stake Texas A & M to a 14 - 0 lead . The Bulldogs tied it in the second as Walker raced 40 yards for a score ( video ) and Madkin found Dicenzo Miller for a five - yard TD . The Aggies took a 20 - 14 lead into the locker room after Farris and Robert Ferguson hooked up for a 42 - yard touchdown . Texas A & M has lost four straight and seven of its last eight bowl appearances . " People talked all week about how evenly matched Texas A & M and Mississippi State were . At the end of 60 minutes of play , the score was tied , and when the game was over , only two points separated the teams so they were obviously right , " Aggies coach R . C . Slocum said . " It ' s a bitter feeling for us and I ' m sure Mississippi State is feeling pretty good on their side . " Sherrill , the winningest coach in Mississippi State history , improved to 2 - 4 in bowl games with the Bulldogs and 8 - 6 overall . Slocum , who has won 78 percent of his games at Texas A & M , fell to 2 - 8 in bowls . About 30 minutes before kickoff snow blew into Shreveport with strong wind whipping from one end zone to the other . The game started with the synthetic grass field a mix of green and white . By the second quarter , the turf was blanketed by snow . Plows were used during timeouts to make the goal lines , end lines and hash marks visible . As the snow fell throughout the game , at times it came down so hard it made watching the game like looking through television static . Many of the 36 , 974 fans at Independence Stadium left at halftime .