MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Mississippi State's win in the Liberty Bowl was the kind of game coach Sylvester Croom's mentor would have loved.

Playing at the site of the Paul "Bear" Bryant's final game 25 years ago, the Bulldogs used power running and a dominant defense to beat Central Florida, 10-3, yesterday and earn a milestone win for the once dormant program.

"I've said quite often we don't need style points," said Croom, the Southeastern Conference coach of the year who played and coached under Bryant at Alabama for 11 seasons. "We just find a way to win."

Anthony Dixon powered in from the 1 for the winning touchdown with 1:54 to go and most valuable player Derek Pegues picked off two passes in a game featuring anemic offenses and 17 punts.

The Bulldogs (8-5) kept the Knights (10-4) out of the end zone and Kevin Smith from breaking the single-season rushing record. The junior finished with 119 yards, leaving him 61 shy of Barry Sanders' mark of 2,628 yards set for Oklahoma State in 1988.

"I was trying to find the holes, but they were playing faster than us," said Smith, who has already said he will return for his senior season.

It was the lowest scoring Liberty Bowl since Penn State beat Tulane 9-6 in 1979, but the pro-Mississippi State record crowd of 63,816 was rewarded for its patience as Dixon and the Bulldogs offense came alive late in the fourth quarter.

Croom, in his fourth season with Mississippi State, and the Bulldogs have played this way all year, resurrecting a program that hadn't won more than three games in six seasons.

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