Strange-but-true tales and unforgettable moments from the Egg Bowl

They call it the Egg Bowl, but the yearly Mississippi State-Ole Miss football game has nothing to do with the state’s farming prowess. According to Department of Farming data, Iowa is really the leading manufacturer of eggs in the United States (15%), followed by Ohio and Indiana (both 9%). Mississippi doesn’t even get a mention in this “Egg-STAT-ic” post from 2021.

So what’s the handle the nickname? Well, it’s what happens when fans require something glossy to sidetrack them from thoughts of malice and a newspaper headline author decides to take matters into his own hands.Let’s start with the prize and the initial nickname. Although the rivalry goes back to 1901– State won the first game, Ole Miss the 2nd– there was no postgame prize handed out till 1927. And the reason for the modification was practical: Authorities needed something to hold spectators’ attention once the game was over. A year previously, a massive brawl had actually broken out among the fan bases. So both student bodies, in an effort to “foster clean sportsmanship,” commissioned a prize to be called “The Golden Egg.” It was gold and shiny and gorgeous … and due to the fact that it was more obtuse than the typical football and lacked any raised edges to mimic the stitching of a football, it looked exactly like a golden egg.Fast-forward half

a century and the game-day edition of The Clarion-Ledger in 1978. Managing editor Tom Patterson– possibly tired of an unnecessarily long-winded nickname, perhaps intent on a particular design of pun– composed the headline,” Egg Bowl Is Up For Scramble. “And the Egg Bowl developed from shorthand to a sort of official-unofficial nickname that both schools use interchangeably with The Battle for the Golden Egg.But this is all backstory. They might call it The Fight for the Fuzzy Soybean( the state’s top farming export)and it would still be engaging. Although Alabama-Auburn, Michigan-Ohio State and Florida-Florida State may have more national importance in terms of their effect on the national championship race, no rivalry week game produces more drama than Mississippi State-Ole Miss.(One SEC power broker when informed ESPN’s Mark Schlabach that the rivalry “makes Ohio State-Michigan and Auburn-Alabama appear like Sunday school.”) The very first time they played, there was a one-hour delay since Ole Miss accused State of playing nonstudents.There have actually been lots of battles and more than enough pettiness shared between the 2 schools. When Dan Mullen was still the head coach of the Bulldogs, he refused to call the Rebs by their name. Rather, he simply referred to” The School Up North “in interviews. In-house game schedules used the slight, subbing in T.S.U.N. for Ole Miss.The 2 existing coaches are in fact quite close nowadays, but the two programs can’t help however fight. They can’t even agree on standard realities. Although they both point out Ole Miss as the leader in the series with a record of 64-48-6

, Mississippi State states the game has actually been played on Thanksgiving 27 times and Ole Miss puts the number at 30. Whatever record book you sign up for, the competition will be bet the 119th time this Thanksgiving (7 p.m. ET, ESPN). To get you all set, here are some of the most fascinating games in Egg Bowl history. 1983: The Spotless Deflection The Golden Egg Prize has been provided to the winner of Ole Miss and Mississippi State given that 1927, but it wasn’t called the Egg Bowl up until 1978. Spruce Derden/USA TODAY Sports Sometimes nicknamesare misinforming. The”Spotless Deflection”wasn’t actually a deflection at all– unless you believe in cosmic events. Mississippi State, which had given up a 17-0 lead and routed 24-23 with 24 seconds delegated play, had a game-winning basket within its grasp. Artie Crosby tried the 27-yard kick and it seemed well on its method– good height, excellent line, excellent everything. State fans started commemorating. However then the ball simply stopped at its pinnacle. It was as if Nature knocked it down herself, the strong wind gust sending out the ball to the far left of the goalposts.Mississippi State coach Emory Bellard marveled, “I have actually never ever seen a kick come backwards in my years of coaching. It resembled something reached down and stopped the ball in flight.”1999: The choice and the kick This game may be the best in the competition’s history.

It was one of those unusual events when both schools were ranked: Ole Miss 23rd, Mississippi State 18th. The Rebs jumped out to a 20-6 lead, but the Bulldogs fought back to connect the game with only 27 seconds remaining. And instead of bet overtime on the road, Ole Miss had Romaro Miller air it out downfield. Except Robert Bean deflected the pass and kicked it up in the air. Eugene Clinton got under it and caught the interception around the 50-yard line and ran the ball back to the 27 with 8 seconds left. Scott Westerfield then linked on the 44-yard game-winning field

objective. As soon as Ole Miss went out of bounds on the kickoff return, fans rushed the field.2013: Dak announces his arrival Legends are made in rivalry games. Prior to Dak Prescott led Mississippi State to the No. 1 ranking in 2014 and before he set school records on his way to becoming a fourth-round draft choose a year later on, he was a sophomore in his first season as a starter, handling an arm injury that knocked him out of the 2 games before the Egg Bowl. And for the very first three quarters versus Ole

Miss, he stood on the sideline.But, with the Bulldogs trailing by a field goal with 11 minutes left, Prescott convinced Mullen to let him in the game. After knocking off the rust during his first drive, he drove the offense 59 lawns on 13 plays to secure a game-tying field goal. Then, in overtime, he ran for the winning goal.2019: The costly canine pee penalty play 1:57 Mississippi State escapes with a 21-20 victory after Ole Miss WR Elijah Moore was penalized for commemorating a touchdown by pretending to urinate like a pet dog and the Rebels missed out on the ensuing additional point.First, there needs to be context about the Egg Bowl to end all Egg Bowls. Because if you believed the 2019 game was the very first time an Ole Miss player fabricated urinating on Mississippi State’s field, you ‘d be incorrect. 2 years earlier, after a pregame scuffle, DK Metcalf scored a goal late in the 3rd quarter, treked his leg to imitate a pet dog peeing and sustained a 15-yard penalty.And simply to make certain the fire was still burning before the return journey to Starkville, let’s not forget A.J. Brown’s prospective touchdown

at the end of a third-quarter blowout in Oxford and the pushing and shoving that developed into a bench-clearing brawl. To punctuate the absence of civility, referees examined a charge to every player on both teams.OK, now on to 2019. There have actually been wild plays and wild surfaces throughout Egg Bowl history, however no game has produced more fireworks than the one in 2019. After playing to an incorporate the first half, the Bulldogs went on a Garrett Shrader 5-yard goal run in the third quarter. And it looked as if that was that as Ole Miss punted two times and threw an interception in the fourth quarter. However then, with 2 minutes left, Matt Corral, who had actually come on in relief of starter John Rhys Plumlee, drove the Rebs 80 backyards on 11 plays.

On the 2-yard line with just 4 seconds remaining, Corral found Elijah Moore in the end zone for what looked like the tying rating. Except Moore duplicated Metcalf’s antics, hiked his leg right in front of a referee and was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The goal held, however you can guess what happened next. Pushed back 15 yards from the charge, Luke Logan missed out on the point after effort and State won.In a game in which both coaches were on the spot, neither endured. Ole Miss fired Matt Luke days later and replaced him with headline-grabbing Lane Kiffin. Not to be outdone, Mississippi State fired Joe Moorhead and got a huge name of its own in Mike Leach.