Egg Bowl Time - Football Season in Review

Ole Miss will finish its regular season on Friday the 29th against arch-rival Mississippi State. The Bulldogs need one more win to become eligible to play in a bowl game, and that, combine with the opportunity to put a blemish on Ole Miss’ playoff resume, combined with how coach Kiffin has been trolling the Bulldogs all season by calling the game a home game for Ole Miss, combined with how this is Mississippi State’s superbowl, gives the team more than enough reason to play for the win. On the Ole Miss side, a loss would jeopardize the team’s playoff chances, perhaps even push it out of contention, and that is because coach Kiffin is abandoning the squad after this game to go to either LSU or Florida, so it is easy to imagine the playoff committee abandoning Ole Miss as a coach-less team with a recent loss to an inferior rival. Add to that, that Kiffin-coached teams never play with heart, a phenomenon I’ve noted numerous times over his six-hear stint, and the squad could very-well find itself demoralized due to Kiffin’s media circus, and the Rebels find themselves in a near-perfect upset scenario. Mississippi State has everything to win, and Ole Miss has everything to lose.

Ole Miss has played every single SEC contest close this season, aside from an inspired victory over Oklahoma at Oklahoma, the Rebels have wins over hapless SEC teams Arkansas, Kentucky, Florida, LSU, and South Carolina, and a loss against top-tier Georgia. The Bulldogs have also played most of their SEC slate close, with nailbiter losses to Tennessee and Texas, a win over Arkansas, and their best win is over 20th-ranked Arizona State. In other words, this game is a much closer matchup than most people seem to want to believe. Ole Miss isn’t that good, and Mississippi State isn’t that bad. If I were a betting man, I would stay away from this one entirely. The Egg Bowl is just about impossible to predict.

All of that aside, the Rebels present a real challenge to any team looking to defend against them. Half back Kewan Lacy is the real deal. He has a near-perfect balance of power and speed. For all the praise quarterback Chambliss has gotten during the season, and he has played well, he isn’t a superstar by any stretch. He gets a pass batted in every single game, for whatever reason, and mostly those battted passes haven’t hurt the Rebels, but this could be the game that that batted pass ends up in the hands of the Bulldogs. State will need a turnover or two to have a chance to beat Ole Miss. If I was Mississippi State, I would probably make that my strategy, to get Chambliss into some bad throwing situations and make it beat you with with run. On passing downs, make sure the defensive linemen put up their hands, and otherwise play tight coverage on the receiving corps. For Ole Miss, the key to victory is going to be making State beat you with the pass by stuffing the run. It is going to be crucial to jump out to an early lead, as State is not a team that plays well from behind.

Hotty Toddy!