Max
Member
OK, state of Mississippi. This is your chance. Your best chance. Maybe your last chance.
To stand up and be counted. To overcome your own "God bless them" history. To run with the big dogs and put up or shut your trap.
Not to be impolite, but your Ole Miss and Mississippi State football programs have been, for the most part, with rare Houston Nutt and Jackie Sherrill exceptions, a wart on the elbow of the Southeastern Conference since integration.
The Rebels are still the only team in the SEC West that's never reached the SEC Championship Game, with the exception of newbie Texas A&M. The Bulldogs have been there once - same as newbie Missouri from the East - and, of course, they lost.
Ole Miss has won six SEC titles, the last one in 1963. Mississippi State has won one conference crown in 1941.
Of course, that was before Hugh Freeze and Dan Mullen were born. Those coaches have brought hope to Oxford and Starkville and the entire Magnolia State, and this weekend, they're bringing to that state the biggest football weekend anyone can remember.
Ole Miss welcomes perennial national contender Alabama. Mississippi State plays host to playoff-contending Texas A&M. ESPN's College GameDay will travel to The Grove in Oxford for the first time, and the SEC Network's little brother alternative, SEC Nation, will set up shop in Starkville.
The No. 11 Rebels and No. 12 Bulldogs will play on the same day as top-15 teams for the first time since 1958, and they've never been 4-0 together at the same time, as they are now, in the history of ever.
This is their chance to keep hope alive. This is their opportunity to show that inferior football isn't something that grows in the soil in the Delta.
It's a real accomplishment to get to a place where your state is the center of the college football universe, even for one day, and Freeze and Mullen deserve plenty of kudos for building their programs to reach this point.
So bask in this week, Mississippi. Swim in it. Soak up every last ounce of the positive spotlight shining your way. It's nice that you get to experience a little hope and promise to replace your familiar doom and gloom.
We in the state of Alabama salute you and would like to offer you one bit of neighborly advice. Enjoy this moment while it lasts. It probably won't.
To stand up and be counted. To overcome your own "God bless them" history. To run with the big dogs and put up or shut your trap.
Not to be impolite, but your Ole Miss and Mississippi State football programs have been, for the most part, with rare Houston Nutt and Jackie Sherrill exceptions, a wart on the elbow of the Southeastern Conference since integration.
The Rebels are still the only team in the SEC West that's never reached the SEC Championship Game, with the exception of newbie Texas A&M. The Bulldogs have been there once - same as newbie Missouri from the East - and, of course, they lost.
Ole Miss has won six SEC titles, the last one in 1963. Mississippi State has won one conference crown in 1941.
Of course, that was before Hugh Freeze and Dan Mullen were born. Those coaches have brought hope to Oxford and Starkville and the entire Magnolia State, and this weekend, they're bringing to that state the biggest football weekend anyone can remember.
Ole Miss welcomes perennial national contender Alabama. Mississippi State plays host to playoff-contending Texas A&M. ESPN's College GameDay will travel to The Grove in Oxford for the first time, and the SEC Network's little brother alternative, SEC Nation, will set up shop in Starkville.
The No. 11 Rebels and No. 12 Bulldogs will play on the same day as top-15 teams for the first time since 1958, and they've never been 4-0 together at the same time, as they are now, in the history of ever.
This is their chance to keep hope alive. This is their opportunity to show that inferior football isn't something that grows in the soil in the Delta.
It's a real accomplishment to get to a place where your state is the center of the college football universe, even for one day, and Freeze and Mullen deserve plenty of kudos for building their programs to reach this point.
So bask in this week, Mississippi. Swim in it. Soak up every last ounce of the positive spotlight shining your way. It's nice that you get to experience a little hope and promise to replace your familiar doom and gloom.
We in the state of Alabama salute you and would like to offer you one bit of neighborly advice. Enjoy this moment while it lasts. It probably won't.
