Blood will be boiling on both sidelines as bitter rivals Ole Miss and Mississippi State clash Saturday in Oxford for the 107th time.
How important is the annual Egg Bowl to rivals Mississippi State and Ole Miss?
Well, the Rebels waited only one day to fire former coach Ed Orgeron - after the UM administration declared he would return the next season - after his team lost to Mississippi State 17-14 in 2007 in embarrassing fashion. The Rebels blew a 14-0 lead in the fourth quarter after Orgeron gambled on fourth down from midfield and failed.
A year later, the Bulldogs fired former coach Sylvester Croom a few days after his lifeless team was embarrassed 45-0 by the Rebels in 2008, the third-worst rout in the 106-year history of the instate rivalry.
But does the heated rivalry mean more to fans than its does the players?
No, says Pillow Academy head football coach Michael Fair, who played at Mississippi State from 1996-1999, starting at center some his sophomore season and every game his final two years.
"It's such an intense game," Fair said. "Both teams have so many players from Mississippi, meaning most everybody knows one another and wants desperately to beat them."
Former Ole Miss quarterback Stewart Patridge agrees.
"Oh, yeah, it's real special, especially for the Mississippi boys, but it doesn't take long for the out-of-state guys to catch on to it once they hit the field for their first Egg Bowl," said the former Pillow Academy standout and Morgan City resident.
Both Patridge and Fair were on the field at the same time for two of the more memorable Egg Bowls in the last 25 years.
In 1997, a brawl between the two teams broke out before the game in Starkville.
Fair, a redshirt freshman at the time, remembers it well.
"The linemen were coming down the ramp, and everyone in front of me started sprinting down to the field to get in on it. It got pretty intense in there," said Fair, a Carroll Academy product.
Patridge, wo now lives in Southaven, remembers more about the ending than the pre-game scuffle. He proved to be the hero in the Rebels' 15-14 win, passing for two touchdowns and hitting Cory Peterson with the game-winning two-point pass with 25 seconds to play.
"That will always be a special moment in this great rivalry that I'll share with my teammates. I hear about that comeback from Ole Miss fans everywhere I go," said Patridge, who was 2-2 against the rival Bulldogs and 1-1 as a starter. "Every kid who has ever thrown a football in the backyard dreams of one day marching his team down the field for the win in a big game."
The year before didn't go as well for Patridge on a rain-flooded field in Oxford as the former Mustang signal caller was sacked a dozen times - six coming from MSU outside linebacker Greg Favors - and had an interception returned for a touchdown in a 17-0 win by MSU.
"It was just a miserable day," he recalls.
Fair, who earned second-team All-SEC honors as a senior in 2000, was 2-1 as a starter in the Egg Bowl. His fondest memory isn't the 1998 win (28-6) that sent the Bulldogs to Atlanta to represent the SEC West in the conference title game, but instead MSU's stunning comeback the next year in Starkville.
"It was one of the greatest games I have ever been a part of," said Fair, whose team trailed by 14 after three quarters before scoring 17 unanswered in the fourth for a 23-20 victory.
As far as Saturday's 107th meeting between the rivals, both ex-players are picking their respective teams to claim the Golden Egg trophy.
No surprise there, but there might be a few come Saturday. That's the nature of this rivalry.
n Contact Bill Burrus at bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
