The Egg Bowl Means Everything to the 2015 Season

For a lot of fans (not all) in the state of Mississippi, the Egg Bowl is the entire football season….every year. That goes for both sides – it’s all about bragging rights over your neighbor. And that’s fine.

I’ve honestly never been in this camp, although my Ole Miss hate is strong to quite strong. Losing to them does not spoil the season nor does it make the season. But since we started Maroon and White Nation in 2010 I been able to see just how important the Golden Egg is to so many MSU and Ole Miss fans.

I feel like I may have a better window into the ebbs and flows of the fanbase than most. I see how people react to our posts, how the success of the team directly effects our traffic, etc. For example, to this point in the 2014 football season we had 1.36 million page views but to this point in the 2015 season we have 617 thousand page views. Less than half. It’s not because our writing has suffered or anything like that because we were flooded during the LSU and Alabama weeks when people were excited. But that excitement hasn’t been maintained like it was last year when State got up to 9-0 and was #1 in the nation.

My point is that I know how important the Egg Bowl is to MSU fans. It’s really important. The amount of joy created by beating Ole Miss is tremendous. The agony of defeat has the equally opposite effect. If the Bulldogs win y’all will click on the site just because you want to soak in the win. If the Rebels win we can expect only Oxford on-lookers to stop by as y’all won’t want to talk about it.

As much as this game means, in 2015 this game means even more. Here are some reasons why:

1. Holding serve. The home team has won 14 of the last 16 times. Both teams are 8-8 in those years. It’s like a tennis match featuring two great servers – if one of them breaks serve it could be enough to really punish the other player. You have to hold serve and win at home.
2. Dak’s last home game. The greatest player to ever wear the maroon and white will play his last game at Davis Wade Stadium on Saturday night. Enjoy the moment, and let’s send him out with a win.
3. Finishing ahead of Ole Miss in the SEC West for the sixth straight year. That’s right – SIX straight. Ever since 2010. The only thing that needs to happen is Arkansas beating Missouri, which is almost a lock, so MSU can win a four-way tie at 5-3.
4. Chance to make the Sugar Bowl. After the playoff rankings were released on Tuesday night and MSU was only nine spots behind Florida the possibility is really out there. If Florida State can beat the UF in the Swamp, the Gators are almost assuredly going to lose to Alabama which should be enough to propel State to New Orleans.
5. Dealing OM’s 2013 class a crushing blow. The Rebs heralded 2013 recruiting class will always have a couple of wins over LSU and Alabama in their belt, as well as a New Year’s Six Bowl in 2014, but they have ultimately fallen short of the lofty goals and aspirations of Ole Miss fans. If they were to win the Egg, they would probably get to that Sugar Bowl and their ’13 class would still be remembered. But if State can secure the Egg once again, that class would be an afterthought of what could have been as they stumbled to an 8-4 finish in their “money” year.
6. Bragging rights. It’s what I talked about at the beginning of this piece, and it’s always huge. But this year it could be even bigger. OM fans seem to think Hugh Freeze owns MSU – that 2013 was a fluke game while the other two have essentially been blow-outs. They believe they are vastly more talented and better than Mississippi State – but a win in this game with both teams equally healthy would dispel any notion of that considering how State has been equal to or better than Ole Miss every year under Mullen.

The Battle for the Golden Egg is always intense. It’s going to be another fierce game in 2015 – maybe an offensive barn burner the likes of which we’ve yet to see in this series. It’s going to be a showdown between two teams that are among the best in the SEC where the stakes are huge and there is a real opportunity to make a STATEment.