Mississippi State football: 2018 Egg Bowl Q&A with Red Cup Rebellion

The Mississippi State football team will head up to Oxford to play in the Egg Bowl tomorrow. To help us get ready for the game, I reached out to Two Yards and a Cloud over at Red Cup Rebellion to understand Ole Miss a little better.

Ethan Lee: Aside from the obvious aspects of the Ole Miss offense, can you name some players that Mississippi State fans need to be aware of? Who besides Jordan Ta’amu and A.J. Brown should we be familiar with?

Two Yards: This is an offense that’s loaded with weapons, even beyond Ta’amu and Brown (which is partly what frustrates Ole Miss fans like me, given our red zone deficiencies). Scottie Phillips has turned out to be one of the best running backs in the SEC this season, though he is hobbled with an ankle injury heading into the game.

DaMarkus Lodge entered the season as the sometimes overlooked third receiver because of how good A.J. Brown and D.K Metcalf are. That’s a shame because he’d be a clear #1 on just about any other team in the country, and he’s played like it this season. He’s got great hands, and Ta’amu seems to like to target him in high pressure situations.

If State double covers A.J., Lodge will make them pay. And, of course, we’ve got two pretty solid receiving threats at the tight end position in Dawson Knox and Octavious Cooley. Rebel fans were starting to wonder if Cooley would ever live up to his recruiting hype, but he’s come up with some solid catches this season, and both he and Knox are solid options for Ta’amu.

EL: The Mississippi State football team has struggled on offense on road trips. Against SEC teams on the road, the Bulldogs have scored a total of 10 points. Ole Miss has struggled on defense in just about every game. What happens when a very stoppable force meets an easily moved object?

TY: Sadly (for me), I think the easily moved object will continue to be easily moved. This is one of the worst Ole Miss defenses I’ve ever seen. That includes the dreadful Ed Orgeron defenses and the 2011 defense that Mullen destroyed in Nutt’s last year.

Ole Miss fans have more or less come to terms with the idea that our path to victory in just about all our games this season is to outscore the opponent. The defense isn’t capable of shutting anyone down, and that includes a State offense that seems (at least from what I’ve seen) pretty one-dimensional much of the time.

EL: Ole Miss is currently running a BOGO on Egg Bowl ticket sales. Will this work out in the athletic department’s favor or will it be something that sticks with Ole Miss fans for a while?

TY: Honestly, I think the athletic department is between a rock and a hard place. They rolled the dice on retaining Luke, who rolled the dice on retaining our OC and DC, and those gambles have all been pretty underwhelming.

The fanbase seems to be bouncing between apathy and anger, so I get that AD Ross Bjork needs to do something to try to get butts in seats. I’m not sure this will work out long term, but I think it’s ultimately a pretty minor thing in the grand scope of changes that need to be made.

EL: Aside from some of the more ridiculous antics and social media hysterics from fans, this rivalry is a pretty fun one to watch and the fanbases are similar in several ways. In exactly 15 words, what is your favorite thing about Mississippi State football fans?

TY: I admire the way State fans mobilize behind a coach or objective and avoid fracturing.

EL: And finally, prediction time. What do you expect to see from the Rebels and the Bulldogs in this year’s Egg Bowl? 

TY: I think Ole Miss hangs close in the first half, with both teams putting up a pair of touchdowns and a field goal to enter the locker room tied at 17. Then, in the second half, Ole Miss’s defense will break down (as it’s wont to do), and the OM offense will sputter in the red zone a few times (as it’s wont to do), resulting in a comfortable State win. Let’s say the final score will be State 38 – Ole Miss 27.

Thanks to Two Yards and a Cloud for all of the help with this. Go ahead and check out his twitter account to see what’s going with Ole Miss through a fairly sarcastic lens.