Ole Miss is having such a bad season that not even the SEC’s FVU policy could carry the Rebels to an overtime win against Vanderbilt last week. But Matt Luke can earn some redemption Saturday — all he’ll have to do is beat a top 20 Mississippi State.
Egg Bowl 2018 live stream: Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss time, TV schedule, and how to watch online
Nick Fitzgerald gets his revenge in Oxford in the battle for Mississippi’s soul.
Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
This year’s Egg Bowl pits a MSU team that’s only lost to ranked teams in 2018 against a Mississippi team that sniffed the rankings early in the season and never since. The Rebels are in the midst of a four-game slide that has dropped the team from 5-2 all the way to the brink of missing the postseason. Beating State Saturday wouldn’t just secure a rivalry win, it would also give Ole Miss something to look forward to in December, even if it’s just a midweek trip to Shreveport.
Mississippi State, on the other hand, can make a case for a mid-tier bowl by topping off an 8-4 season with a win in Oxford. The Bulldogs are a double-digit favorite on paper Thursday, but numbers can’t predict the impact of some good ol’ fashioned in-state hate. Besides, Luke is undefeated in the Egg Bowl as a head coach.
Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss prediction:
The S&P+ ratings see Mississippi as the nation’s 11th-best team. Ole Miss clocks in at No. 57 and just lost to the No. 77 team. As much as I’d like to believe in Mississippi’s home field advantage turning the tide at the Egg Bowl, the Rebels are still the team who threw a five-yard out on fourth-and-6 with the game on the line in Nashville. Bulldogs win and cover.
Time, TV channel, and streaming info
Mississippi State vs. Ole Miss news:
- Ole Miss fans aren’t super psyched about this week’s matchup.
Even then, there’s always potential for the Egg Bowl to get weird — over the past decade, the underdog has won outright five times. Unfortunately for Ole Miss, this is a very different game from a year ago, and State’s looking much less vulnerable nowadays. Over that same ten-year stretch, the winner allowed an average of 18 points. It’s hard to imagine the Rebels hunkering down like that, not to mention the fact that this is one of the best defenses they’ve faced all year.
- For Whom the Cowbell Tolls is asking the important questions. Like which Thanksgiving food each SEC school is.
Ole Miss: Cranberry Sauce
It sucks and no one really likes it.
- Ole Miss lost to Vandy last week. The refs played a part in it, but still. Don’t lose to Vandy.
- And Mississippi State looked just fine by beating Arkansas last week, who sucks.
What can Nick Fitzgerald do against the Rebels?
Fitzgerald has been the Bulldogs starting quarterback for what seems like ages, but he never made the leap from “serviceable” to “great” on a consistent basis in Starkville. On Thursday, he’ll get one last chance to trash his rival. And he’ll do so against an Ole Miss team that just allowed Vanderbilt quarterback Kyle Shurmur to burn it for three touchdowns.
Fitzgerald only got five passes off in last year’s Egg Bowl before going down with a season-ending ankle injury in the first quarter. He’ll get his shot at redemption — and the memories of 2016’s game in Oxford where he threw for three touchdowns and ran for two more must be vivid.
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