Quote of the Day:
“It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.” –Zelda Fitzgerald
End Zones
Five times Saturday the Mississippi State Bulldogs scored touchdowns against Ole Miss (along with a couple of field goals) in route to their Egg Bowl victory. It was the most points scored by the Bullies against Ole Miss since the invention of the forward pass. TB listened to the game in mute satisfaction so as not to antagonize my dear olemisguided family members whose football loyalties are opposite mine. As I silently celebrated I contemplated the schizophrenia that is the college football fan, particularly those of us from the Magnolia State where everybody knows everybody. On the one hand I hate Ole Miss and everything the school stands for–what they stand for as I understand it is all things that keep my school from having success on the football field. On the other hand I really like most of the people I know that went there, hell I even married one. And yes, I even spent three years there, sort of. So I guess I don’t really hate them. I just hate their football and basketball teams. And baseball and women’s hoops and track and Miss America contestants and….you get the picture. Except I pretty much like everyone I know that has ever played for any of those teams. I even like Oxford and if I had the chance I’d gladly live there. So anyway, I hate them sometimes, like when they are beating State at something. But I don’t really hate ’em. I guess it depends on when you catch me and who’s around. It’s complicated I guess, but hate’em or not, I dang sure want that Egg at my school every year. Bigger than the Super Bowl? Yep, for me it is.
End of the Road
Two thousand five hundred seventy-four point five miles–it seems longer when you use the words. I started with my crew last Friday night. We drove to my old home place in Pascagoula. Saturday to Tallahassee, Florida, with a stopover in Mobile. Sunday we went to Tampa for that Spanish meal in Ybor City then Monday we crossed the Everglades and rested a bit in Fort Lauderdale before joining up with the extended gang for the cruise down A1A to Key West and Mile Marker 0, the End of the Road. Then back again, which is a lot less fun. After I catch my breath and catch up the stats on the Pickin game I’ve got a post coming comparing the trips of 1999 and 2009 to that den of sin and debauchery which should be amusing.
Thursday Pickin Season II, the beginning of the End
While one is flying down I-10 in bumper to bumper “get me the hell away from Disney” 85 mph traffic, I find it is a good time to contemplate one’s blog. In addition to figuring out just exactly how it is I will make this gig generate cash, something I forgot by the time I got home, I decided that what the TBU needs to end the football season with a bang instead of a whimper is a big finish. To that End, there will be a TBCS. The top two finishers after next week’s regular season finale will go head to head on the New Year’s Day bowls to determine the champion. And yes, musical taste and entertainment will play a role in that last game, so if you think you might be in the finale, start thinkin about how to get those possibly vital bonus points. (heh heh, Sweet will never win now…heh heh).
Travellinbaen 
I went to my nap leading the Bullies and woke up loosing to them rather handily. At which point I just smiled and thought the new Coach deserved it, especially when the boys wearing red and blue were not prepared – and make no mistake they were not prepared and they got what they deserved. They were looking way into the future to a Capitol One bowl that will likely fade into oblivion with someone else’s team playing. One never knows does one?
I reserve my hate for those that really deserve it and it is not a football team.
The ride home is never as fun as the ride there, especially if you are the driver. Although the anticipation of sleeping in your own bed is one that can be enjoyed. The moment that brings the “ahh” into cool, clean sheets is one of contentment and that is a wonderful thing.
Here is to the TBU and the last day of hurricane season 2009.
I never had any hate for the Bulldogs, until the summer before I started college when my friends who were going to State began to just run their mouth about MSU. Then I began to have a problem. Especially because it’s not like those of us headed to Ole Miss were screaming Hotty Toddy or even doing anything close to what those bound for Starkvegas were doing. That’s when I started to hate State.
As I’ve gotten a little older that hate has waned (I’m much more concerned about beating LSU) and is now reserved strictly for cowbells. I hate those cowbells more than anything. Mostly because they are against the rules, but yet State fans get away with having them.
I read the MSU AD saying they do what they can and that if they see them they take them. I don’t buy that for a second. You can hide a plastic baggy filled with whiskey, you can’t hide a big metal bell. Why don’t you State folks learn to use your hands, feet, and voice? (I’ve never heard anything louder than crowds at soccer games in England, I’ve been to four different stadiums around England, and they would never use an artificial noisemaker.)
Actually, I just remembered, that my distaste for cowbells started at the Coast Basketball Classic, I think that’s the name. The little tournament they used hold at the Coliseum for high school basketball. I remember being surrounded by East Central fans/parents, and they all had either cowbells or milk jugs filled with rocks. It annoyed the hell out of me.
Anyway, kudos to State for the victory. I’d like to see all the big state schools become nationally prominent. That’s good for everybody.
Well said, IR…..State folks deserve to cheer loud and long over their totally dominating win over their nationally-ranked in-state rival…having played in 3 egg bowls (including the initial 1978 game), i can confess to some lingering sour feelings toward our cousins down south…..but crazy things happen in these games….as a matter of fact, the rebels were huge underdogs in the ’78 game….we upset the dawgs that day, so i wasn’t surprised last saturday….but, we lost in jackson in ’80 in my final college game when john bond and company put a whuppin on us….i laughed a couple of years later when the wind blew the game-winning field goal back into the field of play and the bullies lost a game the should have won….TB has been great when it comes to this rivalry….he good-naturedly accompanied me to the M-club room at a recent ole miss home game…i introduced him around to various past ole miss players and he took it all in stride…he looked around the manning room and checked out all the all-american pictures on the wall…he even agreed to have his picture taken with me in front of the john vaught statue……i have to say, i don’t hate state..it’s a good school……i hate the football team, nay, the whole athletic department…..every athletic team there…because, somewhere, in the back of mind, i have memories of the talking and the arrogance that comes out when state succeeds at any one of those sports….it’s been really tolerable in recent years, but just wait if they rise to prominence again…the are worse than alabama fans…..but not quite as bad as LSU fans
Q09 – Didn’t USM play Ole Miss in Jackson in 1980? Although hazy due to the jungle juice I was ingesting I was there. At least I think that was the game – perhaps you can shed some light on that one for me.
JL….i believe you are right….USM won ..i think….those were reggie collier days…i played in that game….my memory is tellin me that there was a huge free-for-all after the game ….pandemonium….donny brook
Yes, my dear that was in the Reggie Collier/Sammie Winder days. I was an equal Mississippi School Supporter – I had an autographed picture of John Bond on my bedroom wall. I’m sure IR does not know that I had a cowbell bracelet given to me by Lawson’s Hardware – I loved hanging out in the hardware store in my day. One of his good friends is the grandson of Lawson Smith, may he rest in peace. Good memories all the way around. I saw you play and didn’t even know it to appreciate it. So sorry Mr. Q09!
No worries, JL….after the game our party began….once, after a Jackson game, the daughters of Governor Cliff Finch invited a few of us players back to the mansion…these girls attended ole miss, so, we knew of them….we had the run of the place….steaks were cooked on the stove and we all sat down to eat them at the large dining room table…having consumed copious amounts of alcohol, we entertained ourselves by throwing pieces of steak onto the dining rug for the dog to eat….good times