Egg Bowl Emphasis

[dawgpound]

Do we as fans and Dan as the coach, put too much emphasis on the Egg Bowl? We had a great year and great record but losing the egg bowl hurts and to many fans now the season feels like a failure. Should we continue to talk about it all year and take shots at ole miss if losing one game can hurt us so bad?

[maroonmania]

Didn't seem like the team and coaches put enough emphasis on it this year. We seriously looked more fired up to play Vanderbilt than we did this past Saturday in Oxford. Defense lacked any fire at all.

[ShotgunDawg]

Do we as fans and Dan as the coach, put too much emphasis on the Egg Bowl? We had a great year and great record but losing the egg bowl hurts and to many fans now the season feels like a failure. Should we continue to talk about it all year and take shots at ole miss if losing one game can hurt us so bad?

Absolutely not. It's the last game of the year, so it doesn't matter how much it hurts. It certainly hurts like a sombitch, but that's the way it's supposed to feel. Hopefully, that pain drives us to push the envelope to find ways to improve and move the ball on the 4 to 5 teams in the entire country that can stop us.

[ShotgunDawg]

Didn't seem like the team and coaches put enough emphasis on it this year. We seriously looked more fired up to play Vanderbilt than we did this past Saturday in Oxford. Defense lacked any fire at all.

We didn't have more fire against Vandy, we played free and easy because we knew we were so much better than them. Against Ole Miss, we were mentally exhausted from the weight of the season and playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.

There just simply wasn't enough gas left in the tank. We'll learn from that though, and it handle it better in the future

[dawgpound]

We didn't have more fire against Vandy, we played free and easy because we knew we were so much better than them. Against Ole Miss, we were mentally exhausted from the weight of the season and playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.

There just simply wasn't enough gas left in the tank. We'll learn from that though, and it handle it better in the future

Exactly... Our team seemed like they were so scared to lose the game that they couldn't play free and were way too tight and Ole Miss was flying around the field making plays

[Johnson85]

to many fans now the season feels like a failure.

If the season feels like a failure to a fan, then that fan is an idiot and whatever he's doing to cause that, he needs to stop.

Teams and fans care more about rivalry games, and it's frustrating as hell to have poor pregame decisions put you out of the game before it's really started, so it's understandable that people would spend some time pissed off about the way we handled the egg bowl. But if they let that ruin this season, then being a sports fan may not be for them.

[ShotgunDawg]

Exactly... Our team seemed like they were so scared to lose the game that they couldn't play free and were way too tight and Ole Miss was flying around the field making plays

When you have nothing to play for, injuries, and others getting their first opportunity to step up, this is what happens. It seems odd, but for anyone that's ever coached or played, you know how Ole Miss held the edge the other night psychologically. In fact, we may have had a better chance of winning if Ole Miss had 1 loss and was playing for something. Then Bucky would have been more conservative and their players would have been the same as ours.

[DawgHouseUnited]

I actually see it as greater expectations from our fans. We've had a magical season and let's be honest, we fans totally expected to roll through Oxpatch on our way to the playoffs. We expected to win 11 games in one season. I have to let that sink in, because I've seen times when we didn't expect to win 11 games in two seasons or more. So when we didn't get that 11th win, against a big rival, it hurts.

If the seasons seems like a failure, it's because we were so close to the prize; the real prize- a championship trophy, not a moral-victory prize. We were close, but we didn't make it. Losing that game stings, because we have higher expectations. It will take a little time to sit back and fully appreciate how good a year we've had, but I expect most of the "failure of a season" prisoners-of-the-moment to come around.

[Maroonthirteen]

1st Q: Fans probably. Coach and players, no. We have some fans on twitter that seemingly tweet more about OM than us. I hate them and Bama as much as anything on this earth. But I try not to talk about them unless we are playing them. The coaches need to subtley hype the game because the players need to be mad as hell leading up to the game.

2nd Q: We need to cool it on the "shots" at them. Im not talking about "Our State" and marketing our university. People mistakenly link that with a shot at them rather than a promotion of OUR school. I like the special uniforms. But I am talking about the "TSUN" stuff. Call them "Mississippi" if you don't want to use Ole Miss.

Let's make one thing clear though, OM fans will pretend to not take this rivarly as seriously. But they take this rivarly as seriously as we do if not more. If you were at the 2012 and 2014 game, you experienced the instadium atmosphere. They wanted to beat us badly!

[EAVdog]

No.

And don't kid yourself Ole Miss has put a ton of emphasis on the Egg Bowl. Maybe not in the media but their coaches have. I heard Wommack on the radio last week and he described how much time they put in on us this year. It was phenomenal. They spent the entire bye week before Arkansas on us. The first bye week they spent multiple practices on us. They devoted 1 practice every week of fall camp to us, etc... He said he'd watched every snap Dak took this year after our games. He'd watch our game film on Sundays every week as the Season went on.

Winning the Egg Bowl got Freeze a Million Dollar raise and money for his assistants. This game means a lot.

[HoopsDawg]

Do we as fans and Dan as the coach, put too much emphasis on the Egg Bowl? We had a great year and great record but losing the egg bowl hurts and to many fans now the season feels like a failure. Should we continue to talk about it all year and take shots at ole miss if losing one game can hurt us so bad?

It made sense when Dan first took over, but I would like to see him de-emphasize it now except on game week. Take down the stupid countdown clock.

[maroonmania]

We didn't have more fire against Vandy, we played free and easy because we knew we were so much better than them. Against Ole Miss, we were mentally exhausted from the weight of the season and playing not to lose, instead of playing to win.

There just simply wasn't enough gas left in the tank. We'll learn from that though, and it handle it better in the future

Our defense just looked totally lethargic against OM. You and I can speculate on the reasons (i.e not hungry enough, not juiced enough, playing not to lose, too much pressure from the season, etc.) but the bottom line is still the same, we weren't getting to the ball and making plays or putting ANY pressure on Wallace. Sad way to end such a great season.

[thf24]

It always hurts to lose to an in-state rival, but the reason for the extreme disappointment over the loss this year is not because of who the opponent was, rather that it ended our shot at a national title.

[NCDawg]

Our defense just looked totally lethargic against OM. You and I can speculate on the reasons (i.e not hungry enough, not juiced enough, playing not to lose, too much pressure from the season, etc.) but the bottom line is still the same, we weren't getting to the ball and making plays or putting ANY pressure on Wallace. Sad way to end such a great season.

You are correct, and our offensive line looked as if they were moving in mud. The Ole Miss DL, with their speed and quickness, totally dominated our OL for most of the game.

[HoopsDawg]

You are correct, and our offensive line looked as if they were moving in mud. The Ole Miss DL, with their speed and quickness, totally dominated our OL for most of the game.

If you watch the film it wasn't as bad as it looked in the game. Our RT really struggled, but most of the time OM was bringing 6 and we only have 5 blockers. A couple of times they brought 7. You can run up the middle against the fronts and blitzes they were using. It was more the playcalling than the O-line play.

[Mjoelner34]

It always hurts to lose to an in-state rival, but the reason for the extreme disappointment over the loss this year is not because of who the opponent was, rather that it ended our shot at a national title.

Exactly the way I feel. If we had been around #14 or #15 going into the game with zero chance of winning the west, making the playoffs or even being in the top 12, then it would just be a loss that just pissed you off. Instead, this loss hurts because it removed any chance of winning the west or getting into the playoffs. At least we still have a shot at the top 12.

[drunkernhelldawg]

I got to where I didn't like hearing Mullen talking about it a few months ago. I think he's overdone it. Coaches aren't fans. We're the ones who are in it forever, not Freeze and Mullen.