Transfer Portal and the Egg Bowl

First of all no one is surprised that Ole Miss tried to do this right? And probably to players that they at one time claimed that they "didn't really want and had better prospects lined up". Add in the D1 angle and everyone with a brain knows that Mike Espy and Shay Hodge are not going to be pro-MSU. I knew that when that place opened and knew that it was going to probably become a hub for illegal recruiting.

Stuff like this is why the Egg Bowl rivalry is "toxic". You don't see Alabama or Auburn trying to take each others players. Or Florida/Florida State. And etc. Ole Miss actively tried to do it and then gloat about it. But those of us who have been around for awhile are used to this.

I don't think very many MSU players are ever going to go to Ole Miss and I don't think very many Ole Miss players will go to MSU via the portal. That said- my entire problem with this whole thing is the tampering angle. If one of our players truly legitimately wants to go there I can handle that. For example- I didn't have a problem with Burney Hutchinson transferring there for baseball. But when Ole Miss or anyone else is actively recruiting our players- that's an issue and not what the portal is really about.

And this is the whole problem with recruiting in general. All I ask is:

1. That recruiting be done legitimately. No backpacks, etc.

2. If.....OK, when- Ole Miss does cheat- don't complain when MSU cheats to level the playing field.

Seems reasonable. Which means Ole Miss will have a problem with it. I can hear the whining "But....but...?.Leo Lewis! You don't know the whole story!" Like that somehow gives them carte blanche to cheat.

Now, I've seen some Ole Miss fans compare this to KJ Costello but there's a MAJOR difference which is Costello would still be at Stanford if he had gotten into grad school there. He was only recruited by MSU once he didn't in. It's apples and oranges compared to "Hey, we invited a bunch of MSU players that train at D1 to a party with their former assistant coach who was well liked and a booster and tried to recruit them to Ole Miss."

The conclusion is this is a major win for MSU. I was asked on this board what I wanted MSU to do and MSU did it. Which was basically stand up to Ole Miss. Kudos to John Cohen and Mike Leach. This is actually a big moment for MSU IMO. Because in the past we had:

Jackie who had balls to stand up to Ole Miss but didn't have the administrative support.

Croom wasn't really a threat to Ole Miss.

Dan who had the administrative backing at least under Byrne for sure but I think Dan handled situations like this by basically telling the player to **** off and I'm so smart I can beat you with Brandon Holloway up the middle.

Joe could kick rocks.

Now we have Leach and Cohen and both have demonstrated that they will stand up for MSU against Ole Miss in football. That's big because Ole Miss has been trying to bully us for years. Now like most if not all people I have had to deal with bullies at times and the best way to deal with them more often than not is to stand up to them. Typically I have found that will cause them to stop. We'll see if that happens here. At the very least I suspect it will make it more difficult or make them think twice about trying to do something like this again. I think that they thought that Leach being in Florida and with his aloof attitude would just bow down and let the players go- and they were wrong.

Looking forward to the Leach era!

Shay Hodge can?t be a fan of us. His feelings had to be hurt after Egg Bowl 2007. Saw it today. Besides the 4th down call he didn?t make plays that actually cost them the game. He has to be bitter and suffering from ptsd after those 2 drops that lead to us winning. But yet I?m sure he is very neutral when talking to athletes in his area. Just saying I trust his neutrality.

Good post Todd

I agree for the most part, but their BS did cause us to lose at least Jones and I still don't feel right about that.

There needs to be more to this to make OM pay for recruiting off another team's roster. MSU stood its ground here but we were still the only team that lost a player, one that would've played some.

That is not right no matter how big of an idiot the player is.

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Originally Posted by Dawgcap

Shay Hodge can?t be a fan of us.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mNuHMo1pA

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Originally Posted by ShotgunDawg

Good post Todd

I agree for the most part, but their BS did cause us to lose at least Jones and I still don't feel right about that.

There needs to be more to this to make OM pay for recruiting off another team's roster. MSU stood its ground here but we were still the only team that lost a player, one that would've played some.

That is not right no matter how big of an idiot the player is.

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He's a player that only wants attention which I think was his main motivation for leaving. He's not a loss as far as I am concerned. A lot of what happened last year with our team was because of players with the same attitude as him. Start the guy he was scared of losing his job to- Kyle Cass or even better CJ Morgan Walker if he is healthy.

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Originally Posted by Leroy Jenkins

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1mNuHMo1pA

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Hung out to dry!

State and OM worry about each other while the rest of the SEC kicks both our teeth in. If any state needed one centralized University it is Mississippi, but that ship sailed in the 19th century.

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Originally Posted by IMissJack

State and OM worry about each other while the rest of the SEC kicks both our teeth in. If any state needed one centralized University it is Mississippi, but that ship sailed in the 19th century.

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Yeah, I often drool at the thought of how good a team we would have if there was only one state school. But that's water under the bridge.

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Originally Posted by IMissJack

State and OM worry about each other while the rest of the SEC kicks both our teeth in. If any state needed one centralized University it is Mississippi, but that ship sailed in the 19th century.

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Originally Posted by Joebob

Yeah, I often drool at the thought of how good a team we would have if there was only one state school. But that's water under the bridge.

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Yep, what could have been.

I don't think the Egg Bowl has to be a bad thing for either MSU or Ole Miss. I think what has really made it toxic comes down to two things:

1. Ole Miss having an ancient football history where they were a national power which gives them the belief that they can easily be or still be a National Power. The problem here for them is that was almost fifty years ago. And the only time that they have ever been able to really come close they had to excessively cheat or they had their iconic QB's son leading the team as a fifth year senior. They are brought up as fans to believe that they are the superior team in the state of Mississippi and Mississippi State isn't supposed to be good in football. Basically, in their mind it's their birthright to be better than MSU at a minimum and now that the reality is we have been better overall on the field since 1991 it has caused them to freak out and then I think that has caused them to go overboard with cheating. This whole transfer thing is just another example of trying to show that they are a "better" program because they can "take your (our) players if we wanted to".

2. Mississippi State for years having a "Poor ol' Mississippi State" attitude at the administrative level for years. If LT stands up to them in 2001 does Ole Miss's 2013 recruiting class happen? Maybe...maybe not. Or maybe more relevant would they have tried to take our players this year? People tend to push the envelope if they feel like they can get away with it. MSU has allowed Ole Miss to push the envelope a lot in football. And that has only fueled frustration from MSU fans- not necessarily towards just our administration and coaches like Ole Miss wanted- but also and moreso towards Ole Miss itself. That only makes MSU fans and etc. want to beat them even more which makes the rivalry more intense. With MSU standing up to Ole Miss now- I would imagine that it will make Ole Miss less likely to do something like this again. Or at the very least make it more difficult and make them think twice about it.

But I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a rival like Ole Miss although I definitely wish Ole Miss would act with more class and sportsmanship about it and not take things so personally. I wish they would try to make themselves better rather than try to just cheat to get better. That said, having the Egg Bowl brings attention to both of our programs and that has gotten highlighted more recently. As I have said before too- I think we should focus on beating Ole Miss and make it a priority but at the same time I don't think that has to take away from other goals that our program should have like winning the SEC. We probably are going to have to beat them to reach our team goals anyway. I do think it's a mistake to say "well, we're beyond that now and it just doesn't mean that much to us" because I think that's part of how we caught up to them.

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

... The problem here for them is that was almost fifty years ago. ...

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Time flies when you're having fun...It was 60 years ago ('59,'60,'62 are their claimed titles)

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Originally Posted by Todd4State

I don't think the Egg Bowl has to be a bad thing for either MSU or Ole Miss. I think what has really made it toxic comes down to two things:

1. Ole Miss having an ancient football history where they were a national power which gives them the belief that they can easily be or still be a National Power. The problem here for them is that was almost fifty years ago. And the only time that they have ever been able to really come close they had to excessively cheat or they had their iconic QB's son leading the team as a fifth year senior. They are brought up as fans to believe that they are the superior team in the state of Mississippi and Mississippi State isn't supposed to be good in football. Basically, in their mind it's their birthright to be better than MSU at a minimum and now that the reality is we have been better overall on the field since 1991 it has caused them to freak out and then I think that has caused them to go overboard with cheating. This whole transfer thing is just another example of trying to show that they are a "better" program because they can "take your (our) players if we wanted to".

2. Mississippi State for years having a "Poor ol' Mississippi State" attitude at the administrative level for years. If LT stands up to them in 2001 does Ole Miss's 2013 recruiting class happen? Maybe...maybe not. Or maybe more relevant would they have tried to take our players this year? People tend to push the envelope if they feel like they can get away with it. MSU has allowed Ole Miss to push the envelope a lot in football. And that has only fueled frustration from MSU fans- not necessarily towards just our administration and coaches like Ole Miss wanted- but also and moreso towards Ole Miss itself. That only makes MSU fans and etc. want to beat them even more which makes the rivalry more intense. With MSU standing up to Ole Miss now- I would imagine that it will make Ole Miss less likely to do something like this again. Or at the very least make it more difficult and make them think twice about it.

But I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a rival like Ole Miss although I definitely wish Ole Miss would act with more class and sportsmanship about it and not take things so personally. I wish they would try to make themselves better rather than try to just cheat to get better. That said, having the Egg Bowl brings attention to both of our programs and that has gotten highlighted more recently. As I have said before too- I think we should focus on beating Ole Miss and make it a priority but at the same time I don't think that has to take away from other goals that our program should have like winning the SEC. We probably are going to have to beat them to reach our team goals anyway. I do think it's a mistake to say "well, we're beyond that now and it just doesn't mean that much to us" because I think that's part of how we caught up to them.

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Speaking of iconic QBs, in another 3 years OM will likely be right back into their glory days again with Arch Manning (Cooper's son). Apparently he was as good or better than Peyton or Eli as a HS FR this year. I guess the Manning family will still be churning out QBs a hundred years from now.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

Speaking of iconic QBs, in another 3 years OM will likely be right back into their glory days again with Arch Manning (Cooper's son). Apparently he was as good or better than Peyton or Eli as a HS FR this year. I guess the Manning family will still be churning out QBs a hundred years from now.

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They're already printing the Arch For Heisman stickers as we speak.**

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Originally Posted by msstatelp1

Time flies when you're having fun...It was 60 years ago ('59,'60,'62 are their claimed titles)

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You're right about that but I was talking about the last time Archie suited up for them. Either way- it has been awhile.

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Originally Posted by maroonmania

Speaking of iconic QBs, in another 3 years OM will likely be right back into their glory days again with Arch Manning (Cooper's son). Apparently he was as good or better than Peyton or Eli as a HS FR this year. I guess the Manning family will still be churning out QBs a hundred years from now.

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If he doesn't go to LSU. Definitely could see him going to Ole Miss to "save" the program. Again.

I wrote the OM Chancellor after the 2019 Egg Bowl to inform him of the despicable behavior of OM players, but I have not to this day received a response - negative or positive.

I am listing my letter to him below for your enjoyment. :cool:

Dear Chancellor,


I know you have heard it a thousand times by now, but I was utterly appalled and very disappointed, even as a MSU alumnus, in the Ole Miss student athlete that crawled in the end-zone and pretended to urinate. How totally inappropriate and morally debased although this is not the first time this particular event has ben performed by an Ole Miss athlete; it also happened in 2017 as well.

I read in the press, you fired the football coach, Matt Luke, for not producing wining seasons and partially for this embarrassing event as well but the student athlete must also be held accountable. I read about his apology but that is not enough. A criminal can apologize but they still receive a sentence and so should this young man. Just delivering an apology, probably not written by him, is a mere slap on the wrist, it means nothing as the attitude that the student athlete has portrayed appears to be systemic and permeates the entire football team if not the entire student body (yes there are exceptions). This young man should lose his scholarship and not be allowed to play college sports of any kind for at least one year if not forfeit the right permanently at Ole Miss.

Ole Miss, outside the Ole Miss community, has a reputation of being a bunch of snobs, elitists and morally superior to the rest of the people in the state of Mississippi, especially MSU alumni and fans. This past and previous egg bowls proved this attitude to not be true. Oh how embarrassing for Ole Miss!

I am really not trying to rub this in, so to speak, I am trying to articulate to you how despicable this act and attitude is and I want to appeal to you to display leadership to not only right the wrong (punish the student athlete) but also take a proactive step or steps in eliminating this elitist attitude and restoring some level of senility with the rest of the state.

Yes, MSU needs to reflect on and also address the attitude about Ole Miss as well. I know, as a MSU alumnus, the opinion we hold of any thing related to Ole Miss and it is typically not good.

Can I count on you to start addressing the ills (despicable attitude) between Ole Miss and the rest of the state, especially MSU? I am open to further dialog if it interest you.

Thank you,

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
MSU Class of 82

Boy I bet that hit the $hit can quick.

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Originally Posted by msbulldog

Boy I bet that hit the $hit can quick.

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Haha. More like posted on their dart board.