The two old-timers picked some pretty clean cotton this past week. Orley Hood was 13-2, including that Stanford over Oregon pick, while Rick Cleveland went 12-3, despite ignorantly picking USM over UTEP. Hood and Cleveland head down the stretch all tied with 94-37 records. Orley’s picks Mississippi State at Ole Miss: Rick called earlier, asked […]
When it comes to picking his most memorable Egg Bowl, Archie Manning can’t choose just one. No, he has to pick one as a player and another as a father. Interestingly, both were played in Starkville. And both games were played in rain. “In 1969, my junior year, we had to beat Mississippi State to […]
(Writer’s note: Here’s the unedited version of the column that ran on The Clarion-Ledger op-ed page today. Thanks again to editors for the space: Hello, old friends. Nice to visit with you again. More than half a year has passed since my columns appeared on these pages. I’d like to begin with a sincere […]
This is the second of a series of Egg Bowl memories of Ole Miss and State greats from yesteryear. Jackson’s own Glen Collins, one of Mississippi State’s all-time great defensive linemen, played in four Egg Bowls, all in Jackson. “Seems like we always played them on a dreary or rainy day,” Collins says. “It was […]
Today we’ll begin a week-long Egg Bowl series, involving former players on both sides of the rivalry, and their favorite memories from Egg Bowls past. We begin with Deuce McAllister, who almost became a Mississippi State Bulldog before he went to Ole Miss. “My cousin, Michael Davis, was a great player at Mississippi State, and […]
Mississippi State cornerback Johnthan Banks: All American candidate Banks had another outstanding game in State’s 45-14 crushing of Arkansas. In man-to-man coverage, he gave up only one catch for five yards and that was to Biletnikoff semifinalist Cobi Hamilton. (Hamilton had six catches for 83 yards and a touchdown otherwise.) Banks was also a force […]
In the tiny town of Lake, they are known and revered simply as the UN-team. They were the 1974 Lake High School football Hornets, UNdefeated, UNtied, UNchallenged and UNscored upon. That’s right. Thirty-seven years ago, a band of 29 mostly lean, raw-boned, rough-as-a-corn-cob country boys – led and inspired by a bright, cocky and […]
In Mississippi’s World Series of college football prognosticating, Rick Cleveland took a one-game lead over the older, more experienced Orley Hood this past week. Young Rick posted a 10-4 showing, compared to wily veteran Hood’s 9-5. That gives the much-wetter-behind-the-ears Cleveland an 82-34 season record, slightly better than the grizzled Hood’s 81-35. “Everything I know […]
