First-And-10 To Know: State vs. Ole Miss

STARKVILLE – Thanksgiving has come and gone. And while Mississippians surely enjoyed togetherness and expressed gratefulness yesterday, the Hospitality State might not be so hospitable today as the annual Battle for the Golden Egg is here.

MSU (5-6 overall, 1-6 in Southeastern Conference play) faces Ole Miss (10-1, 6-1) at 11 a.m. Friday. The game will be televised by ABC.

Ahead of the contest, let's have a look at 10 items to be aware of as State gets ready to square off against the rival Rebels:

Friday will be the 122nd all-time meeting between Mississippi State and Ole Miss. However, it'll be the 98th edition of the Battle for the Golden Egg. The Golden Egg trophy was introduced in 1927 following a tumultuous ending to the 1926 game in Starkville where both schools' student bodies were involved in a postgame altercation.
Ole Miss stands as Mississippi State's most common opponent throughout history and the series is one of the most-played in all of college football. The MSU-Ole Miss series is the 10th-most-played rivalry game at the FBS level. In the SEC, only the Georgia/Auburn series is longer.
Only one year since 1901 have the Bulldogs and Rebels not met on the football field. The lone exception came in 1943 as the instate foes did not compete due to World War II.
This is the second consecutive Egg Bowl to take place on a Friday and it's just the sixth time ever the two teams have met on a Friday. Last year's game was the first Friday Egg Bowl in 16 years. This year marks the first Friday Egg Bowl in Starkville in 18 years, with the last one coming in the memorable 2007 contest in which State rallied from a 14-0 fourth-quarter deficit to top Ole Miss 17-14.
Since the Egg Bowl returned to being played on campuses in 1991 following a number of meetings in Jackson, the series has been about as even as you can get. MSU and Ole Miss have split the last 34 games 17-17. To take that even further, the Bulldogs have outscored the Rebels by just nine points over this span.
Even though State has dropped the last two Egg Bowls played on its home field, MSU holds a decisive edge in recent series history when the game is played in Starkville. The Bulldogs are 10-7 in home Egg Bowl games since 1991. State is trying to avoid losing three straight at home to Ole Miss for the first time since the 1960s.
Several participants in Friday's game have seen life on both sides of the rivalry. Among them, Bulldogs head coach Jeff Lebby, defensive coordinator Coleman Hutzler, quarterbacks coach Matt Holecek and assistant strength and conditioning coach Jarwarski Beckum were all part of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin staffs earlier this decade. Lebby was the Rebs' offensive coordinator in 2020 and 2021 while in that same time frame, Beckum held the same title at Ole Miss as he currently does at MSU. Holecek was an offensive graduate assistant for the Rebels in 2020 before becoming an analyst in 2021. Hutzler was the special teams coordinator in Oxford for the 2021 season. MSU offensive line coach Phil Loadholt spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons with the Rebels as an offensive analyst. State senior defensive analyst Mike MacIntyre has had two stints with Ole Miss – first as a receivers coach in 1999 and 2000, then as defensive coordinator in 2019. Then there are the current Rebel coaches who once wore Maroon. Ole Miss quarterbacks coach Joe Judge played for MSU in the early 2000s, then served as a Bulldog graduate assistant from 2005 through 2007. Rebels head strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage was with State's strength and conditioning staff from 2014 through 2017, leading the group in the last of those two years. Kody Schexnayder is a recruiting analyst for Ole Miss after being a Mississippi State punter from 2016 to 2019. On the current player side of things, MSU junior wide receiver Ayden Williams is a former Rebel. He spent the 2023 and 2024 seasons with Ole Miss before transferring to MSU.
Since Lebby took over as the head coach at MSU prior to last season, the Bulldogs have consistently stared down some of the nation's best groups. Friday will continue that trend. Counting Ole Miss, a quarter of Lebby's games as State's coach have come against top-10 teams, and 43 percent of Lebby's contests as MSU leader have been against top-15 foes.
Be on the lookout for big offensive plays on Friday. MSU has 18 plays from scrimmage of 40 or more yards this season. That total is second in the SEC. Meanwhile Ole Miss is tied for the FBS lead in 30-yard plays and averages 16.8 plays of 10 yards or more per game.
Mississippi State is playing for more than just the Egg Bowl trophy on Friday. A win would make the Bulldogs bowl eligible. The last time MSU was bowl eligible was in 2022, which was the final season in the career of the late, great head coach Mike Leach.

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First-And-10 To Know: State vs. Ole Miss

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