Egg Bowl showdown lacking this time around

At the 2014 Egg Bowl inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss., an Ole Miss team headed to the Peach Bowl defeated a Mississippi State team bound for the Orange Bowl.

Two years later, the setting may be the same, but the competitors are very different.

After reaching "New Year's Six" bowl games two years ago and combining for 19 wins last season, when the Rebels made another "New Year's Six" appearance and demolished Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl, the two Magnolia State programs enter Saturday's matchup mired in disappointment. Dan Mullen's MSU Bulldogs are 4-7 but could just as easily be 7-4, while Hugh Freeze's Rebels are 5-6 despite having led in all 11 games.

The latest collapse by Ole Miss occurred last Saturday night at Vanderbilt, when the Rebels grabbed a 10-0 lead before getting flattened 38-17. Ole Miss has scored first in 10 of its 11 games.

"I frequently get asked by a lot of young guys who want to get into coaching what my advice would be," Freeze said in a news conference after the game in Nashville. "I tell them all the time, 'If you do anything besides this, you need to do it.' This is a brutal roller-coaster on you and your family and the young men you work with."

Ole Miss began this season with a No. 11 ranking and with a 28-6 lead over Florida State in its opener in Orlando. The Rebels not only wound up losing 45-34 that day but lost running back Eric Swinney and cornerback Ken Webster in the first half to season-ending injuries.

The setbacks haven't stopped since, with dazzling senior quarterback Chad Kelly having his college career cut short by a torn ACL earlier this month against Georgia Southern and with standout tight end Evan Engram suffering a hamstring injury at Vanderbilt. Engram is questionable for Saturday.

Although freshman quarterback Shea Patterson has provided the Rebels offensive optimism for future seasons, their 17-point output in Nashville was their lowest of the year.

"The silver lining, if there is one, is that we get to play in the Egg Bowl to get bowl-eligible," Freeze said.

While the Rebels were getting thumped in Nashville, Mullen's Bulldogs were being overwhelmed in a 58-42 home loss to Arkansas. The Razorbacks had 10 plays of 20-plus yards in the first half alone and averaged 9.9 yards per play for the game.

Mississippi State has allowed 40 or more points and 500 or more yards in four of its last five games, with one of those foes being Samford of the Football Championship Subdivision.

"When you give up that many yards, it's not one thing," Mullen said in a news conference after getting shredded by the Hogs. "It's several things."

The Bulldogs also seem to be set moving forward at quarterback with Nick Fitzgerald, who engineered a 35-28 upset of Texas A&M earlier this month, but they will look back at this season at so many missed opportunities:

* Blowing a 17-0 lead in the opener against South Alabama and losing 21-20 when a Westin Graves 28-yard field-goal attempt in the final seconds hit the upright.

* Losing 28-21 at BYU in double overtime when a 25-yard touchdown pass from Taysom Hill in the second overtime gave the Cougars their first lead of the night.

* Watching Kentucky's Austin MacGinnis drill a 51-yard field goal as time expired to give the Wildcats a 40-38 win inside Commonwealth Stadium.

"Obviously we're disappointed," Mullen said. "We've had opportunities throughout the year. We've lost three games on the final play and haven't won one on the final play.

"The odds were against us this year, I guess."

Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6524.

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