Mississippi State meets rival Ole Miss for 93rd Egg Bowl

OXFORD, Miss. — The Battle for the Golden Egg between the Mississippi State Bulldogs (2-5) and the Ole Miss Rebels (3-4) will be on tap Saturday afternoon at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m. CT and will be televised by SEC Network with Tom Hart (play-by-play), Jordan Rodgers (analyst) and sideline reporter Cole Cubelic on the call.

Though this is the 93rd Egg Bowl, the series dates back to 1901. This is the 117th meeting between the two football programs, which makes the rivalry the ninth-longest uninterrupted rivalry in college football. Ole Miss holds a 62-46-6 advantage in the series (MSU forfeited two wins).

Mississippi State enters the contest after hanging with No. 13 Georgia before ultimately losing 31-24.

In that game, freshman quarterback Will Rogers had his best game in his young career, completing 41 of 52 passes for 336 yards passing and a touchdown. He has passed for 872 yards thus far.

Freshman wide receiver Jaden Walley also had a career game, making seven catches for 115 yards receiving and a TD.

The Bulldogs rank near the bottom in the Southeastern Conference in total offense (329.4) but rank fifth in passing offense with an average of 307.9 yards.

MSU’s defense ranks third in the SEC against the run, allowing just 110.1 yards per game, and are fourth in total defense at 366.9. Georgia ran the ball for just 8 yards on 23 attempts. Though the Bulldogs did give up 401 yards and four touchdowns through the air to Georgia QB JT Daniels.

The Bulldog defense will have their hands full again trying to stop an Ole Miss offense that scored 54 points against Vanderbilt and 59 against South Carolina in its last two games. The Rebels got an extra week off with last week’s scheduled game at No. 5 Texas A&M being postponed.

Ole Miss ranks first in the SEC in average total offense (564.9), third in passing offense (352.1) and first in rushing offense (264.9).

Rebels sophomore quarterback Matt Corral has completed 162 of 219 passes for 2,359 yards, 22 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He has also carried the ball 77 times for 301 yards rushing and three more scores.

Junior wide receiver Elijah Moore leads the Rebels with 74 catches for 1,054 yards receiving and eight TDs. Temple graduate transfer tight end Kenny Yeboah is No. 2 on the team in receiving with 25 catches for 509 yards and six scores.

Sophomore running back Jerrion Ealy leads the ground attack with 117 carries for 608 yards rushing and eight TDs. Sophomore running back Snoop Conner is second with 78 rushes for 333 yards and six TDs.

On the other side of the ball, the Rebels have allowed an average of 292.1 yards passing per game and 243.4 yards rushing for a total of 535.6 yards. They rank last in the SEC in total defense, 13th in passing defense and last in rushing defense.

Ole Miss is hoping to get some help on the defense in Georgia transfer safety Otis Reese, who will finally be making his Ole Miss debut. Reese, a junior, was cleared by the NCAA on Nov. 20. He played in 25 career games for Georgia the past two seasons, though he only started one game. He recorded 16 tackles.