Tommy Tuberville started Ole Miss’ Hotty Toddy cheer. He was booed lustily.

Ole Miss lost to Texas A&M, 31-24, on Saturday, but that’s only tangentially why we’re here. We’re here to discuss the below video, so please turn your sound on.

To open the second half of Saturday’s game, Tommy Tuberville initiated Ole Miss’ beloved Hotty Toddy cheer with the ceremonial “Are you ready?” prompt. Ole Miss fans in attendance were indeed ready, and they were ready to boo him mercilessly.

There’s a much more important story here, though. Tommy “Pine Box” Tuberville was in the broadcast booth at Vaught-Hemingway on Saturday, so he had to stand there in horror while an entire stadium hissed down their hatred on his very visage. And regarding his presence as game analyst: the Rebel football team’s Twitter account had earlier in the week reminded Tuberville of his famous “They’re going to have to carry me out of here in a pine box” remark in 1998 (he took the Auburn job a few days later).

Harsh, but fair.

Backlash was swift and fierce, however, from fans in attendance who apparently made their anger at Tuberville’s inclusion known to Ole Miss athletics media people. The furor reached such a fever pitch that Ole Miss athletics media representative Michael Thompson ended up responding to the criticism on Twitter.

This is genius! To lure Pine Box into the stadium, ask him to initiate a Hotty Toddy, and then have his appearance on the video board booed lustily. Our editorial line at RCR is that Thompson is totally in the right here, if in spirit, and if somewhat clumsily executed. Leave Michael alone. He’s very nice and very helpful whenever I send interview requests and the like.

UPDATE: Ole Miss athletic director Ross Bjork has also issued a statement apologizing for the “polarizing” decision to include Tuberville on the video board.

Again, when given the opportunity to shit on Tommy Tuberville with him in the room, you go for it. Bjork, you have nothing to apologize for.

UPDATE: I contacted Ole Miss athletics media director Thompson and asked him about the decision to play the Tuberville video coming out of halftime on Saturday. Here’s what he said:

About five people from our gameday experience team were talking about who to use for our halftime Hotty Toddy (the halftime one we call “From the Vault” because we take a previously used one from the archives and play at the end of halftime). Tuberville recorded one in the late 90s (which we believe is the first “celebrity Hotty Toddy” to ever be used in the stadium), and we thought it would be an epic way to troll him in the booth, especially combined with our pine box tweet from earlier in the week. Tuberville didn’t know we were doing it and that was the point.

I also asked if he thought the whole scene would have gone over better had it been widely known that Tuberville’s previously used video would also be used at this particular game.

I think it would have helped for sure. Live and learn.

It’s understandable that a certain sector of indignant Ole Miss fans can’t fully understand “trolling” or “Twitter,” but the volume of howling about Tuberville’s video appearing after halftime is wildly out of proportion given its intended effect. Anyway, let’s lighten the mood and stunt on Pine Box below.

Let’s roast Tommy Tuberville.

• Tommy Tuberville was fired from Cincinnati.
• Tommy Tuberville was recruiting for TTU, left the dinner table of a croot's family to take a call and then took the Cincy job and just never returned to the table.
• Tommy Tuberville wants to be governor of Alabama.
• Tommy Tuberville has said he wants to be AD at Auburn so he can fire Gus Malzahn.
• The city of Cincinnati tried to cover Tommy Tuberville in spaghetti and chili multiple times so they could eat him.
• The last American city that needs to be running people out of town is Cincinnati and look what they did to your mans. “We can afford to lose this one,” said Todd Cincinnati, the mayor of Cincinnati.
• Tommy Tuberville was such an asshole he made Auburn think Bobby Petrino wasn't that big of an asshole.
• Little known fact: the name Tuberville means "City of the Tubers," which is very fitting because Tommy Tuberville is literally an anthropomorphized potato.
• Even Bob Chili, owner of Skyline Chili holds a low opinion of Tommy Tuberville. “He doesn’t respect our traditional fare of cold spaghetti and meat sauce, so to hell with him,” Mr. Chili said.
• Tommy Tuberville is so perplexing a human that a large portion of our fan base still thinks his name is spelled with two Bs.