Ruby’s Road Trip: Stinkville Edition

In this years’ final edition of Ruby’s Road Trip, I travelled to Starkville on Thanksgiving to watch my beloved Rebels beat the brakes off of the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Unlike previous editions, this road trip looked a little different, because I didn’t stay in the city and didn’t have a lot of recommendations.

Two years ago, I experienced my very first Egg Bowl as a student. Yes, my first ever Egg Bowl was the peepee in the endzone one. You can imagine what that did to a person. Due to not growing up in Mississippi, I didn’t think I would feel the same anger towards State. I love rivalry games, but until that fateful day, I didn’t fully grasp what the Egg Bowl really meant.

As a freshman in college, I knew I had to head home to Thanksgiving with my family. I begged them to let me stay but didn’t win that fight. My one request was after we ate dinner, I would get to watch the game. They agreed, and I believed it was all squared away. Lucky for me, somehow that got lost in translation and at kickoff I found myself frantically trying to live stream the game at a movie theater as I was sitting through a Mr. Rogers memoir movie. Not ideal!!! As the movie ended and we were hauling home, I watched Matt Corral convert a huge fourth down. The connection cut off so I couldn't see the rest. I walked into the house as L*ke L*gan missed the PAT. That’s not a joke. From that day on, I hated State.

Anyway, this year I got my family to head to Oxford for Thanksgiving. It was really so much fun. We ate early, and then made the trek to Starkville. Thanks to your recommendations, we went straight to the stadium, and left right after. It was the perfect Starkville experience.

Because there wasn’t a lot of exploring, I am just going to rate the stadium. Overall, the stadium is ehh. It just felt off as we walked in there, and I wasn’t overly impressed. Now, before all the State fans come in my mentions, I don't think Ole Miss’ stadium is all that special either.

The concessions were fantastic though - there were so many open, and a lot of options, even though I was engorged off of my turkey dinner. I was also very impressed with getting into the stadium. I was an hour early to the game on accident, so that definitely has something do with it, but it still was very easy.

Now, obviously you know what my one complaint is: the cowbells. It’s not in the way you think, though. I had earplugs in the entire game, so that sound wasn’t unbearable. I actually like the idea of having your own little unique thing. The thing I don’t understand about State fans is they don’t cheer, at least from what I could tell. Whenever State made a good play, there was only cowbell. I thought it was pretty lame.

The music was phenomenal. I loved how interactive and fun all of the songs were. I am a sucker for songs that get the student section hype, though. If you’ve never been to Davis Wade stadium before, they play a clip from the famous “More Cowbell” Saturday Night Live skit. It’s really great.

Starkville was great because the Rebels came out with a win. It’s always fun to beat State, but it’s even better when you do it on their field.