I’m not from Mississippi. I’m not a native Mississippian. However, I know the Egg Bowl.

I was raised in a Mississippi State family, but I spent a lot of my time around Ole Miss people. I went to a private high school in Memphis, a breeding ground of Rebels. Everywhere you turned, there was a powder blue hoodie with cursive red letters on the chest. Finding a State fan at that school was like finding a pair of muddy boots in The Grove or a pair of penny loafers in The Junction. They’re there. It’s just gonna take a while to find ‘em.

My State fandom was an anomaly at that school. Passionate Ole Miss fans were commonplace. I, meanwhile, was a unicorn.

Some of my best friends are Rebels. The Egg Bowl was a 24/7, 365 time of trash talk. I was always outnumbered, but I tried to be patient and let the results speak for me.

2007 was my first genuine, positive Egg Bowl memory. I was seven years old for that Friday afternoon in Starkville. State was 6-5, looking to clinch its first bowl berth since I was 10- months old. The football I remember was the years that followed—six straight years with three wins or fewer.

The Rebels jumped out to a 14-0 lead. State was stagnant offensively. Anthony Dixon scored in the 4th quarter to cut the lead. MSU got some momentum. It was thwarted, however, with an interception deep in Ole Miss territory with a few minutes left. The game was all but lost at that point… until it wasn’t.

State forced OM to a punt. That punt was taken by Derek Pegues and returned 75 yards for a touchdown. Three plays later, State had the ball back. Adam Carlson nailed a 48-yard field goal to take the lead with 10 seconds left. The Rebels threw one incomplete pass on the ensuing possession, and the game was over. 17-14 State, in the most unlikely of circumstances.

Two years later, a baby-faced offensive mind from Florida named Dan Mullen took over in Starkville, inheriting a program that regressed significantly from the 2007 season and was fresh off a 45-0 whipping at the hands of Ole Miss in Oxford. Mullen referred to his new school’s instate rival as “That School Up North.” A clock counting down the days, minutes, and seconds to the 2009 Battle for the Golden Egg was placed in the team’s locker room. The game was fresh in everyone’s mind throughout the entire year.

State entered the November 28, 2009 contest at 4-7. Ole Miss was 8-3 and ranked 25th nationally. The first half was a back-and-forth affair with the Rebels taking a 13-10 lead into halftime. The second half, however, was all State. MSU put points on the board in its first four second-half possessions, including three touchdowns. Holding a 34-20 lead in the 4th quarter, Corey Broomfield picked off Jevan Snead and brought it back 64 yards for a touchdown, putting the game on ice.

Fresh off the 41-27 win to complete his first season as a head coach, Mullen was given a microphone and proclaimed to the crowd, “there’s certainly one program in this state that’s definitely on the rise, going in the right direction, and that’s right here in Starkville.”

Houston Nutt’s program took a remarkable turn for the worst, winning six games in the next two seasons. Mullen’s program went the opposite direction, winning 16 games in the next two years with two more Egg Bowl victories, the first three-game winning streak over the Rebels in 70 years.

With Ole Miss’ hiring of Hugh Freeze in 2012, the rivalry was at its most competitive. A Rebel victory in Freeze’s first season, in addition to a top-10 recruiting class, suddenly shifted the rivalry momentum in their direction. The 2013 Egg Bowl thwarted that shift.

State needed a win to secure bowl eligibility. Ole Miss already had seven wins. State was starting third-string quarterback Damian Williams because of injuries to Tyler Russell and Dak Prescott.

The beginning of the game was a slugfest with neither team scoring in the first 28 minutes. State broke the deadlock with a one-yard touchdown run by Josh Robinson. With just 26 seconds left in the first half, the Rebels blocked a punt in MSU’s end zone, falling on the ball for an equalizing touchdown.

Ole Miss took the lead in the 3rd quarter with a 22-yard field goal. State, meanwhile, entered in an offensive drought. The Bulldogs' defense was doing its job, but the offense was nonexistent.

In the 4th quarter, the injured Dak Prescott entered the game and invigorated State’s offense. He led a field-goal drive that tied the game. He also set up State to make a game-winning field goal… that was wide right. The first-ever overtime Egg Bowl was upon us.

Facing a 4th and two on the three, Prescott plunged forward for a touchdown. Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace found open space on an option-keeper, but Nikoe Whitley stripped the ball out of his grasp, bouncing into the hands of Jamerson Love to end the game. 17-10 State. The first Battle for the Golden Egg to enter overtime was wrapped in maroon and white.

After two years of competing for the SEC West, in 2016, the two programs were in different positions. Despite Mullen and Freeze still leading the way, State and Ole Miss had a combined nine wins going into Oxford. The Rebels were a significant favorite, but the Bulldogs ran all over them.

State jumped out to a 27-10 lead in the 2nd quarter, entering the locker room with a seven-point cushion. In the 2nd half, the Dawgs scored 28-straight points, capped off by a 74-yard pick-six by Cedric Jiles, to put a bow on a 55-20 throttling. It would be the final game of the Hugh Freeze era at Ole Miss.

Entering 2019, two newer coaches—Joe Moorhead and Matt Luke—were in charge of the State and Ole Miss programs. OM had upset MSU in 2017, and the Bulldogs returned the favor with a 32-point win the next year. Like 2016, the two teams had a combined nine wins entering the 2019 contest. Rumors swirled about the futures of both coaches, notably Moorhead, who was believed to be fired regardless of the game’s outcome.

State jumped out to an early 14-0 lead. Ole Miss responded with a couple touchdowns of their own to tie the game at the half. The remainder of the game turned into a comedy of errors with each team committing two turnovers. State scored in the 3rd quarter to reclaim the lead and forced the Rebels into a 4th and 24 with 50 second left.

Matt Corral was nearly sacked but evaded the tacklers, scrambling before unloading a ball that landed into the hands of a wide-open Braylon Sanders for a first down. Ole Miss would go on to score with four seconds left on a pass to Elijah Moore, who crawled to the back of the and replicated DK Metcalf’s act two years prior, hiking his back leg to simulate a dog peeing. He was flagged, backing up the extra point, which was missed. 21-20 State. Luke was fired, as was Moorhead after the bowl game, in what turned out to be one of the most pivotal moments in the rivalry’s history.

This Thanksgiving, for the first time since 2015, both teams enter the game with winning records. Both teams are playing for 2nd-place in the SEC West. It’ll be a landmark moment in a rivalry that dates back to 1901.