SEC Media Days always produces a few rivalry jabs, and Ole Miss defensive tackle Will Echoles didn’t pull any punches when talking about the Egg Bowl and Mississippi State.
He didn’t try to be diplomatic. He didn’t pretend the Egg Bowl is just another game. He didn’t even pretend Mississippi State’s home turf is actually the Bulldogs’ home field when the Rebels are in Starkville.
“I feel like both places are our home turf, honestly, because, you know, we never lost there,” Echoles said.
That’s the Egg Bowl (and most college football rivlaries) in one sentence — blunt, local, and delivered by a defensive tackle who grew up right between Oxford and Starkville, surrounded by Mississippi State fans, and still chose Ole Miss anyway.
A Mississippi kid who chose Ole Miss
Houston, Mississippi sits right in the middle of the Oxford and Starkville. Echoles grew up in a town full of Mississippi State fans. But his twin sister goes to Ole Miss and his other sister graduated from Ole Miss. He picked the Rebels knowing exactly what the Egg Bowl meant.
“It means everything to play in the Egg Bowl because it’s bragging rights,” he said. “And we’ve been successful.”
That’s the part he didn’t have to say out loud. Ole Miss has won four straight. Echoles has never lost to Mississippi State. And he carries that around like a badge.
The rivalry moments stick, even the ridiculous ones
When asked about the Trinidad Chambliss jersey snatch — the moment last year when a Mississippi State staffer or fan grabbed Chambliss’ jersey from the Rebels’ locker room at Davis Wade Stadium — Echoles didn’t get angry. He laughed.
“That was so funny,” he said. “When we retrieved the jersey and brung it back after the game, it was fun, funny.”
That’s the Egg Bowl. Chaos, pettiness, and bragging rights. And Echoles embraces all of it.
He even admitted he never liked cowbells, but added the kind of jab that only comes from someone who’s never lost in Starkville:
“Once you’re on the field, you don’t really hear them… because they don’t really have a lead.”
That’s SEC Media Days gold.
Chambliss and Lacy feel it too
Chambliss didn’t take shots, but he didn’t hide how much he prefers the game in Oxford.
“I’m not going to miss those cowbells ringing every play,” he said. “Super excited for our fan base and how electric that game will be.”
Lacy didn’t talk trash either, but he lit up when talking about Vaught‑Hemingway.
“Once you walk into that stadium, I feel like it’s no other feeling,” he said. “Every time I come out, I see the fog, I get goosebumps.”
This year’s Egg Bowl is back in Oxford. Ole Miss hasn’t lost there since 2019. Echoles calls both stadiums “home turf,” but he knows what it means to bring Mississippi State into Vaught‑Hemingway with a playoff‑caliber roster and a fan base that’s already circling Thanksgiving weekend.
He also knows what it means for him personally.
“I got a bunch of friends that chose Mississippi State,” he said. “So it’s always a fun game.”
Fun for him. Maybe not for them.
But for both sides, the rivalry game means everything.
And for a Mississippi kid who’s never lost to Mississippi State, who grew up in the middle of the rivalry, who still gets goosebumps in the tunnel, and who plans to make the trenches the deciding factor again, the Egg Bowl isn’t just a game.
