Egg Bowl 2020: An entertainment extravaganza

The Egg Bowl is, or was, about as interesting as the name. Although both schools have seen flashes of success in the new millennium, neither have elevated to the level of legitimate contender in the impossibly difficult SEC West. But with the splash hires of Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin, this rivalry game goes from simple scrambled eggs to an ornate omelet stuffed with brisket (from Texas, obviously), tomatoes, onions, cheese, and Sriracha. Egg Bowl 2020 is going to be, as the kids say, “lit.”

The Kiffin effect

The Ole Miss Rebels are, to put it lightly, an abject disaster. Technically speaking, they have only 27 wins in the past 10 seasons due to NCAA sanctions, and 10 of those wins come from the only double-digit win season for the Rebels since 2003 behind the excitement of Chad “Swag” Kelly in 2015. If anybody is going to bring some excitement back to an otherwise embarrassing unit, it’s Kiffin. The 45-year-old uses social media like a millennial and never shies away from the spotlight.

Hell, the Oakland Raiders hired Kiffin at age 31 after serving as USC’s passing game coordinator/offensive coordinator for two seasons. He had no prior head coaching experience at the college or professional level. And like Icarus, he flew too close to the sun, his wax wings melted, and he crashed into the Pacific Ocean where resuscitation wasn’t successful.

He won five games in two seasons in Oakland and has since gone on an even more confusing path than Icarus, coaching at Tennessee, then USC, then Alabama as Nick Saban’s OC, then FAU, and back to the SEC with Mississippi. His coaching career started at the peak of the roller coaster, and after bottoming out at FAU he’s back on the upswing with Mississippi.

Leach and the Bulldogs

The Mississippi State Bulldogs, conversely, have averaged just under eight wins per season in the past 10 seasons, all of which involved a bowl game bid, with six ending up in wins. They were even the number one team in the nation for a spell on the back of Dak Prescott in 2014. They had outstanding continuity with Dan Mullen at head coach from 2009-2017, but when he left for Florida at the end of 2017, they looked to Joe Moorhead. After just two seasons, they realized the first-time head coach wasn’t what they’d hoped for.

Enter the ever-entertaining, blunt, and even sometimes controversial Mike Leach. If Kiffin’s social media presence is that of a millennial, Leach is a schizophrenic historian with a meme obsession. His pinned tweet is a quote from Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War” because, well, he’s an old-timey football guy and that’s what they do. His most recent tweet is a screenshot of a tweet from College Football Reddit’s account showing Maine’s schedule, which shows a lineman making a diving one-handed grab with his uniform crop topped like Ezekiel Elliott.

Related | Mike Leach takes the reigns at Mississippi State

It’ll be interesting to see how Leach’s Air Raid system integrates into the SEC West. There’s little doubt the Bulldogs will score points, as that’s what Leach teams do. But will he be able to recruit well enough on the defensive side to really make a dent in the toughest division in college football?

Vegas has the Bulldogs at 6.5 wins and the Rebels at 5.5 for 2020, but that doesn’t necessarily matter for Egg Bowl 2020. There is so much unknown with these teams, and the 6-4 split in the past ten seasons shows it doesn’t matter how the teams finish, either team can take this one. However, in football, and more specifically in college football, it’s safe to bet on the better quarterback, and that should certainly be Mississippi State’s, KJ Costello. Look for the Bulldogs to take the 2020 Egg Bowl down.

Draft stock status

Ole Miss

Lakia Henry is the type of linebacker the NFL looks for from an athletic perspective. He stands at a listed 6′, 235 pounds. He’s your typical sideline-to-sideline linebacker who can run with tight ends and backs in coverage and close the gap in pursuit. Kiffin brought two strong recruiters into co-coordinate the defense in the controversial DJ Durken and former Michigan coach Chris Partridge. Hopefully, they’ll be able to gear down and control the sometimes overzealous Henry and improve his feel for zone coverage. If they can do that, Henry could end up hearing his name called on day two.

Ben Brown is the ideal size for an NFL guard, standing 6’5″ and weighing in at 320 pounds. He struggled a bit in 2019 after he was named to the All-SEC freshman team in 2018, but with a bounce-back season in 2020, he could be a nice option on the interior for a team. Some believe he could fight for a top-100 selection, and battling tough against the tough interior defenders in the SEC West could be all he needs for a stock rise.

Sam Williams is a ton of fun at EDGE. He possesses a prototypical build and has the athleticism to play in coverage, peeling off against swinging backs and covering the flats along with rushing the passer. He has the natural power to disrupt tight ends at the point of attack and can bang around with offensive tackles too. He also has enough juice and bend to threaten the edge.

However, he’s also one of the most undisciplined players I’ve watched, often getting far too deep on run plays, opening up massive running lanes. He’ll also need to improve his hands if he wants to become a true sack artist, but his athletic profile will intrigue teams.

Mississippi State

Costello will put up absolutely nutty numbers and he will be drafted sometime on Day 2 or early Day 3. Book it! From a pure passing standpoint, his ability is right up there with Gardner Minshew and Anthony Gordon. I mean, Leach got Luke Falk drafted for Pete’s sake. It’s still surprising Gordon went undrafted, but the NFL is weird sometimes.

Kylin Hill will be one of the most efficient backs in college football this season. Book it! With the wide splits and spread out style of the Leach offense, he may get fewer touches overall, but he’ll have a larger role in the passing game and should average a higher yard-per-carry average due to the lighter boxes.

Hill is a yoked up runner who wants to bring the force to defenders with leverage and explosion. That physicality is nice to see, but he must learn to go more with the flow and take what he can get more often because he misses opportunities at times lowering his shoulder.

Offensive tackle Greg Eiland and offensive guard Stewart Reese will have their work cut out for them. The wide splits of the Air Raid put linemen on a much larger island by themselves than normal. It’ll be fascinating to see if the massive Reese has the functional athleticism to face SEC interior defensive linemen in 1v1 situations. The same question faces Eiland, who stands 6’8″ weighing 335 pounds.

Erroll Thompson could have been a big difference-maker in the nineties and prior, but in the modern NFL, he’s limited. On early downs and short-yardage situations, he’ll thrive. He’s a downhill force who brings power and contact balance with the ability to shed blocks, but staying between the tackles will be necessary to keep him as a plus player.