Egg Bowl 2014 - Mississippi State v. Ole Miss for ESPN The Magazine

November is pretty late in the college football season and it is usually the time when the best teams have to either step up or have a seat. November is also the time I went to Oxford, Mississippi to photograph the 2015 iteration of The Egg Bowl for ESPN The Magazine. The Egg Bowl is the annual rivalry game played between Ole Miss and Mississippi State University since 1901. At the time, Mississippi State was 10-1 and ready to be a player in the College Football Playoff. Their only loss was to Alabama and it was presumed that they wouldn't have much of a problem knocking off Ole Miss during the last game of the season. Well, that's why they play the games. Mississippi State lost to Ole Miss 31-17 and ended up in the Capital One Orange Bowl where they lost again to Georgia Tech.

During this particular shoot, my focus was on the 6' 2" 230 pound bruiser of a quarterback named Dak Prescott who had thus far led his Miss. State squad to 10 wins on the season. I hung out near the visitors entrance to catch Prescott walking from the team bus to the locker room down a path lined with screaming Mississippi State faithful. A) Maybe there was a good shot in there somewhere and b) so I could know what he looks like in real life. I got fooled once and started following a defensive linemen who I thought was Prescott but I got the hint when another guy came off the bus and everyone started yelling "Dak! Dak!"

We know what happened during the game but after the game was pretty much a party in Oxford. Ole Miss had just beaten their rivals as an underdog in a very important game for their opponent. There were drunken khakis, blue blazers and bow ties everywhere. I went to downtown Oxford to grab a bite to eat and encountered more than a few people walking with the grace of a zombie. Against my worst judgement, I scrapped the Oxford scene and headed to Applebee's, Chili's or Buffalo Wild Wings where things were a little quieter. 

Anyway, shout out to Mississippi which gave me the opportunity to fly to Memphis and check out the Lorraine.