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By Andy Baeuerle
Some teams, like Ole Miss and Delta State, are having great seasons, and some teams, like Mississippi State and Mississippi College, could be doing better, but they’re making it. Then you have the teams like Southern Miss and Millsaps still haven’t found their way. Some fans are celebrating, while others are calling for their coaches’ heads. College football is a way of life in the South, but it’s not looking good in Mississippi.
Southern Miss 38, Appalachian State 48
Following a 52-point loss to South Alabama in Week 8, Southern Miss head coach Will Hall announced he was turning over playcalling duties to his OC and QB coach. Coach Hall has handled the playcalling since he took over the Golden Eagles in 2021. But after a good 2022 season, Hall’s playcalling has caused much suffering in the Golden Eagle world in 2023, as USM had already lost 7 games when he turned the duty over. I, as a Golden Eagle fan, was looking forward to a new team in this call, but many other fans had seen the writing on the wall that I had missed.
Southern Miss opened up the game with their first offensive touchdown since the Texas State game in week 5. This touchdown lit a spark in the Golden Eagles, who carried on strong and refused to back down, taking a 24-14 lead over the Mountaineers at the half. This fire kept burning as the Golden Eagles put up another touchdown out of halftime. However, App State started to find their spark as well, scoring two more touchdowns to decrease the margin to a USM 31-28 lead going to the final 15. The bottom fell out here, and USM let App State run up 20 more points, while only one touchdown was produced in the 4th, giving Appalachian State a 48-38 win. USM running back Frank Gore, Jr. saw his best game of the season, rushing for 247 yards, two touchdowns, as well as a 13-yard reception. Southern Miss also hit a season-high number as far as total yards, reaching 588 yards.
Despite falling to the ‘Neers, Southern Miss still holds an all-time 2-1 record over Appalachian State.
A fun little fact: Both Southern Miss and Appalachian State nicknamed their stadiums “The Rock.” So in honor of this matchup, many fans on both sides have decided to dub this game “The Battle of the Rock.” Whoever wins gets to call their stadium “The Rock” until the next matchup. Sounds fun and fair to me.
#12 Ole Miss 33, Vanderbilt 7
Since 1970, the Rebels and the Commodores have met annually in what is known as the “Khaki Bowl,” though this rivalry dates back to 1894, where Vanderbilt hosted and embarrassed the Mississippi Flood* 40-0. The teams met on and off, every 2 or 3 years before the annual game started in 1970. However, in 2023, it was announced that this year’s edition would be the last time for at least two years that the teams would meet, as the SEC was adding Texas and Oklahoma, and dropping the East/West Divisions. This meant that teams were allowed only a handful of rivalries, and the Khaki Bowl was not of priority so it will be missing for a few years.
The Vanderbilt Commodores have become the doormat of the SEC, and many teams claim an easy win over them. But Lane Kiffin knew to keep his head up for anything that Vandy coach Clark Lea could throw out there. The Rebels were on point, however, leading the game 26-0 going into the locker room. Then the game got very slow. Vandy scored a touchdown in the last two minutes of the third, while Ole Miss wouldn’t rack another point until the fourth in a rushing touchdown from Quinshon Judkins. Coach Kiffin did good in looking out for his team, and kept his defense on point, as well as doing what could be done against a relatively tough Vanderbilt defense.
With the rivalry on hiatus now, Ole Miss holds firm at an overall record of 54-40-2.
Other Week 9 Scores from Mississippi
- Mississippi State 13, Auburn 27
- Alcorn State 24, Mississippi Valley State 3
- Mississippi College 10, North Greenville 34
- Millsaps 0, Trinity 63
- Belhaven 7, Maryville 20 OT**
Week 10 Schedule and TV Times for Mississippi
Thursday, November 2
- MS Valley State (1-7) @ Bethune (1-7), 6:30 PM, ESPNU
Saturday, November 4
- Southern Miss (1-7) vs. ULM (2-6), 3:00 PM, ESPN+
- #10 Ole Miss (7-1) vs. Texas A&M (5-3), 11:00 AM, ESPN
- MS State (4-4) vs. Kentucky (5-3), 6:30 PM, SEC Network
- Jackson State (6-3) vs. Texas South. (2-6), 2:00 PM, ESPN+
- Alcorn State (5-3) vs. Southern (5-3), 2:00 PM, ESPN+
- Delta State (7-1) @ West Georgia (6-2), 5:00 PM
- Mississippi College (3-5) vs. West Florida (6-3), 2:00 PM
- Millsaps (1-8) vs. Southwestern (1-7), 1:00 PM***
- Belhaven (7-1) @ Southern Virginia (1-7), 11:00 AM
*: The Ole Miss Rebels were known as the “Mississippi Flood” from 1929 to 1936.
**: Belhaven and Maryville were tied 7-7 going into overtime. Not only did Maryville score their touchdown, they also ran an interception back for 6 more points, giving Maryville the 20-7 win in overtime.
***: This will be Millsaps’ final game of the 2023 Season.
MageeNews.com is an online news website covering Simpson and surrounding counties as well as the State of Mississippi.
