As the Ole Miss football team travels to Baton Rouge to play in the Magnolia Bowl, many Rebel fans have decided to make the trip to Tigerland to cheer on the first 7-0 Rebel football team since 1962.
This season the game is drawing even more attention due to Ole Miss’s current undefeated status and number three ranking in the AP Poll, as well as ESPN’s College GameDay being hosted in Baton Rouge for the game. Combine those factors with the fact that Saturday is also LSU’s homecoming, this game is going to be a big one.
For many Rebel fans, the road trip to Baton Rouge is about more than cheering on their team in a rivalry game. It’s personal.
Chris Schell is not only a junior business major at The University of Mississippi, but also a Covington, Louisiana, native going to Death Valley with a chip on his shoulder.
“Being from Louisiana, this game means a whole lot,” Schell said. “Mostly everyone from my senior class goes to LSU. Many chastised me for going to Ole Miss when I was a senior in high school, but when we beat LSU last year, it really gave me an opportunity to get back at the people who told me it was a poor decision.”
Connor Hennessey, a senior journalism major from Shreveport, Louisiana, has been torn with the rivalry ever since he became an Ole Miss student.
“Going to Baton Rouge is always difficult for me,” Hennessey said. “My parents are season ticket holders down there, and I cheered for the Tigers from those seats for many years. I am a Rebel now, so it’s hard going down there as a visiting fan and being treated like garbage by the LSU fans.”
While Hennessey admits his ties to Louisiana and LSU are strong, his allegiance falls only with the Rebels.
“My worlds are clashing when these two schools get together due to my ties to Louisiana, but I am all in for the Rebels,” he said. “Any game is magnified when you’re having the success that Ole Miss is having at this point in the year, and I don’t think this one is any different. I think it’s certainly magnified because of how the game ended last year as well.”
Louisiana natives may be going to Baton Rouge with something to prove or for their love of the Rebels, but others are simply making the trip to experience the atmosphere.
KC Kellum, a senior communicative sciences and disorders major from Itta Bena, is making the trip to Baton Rouge even though she doesn’t have a ticket to the game.
“I’m going because the Rebels are killing it, and they need just as much support on the road as they do at home,” Kellum said. “And I’ve never been to Baton Rouge, so I’m interested to see what the ‘corn dog culture’ is like.”
Kellum doesn’t plan on letting her lack of a ticket keep her from cheering on the Rebels with fellow Ole Miss fans in Baton Rouge.
“Since I don’t have a ticket, I plan on finding the bar with the most red and blue clothing in it and watching the game there,” she said.
