How I got my Grove back

Individual decisions or moments can all make sense on a one-off basis, but somehow when you look at them in total they defy belief. For example in any given year the odds of the Dolphins winning a playoff game should be less than 50%...but how does that add up to 21 consecutive years of the Dolphins not winning a playoff game. (Unfortunately the same example applies to one of my other favorite teams as the Minnesota Twins have lost 18 straight playoff games. Losing one playoff game makes sense, but 18 in a row is impossible.) 

As a sports obsessed native Mississippian it is hard to believe that up until Saturday I had never been to an Ole Miss football game. Just like the above it makes sense that any given year I would have been busy or it wouldn't have made sense to travel from Minnesota / Ohio to northern Mississippi, but over the course of 38 years it just doesn't make sense.  A few years ago I decided to add “go to an Ole Miss game” on my 40 before 40 list, but really it took COVID (and the great pause with sports) to give me the proper motivation to actually do something about it. And if I was going to do it, I wanted to do it right and not just try to check a box. Doing it right in this case meant reaching out to one of my closest friends and enlisting her and her wonderful husband’s help in planning the trip. They were uniquely qualified for a few reasons:

1. They both went to Ole Miss
2. They had a spot / tent in the Grove to tailgate
3. Matt happens to be a bigger Ole Miss fan than anyone is a fan of anything

The next step was picking the game. I didn’t want to come see Ole Miss cross some directional school (and as a graduate from a MAC school this is no disrespect to small or mid-sized schools) or lose by 40 to Alabama. It was hard to know how good Ole Miss would be coming into the season, but I thought picking a mid-level SEC opponent would make the most sense. And the mid-level SEC opponent just happened to be a school (Arkansas) that has produced some of the strangest games in college football history.  So I had the right people, the right game and all things lined up for a great experience. 

So how was it?

Absolutely.

Amazing.

First off the game was exactly what you would expect from an Arkansas / Ole Miss game. The teams combined for 1287 yards and 103 points. It isn’t fair to say it came down to the last second because the game actually came down to one untimed play that determined which team won. Here are some notes:

• There were two players currently projected to be 1^st round picks in the 2022 NFL draft: Ole Miss’s QB Matt Corral and Arkansas’s receiver Treylon Burks. Both players looked unstoppable 
• 6 (!!!) players rushed for over 80 yards. It didn’t seem to matter who was running the ball because they could get 5-10 yards every single time
• Arkansas’s QB played a great game with both his passes and his runs. I looked him up and he was born May 20^th, 2001…..which is right around the same time I was graduating high school. 
• Some of the long throws from Matt Corral were majestic and it was easy to see why he is going to be a 1^st round pick
• There is special amount of pressure when its an 11am game and the tailigating is going to happen after the game. It was hard not to think about how salty people would be if Ole Miss lost. 
• The play came down to a 2 point conversion attempt by Arkansas after they scored a TD with no time on the clock. It was absolutely the right call because neither team’s defense looked great, but for some reason Arkansas tried a rollout pass. There didn’t seem to be a great play design and the ball fell harmlessly to the ground. 
• The level of joy / relief in seeing that ball and the overall quality of play made this one of the best games I’ve ever attended. It’s not up to the 2015 National Title or Game 163, but wow that was such a great game. If you want to see a picture of pure joy check out my seatmate / host for the weekend:

After the game we all went to the Grove. The Grove is consistently rated as one of the top tailgating experiences in college football and it lived up to the hype. Again I felt lucky to be with people who actually knew what they were doing, which meant organizing the food, drinks and having a tent. It was awesome to walk around enjoying a libation while talking to people I used to know (a few from high school) and strangers I just met. Below is a picture of the crew I was Groving (not one person ever said that, but I am going to assume that it will take off after this post) with. 

A few noteworthy experiences from after the game. The Grove is huge party with many social interactions. 

• There is a rhythm to interacting in Mississippi and I tried my best to remember the appropriate cadence of my home state.
• I can talk football with anyone, but I had to remember I was squarely in SEC country. At one point I tried to explain the MAC to a friend and not only was it not successful it led to a question about if Ohio State was in the MAC.
• The food was great - both at the Grove and all weekend. It started on Friday was an absolutely amazing fried chicken burrito with yellow rice and queso. That was so good that if I went back to the same place I would make the same order. It ended on Saturday night  with excellent 1am chicken on a stick from a very busy gas station. In between there were many chick-fil-a chicken nuggets, brownies, sandwiches, etc. I was well-fed and Oxford as a food city lived up to its reputation. 
• You want an example of free market capitalism at it's finest....it's one bar's cover being $40 and that easily being the most reasonable option. If it's Saturday night after a big game then you might as well price your cover at a high market rate. (There were enough people inside which more than justifies the pricing decision.)
• I stayed at a friend's condo that was within walking distance of the stadium, Grove and Square. Mississippi is not normally filled with walkable communities, but that thankfully wasn't the case in Oxford. Part of me wonders if some Mississippians have such an affinity towards Ole Miss because it's the rare place where you don't need a car.

Anyway, it's been over a week and I am thrilled I got to go to Ole Miss for a game. It truly is a remarkable sports cultural experience. I'm lucky to have friends that were able to give me this opportunity.