If I were a professional Big J Journalist covering an event, I’d bring a notebook or laptop and take detailed notes to avoid having to remember details I witnessed because that’s what resourceful and smart people do.
However, as a lowly Big F and Big B Fan Blog writer, and I’m not bound by sensible practices. In fact, my promise to the American people is that I will never take a notebook anywhere or type notes on my phone because that’s annoying.
We ain’t here to play recall every detail. We’re here to play I might remember this and that, and I’ll definitely remember that one thing two weeks from now.
So instead of emptying a physical notebook or laptop, I’m cleaning out the ol’ mental notebook from Saturday’s win over LSU.
Arrival – 2 PM
- I’d rather give you my bank account password than tell you where I park
- The next time I experience post-game traffic will be the first time
- I’m also considering blindfolding those who ride with me, starting from when we get to Oxford and until we are a safe distance away from the parking area (and the same for after the game)
On the Square – 2 to 3 PM
- The first thing I noticed was cops standing around in various places, which they’ve never done prior to games
- The crowd on the Square was on par with most SEC games in terms of volume and casual Saturday energy, which meant the cops were doing a lot of the thing where they hold the top part or shoulder straps of their bulletproof vests with both hands while chatting with each other
- I also ran into someone I hadn’t seen in roughly 170 years (we served together in the Mexican War in 1846), which is always one of the treats of any Ole Miss home game
The Gove, etc. – 3:30 to 5:15 PM
- Your Honor, let the record show the sweating started on the walk from the Square to campus, and it did not stop for over 9 hours
- At one point, I went in the Student Union, which was wall to wall with people tired of sweating, the sun, and endless garbage September weather (related, September is skyrocketing in the Trash Month Power Ratings)
- Shout-out to the Student Union air conditioning for showing up with a spot the ball mentality
- Highlight of The Grove was observing an LSU couple in an argument that went:
- Woman: “You don’t want me to go see my friends.”
- Man: [inaudible]
- 3-second stare
- Woman: “F### you.”
- She walked off in one direction, he went the other way
- I’m sure the game experience patched things up between those two
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium – 5:30 to Whenever I walked out PM
- We love our thicccc, large adult planes flying over at whatever the slowest speed is that keeps them in the air
- Within 2 minutes of LSU running out of the tunnel before kickoff, the student section fired up the “F### Lane Kiffin” chant, and it was not the last time
- We also love when the entire crowd signs a social contract that this is a game where you only sit down during TV timeouts
- The first half was 10/10, no notes, would watch again with everyone around me, as we were all operating at a 20 out of 10 Lunatic Level
- The third quarter, which was torture, still had the juice, but the crowd tension meter spiked, which we did not love!
- I think the 2023 LSU game was still the most electric environment I’ve been in, with the wild emotional swings that come with a 55-49 game, but Saturday was the most intense
- The crowd wanted to make LSU feel as though we might actually unhinge our jaws and eat them
- Probably could’ve talked some people into trying it in the first half
- When LSU’s last possession landed in Jaylon Braxton’s hands, that was the crowd pop of all crowd pops
- When Braxton and other defenders ran down the field in front of the LSU bench letting Kiffin and everyone else standing there know what they thought, LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
- After the kneeldowns to end it, the shared elation among the crowd was so powerful that no one made a move to leave because doing so meant coming down off that high
- Playing “Callin’ Baton Rouge” over the PA system was standard trolling made more enjoyable by said elation
- Everyone singing that would’ve made for a fine ending, but then the Ole Miss band played “Neck,” which again, LMAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and 10/10, no notes, would experience again
- Leaving the stadium after any SEC win makes joy palpable, but Saturday’s exit bordered on everyone levitating their way out
Departure – 11:30 PM
- Walking through the Square brought the first sighting of the giant horse mounted patrols, which made me think of this spectacular piece someone wrote about their horse in Red Dead Redemption 2
- I didn’t find out what the cover at The Library was, but I can report someone in the 50-person line said into their phone that “the line is moving so fast.”
- Walking out of the Square, I had a brief interaction with Wright Thompson and told him I enjoyed his most recent piece on the Ole Miss/LSU rivalry rather than asking him if he remembered the time 4 or 5 years ago I saw him at a Jason Isbell show at Red Rocks, told him I enjoyed his writing, and that I was from Mississippi too
- Elite conversation skills from your boy both then and on Saturday
- Were multiple (and more multiple) beers involved leading up to the Red Rocks interaction? Who’s to say?
- Finally, Chevron has not lost its fastball in 2026, and inhaling 1600 calories just before midnight is still the best
- From there, smooth sailing out of Oxford because when you park [redacted], you don’t sit in traffic
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