State, Ole Miss not looking for another Egg brawl

By

Posted 6:43AM on Thursday, November 25, 2004

JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - It wouldn't be the Egg Bowl without a fight. But in the wake of two recent high-profile fracases, players for both Mississippi and Mississippi State promise they'll keep their hits legal and their emotions tempered. ``You can't go out thinking about fighting the other team,'' Ole Miss cornerback Trumaine McBride said. ``We have to go out with class and just come on the field to play ball, not to actually fight with them. I'm not really worried about us getting to that point.'' A pair of ugly melees in the past week grabbed headlines and placed players, coaches and fans on alert heading into another rivalry-heavy weekend. Ron Artest was suspended for the rest of the NBA season after storming into the stands and fighting with fans in Detroit, while Clemson and South Carolina both withdrew from bowl consideration after players brawled during their regular-season finale. There's plenty of genuine dislike between Ole Miss and Mississippi State, two schools located about 100 miles apart ``We don't like them,'' Rebels lineman Doug Buckles said and that has coaches for both teams concerned about maintaining order. Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe and Mississippi State coach Sylvester Croom earlier this week discussed discipline and sportsmanship with their teams. ``When you're competing at this level and you're as emotional as you can be, it's all about the habits you develop over the course of the season,'' Cutcliffe said. ``I expect this team to compete, but compete with class.'' Croom ordered the Bulldogs not to speak to the Rebels, a pre-emptive step to defuse some of the players' emotions, Mississippi State receiver McKinley Scott conceded. ``But if you hit somebody, that's your talking right there,'' Scott said. ``You don't have to say you can do it just physically knock somebody on their back.'' Brouhahas have been a nasty part of this rivalry almost from its inception a century ago. A fight broke out after the Rebels won the 1926 meeting in Starkville and fans of Mississippi A as Mississippi State was then known, tried to stop Ole Miss fans from tearing down the goal posts by assaulting them with chairs. The Golden Egg was introduced the next year as a trophy for the winning fans to take home. Melees marred two other Egg Bowl matchups after a punt in the 1990 contest, and during pre-game warm-ups in 1997. Players used their helmets as weapons, and Rebels star Deuce McAllister reportedly bloodied the face of a Mississippi State recruit. The latest brawl was ignited when the teams ran onto the field through the opponent's warm-up section. That won't be the case this year the locker rooms are adjacent to the corresponding benches at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford. ``When teams have to cross each other's warm-up areas, each other's bench areas, you're asking for trouble,'' Croom said. The only thing fans in Mississippi love more than their chosen team is hating their cross-state foe, and the players don't want to tarnish their rivalry with another ugly fight. ``Both teams have to take pride and make sure that does not happen,'' Buckles said.