Tiger Tracklist: Ole Miss

Go to hell, Ole Miss.

It’s simple enough. As a sentence there is an directive stated and there is a subject specified.

But it’s complex at the same time. It holds only as much vitriol as you assign to it. Like water, it takes the form of it’s container. You can say it with the depths of your heart at full voice - “GO TO HELL, OLE MISS!” or you use it as a dismissive scoff - “oh go to hell, Ole Miss”.

Either way, there isn’t an insincere way to say it.

LSU has been searching for a “real” rival for my entire lifetime, and for my entire lifetime Ole Miss has been trying to get LSU to hate them while always claiming Mississippi State as their “real” rivals. Maybe Ole Miss does hate Mississippi State more than LSU, but in my opinion that’s more out of duty than actual honest to God hate. That kind of hate is reserved for LSU. And try as they might to conceal it, it comes out from time to time. You can see it, just mention Billy Cannon and Odell Beckham Jr. or kneeling at the one or Kenny Hilliard throwing a landshark out of the frame.

And that goes both ways. LSU hates Alabama, but that’s a competitive hate. LSU hates Auburn, but that’s a hate that’s based in respect for being mirror opposites of LSU and the series producing some of each school’s most memorable moments. LSU hates Tulane because they have to. LSU hates Ole Miss because of everything Ole Miss represents: denial of what they is. Ole Miss has embraced the “southern proper” way of living, dressing up to their overhyped pathetic excuse of a tailgate while LSU has accepted the “drunk Cajuns” angle and everything associated with it, positive or negative.

Nobody knows for sure if there is a “hell” and what constituted hell may differ from person to person, but I image that an Ole Miss fan’s personal idea of hell is Death Valley late at night in late October. LSU fans will get their wish this year.

Ole Miss claims to have never lost a party, but the last time they came to Baton Rouge I remember LSU taking the party to the field.

The game is at 8:00 PM Saturday, meaning a tailgate worth their salt will be pushing 12 hours. Win the party under the tents and then bring your bourbon-soaked body into Death Valley on Saturday night. There the Tigers will be throwing a party of their own on the field.

Ole Miss will be in hell.