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Brian Kelly says Magnolia Bowl didn’t ‘resonate’ with him growing up in northeast
By Ethan Stone
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Brian Kelly’s LSU squad has an important one this week.
The Tigers travel to Oxford to take on Ole Miss, a team that just fell to Alabama and is looking to affirm its spot as a true contender in the SEC.
Wednesday morning during the SEC’s weekly teleconference, Kelly recalled what the LSU-Ole Miss rivalry meant to him. The Massachusetts native’s main impression on the game was more on the Ole Miss side of things with the Mannings and the Egg Bowl, not so much the Magnolia Bowl itself.
“The only impressions I’ve had of the SEC growing up was certainly the Mannings,” Kelly said. “That obviously at Ole Miss was a national story. LSU is Tiger Stadium to me, growing up. The games being played at Death Valley. That was clearly an indelible memory. But not the Magnolia Bowl trophy, that didn’t resonate with me. But clearly Ole Miss, and obviously the name recognition and the Egg Bowl, that was a rivalry game that got everybody’s attention because when it was played, it was always a game that was on TV.”
That certainly makes sense. Kelly, who was raised in Everett, Massachusetts, wasn’t exactly born into the SEC culture like some other SEC head coaches were. His initial move from Notre Dame a few years ago made that fairly apparent.
But he’s become one of the top HCs in the conference since then, regardless. Let’s see what his Tigers can do this week against Lane Kiffin and the Rebels.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
