Mississippi State’s Erroll Thompson gears up for Egg Bowl rivalry, ‘probably best in whole world’
By Keith Farner
Published:
After last year’s scuffle in the Egg Bowl, Mississippi State LB Erroll Thompson has a message for his teammates.
“We don’t really need that,” he said in a video shared by Gene’s Page. “That’s not what this rivalry is all about. It’s just about going out, playing a good football game, a good clean football game, keeping your head out of it, keeping your composure.”
The teams have split the last four meetings, but the Bulldogs won last year, 35-3.
An Alabama native, Thompson said he was aware of the Egg Bowl, but, “you don’t really feel it until you play in it, until you’re a part of it. It’s a big rivalry, probably the best in the whole world.”
The Bulldogs are expected to get a full lineup on defense at the end of a season in which several have missed time for suspensions.
“I feel like it’ll be a great asset for us,” Thompson said. “Getting Willie (Gay) back, getting Marcus (Murphy) back, the guys who will be playing. I feel like it’ll be a great asset for us, but we’ve still got to play disciplined football.”
That defense will face one of the more dynamic offensive players in the league in Ole Miss QB John Rhys Plumlee.
“It’s going to be a tough challenge,” Thompson said. “He’s a great player, I think he’s a little bit shy of 1,000 yards, and only a couple people have done that at quarterback, so he’s a great player. We’ve got our hands full.”
A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.
