On Friday afternoon, the University of Mississippi will take on Mississippi State at home for the annual Egg Bowl rivalry game, and everyone has a very important question about the game that has nothing to do with football: Will the squirrel be back?
During the last two games at Oxford’s Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, a squirrel has run onto the field and caused a delay in play. The first time it happened, Ole Miss was playing Oklahoma and the squirrel appeared on the seventeen-yard line before scampering into the end zone, to roars of approval from the crowd. Then, at the last home game against Georgia, a squirrel (the same squirrel?) dashed out and positively terrorized the UGA sideline. It may be the team’s secret weapon; Ole Miss won both matchups. “I played football for Ole Miss twenty years ago, and I have been to hundreds of games,” says Webb Lewis, who now heads up the university’s social media accounts. “I have never once seen a squirrel on the field. For it to happen two games in a row is insane.”
Suffice it to say, people have thoughts. Lewis’s team of student social media ambassadors named the squirrel…Lewis (“I’m pretty sure that was a punch at me,” the human Lewis says). One student even chased a squirrel around campus for an interview (“Lewis, could you tell us what you plan on doing after winning the big game this weekend?”).
But no one delivered on the theories better than the Ole Miss landscaping crew. “We are not positive that this squirrel is enrolled here and the authorities are looking into that,” says Jeff McManus, the director of landscape services who spoke with G&G—and gathered three of his team members around the phone to share their analysis of the squirrel’s gameplan:
“He’s looking for a nut.”
“The squirrel smells the popcorn.”
“Jaxson [Dart] and JJ [Pegues] have him trained to run out.”
“This squirrel just loves attention.”
“This is a squirrel trained by a rival school.”
“Both games he’s gone out on live TV, never during commercials. There’s some inside knowledge going on here.”
“Juice hates that SOB and is going to chase him down at the next game.”
One thing the team agrees on: Lewis lives in the Grove, the ten-acre spread of trees that houses both lively tailgates and countless bushy-tailed rodents (“there must be twelve million of them that hang out there”). In addition to foraging for acorns, McManus says, these squirrels are skillful post-tailgate and trash can scavengers.
But the most convincing theory on why Lewis keeps making these gametime appearances?
“Lane Kiffin keeps a squirrel in each pocket for when he needs an extra timeout.”
