The Beautiful South - my Mississippi road trip diaries
GEORGE SOMERVILLE – THE TOUCHDOWN SEC CORRESPONDENT
A short story in three states : Part 1
Being a college football fan overseas is easier today than it has ever been. And by that I mean access to information, statistics & game footage has never been better. But the true beauty of college football is in the pomp & circumstance, the atmosphere & traditions and the marvellous nature of being in a stadium with tens of thousands of other fans of the same game.
Which is why I wanted, longed to get back across to the Deep South.
Back in sec country
I have been in the US a few times since and indeed back in the Deep South but I have not been to see a game in that part of the world since 2019. Then I was in Tuscaloosa to see the 2019 LSU National Champions in waiting defeat the Crimson Tide. On that same trip I also made it to Tallahassee for a rare Florida State win (over Alabama State) and finally Athens, Georgia to see the Bulldogs defeat Texas A&M. Soon after, two months to be exact the Covid 19 virus was mutating into a pandemic across the globe and changing our lives forever.
So fast forward (as fast as you can) a full five years and I could wait no longer. However, much has changed in those five years. I am now a credentialed member of the media both in the UK and the US. So this trip was going to be a little different. On this occasion the lens with which I was viewing this as a member of the media. But also a fan. Let’s not get too carried away.
It's only SEC!
New Orleans, LA
This story was never going to be about the BIG10 or ACC – although I have been to numerous games in both conferences – as my passion and love for the game remains in the South. So my trip planning centred around a weekend in the SEC. With fixtures released many months ahead I identified three games which might offer up the opportunity to watch two games on a Saturday. Success of this plan was all down to TV scheduling. I was in the hands of the TV gods!
The triangle I was working was Mizzou at Alabama, Arkansas at Mississippi State and Oklahoma at Ole Miss. The appeal of this slate being all SEC conference games with Tuscaloosa, Starkville and Oxford all “relatively” close in proximity and within reasonable driving distance. If you have ever listen to “Tickets Under Twenty” on our podcast, The College Chaps you understand the College Chaps joy and passion for planning college football road trips.
On this trip some of the stars aligned but not them all. The great people at Mississippi State were kind enough to provide credentials for the game against Arkansas. The TV scheduling was not so kind with all three games in my Southern Triangle being early kicks and no realistic proposition of attending more than one game.
However all was not lost and the College Football gods still smiled on me which led to me heading to Tuscaloosa.
New Orleans - Hattiesburg - Tuscaloosa - Columbus
Hattiesburg, MS
I flew into New Orleans late on the Thursday night. Thankfully the flight was on time and after negotiating the Taylor Swift fans who were mobbing the Crescent City to see their idol, I picked up my rental car and made the short distance to my NOLA hotel for the night. I love feeling the warm humid air when you step outside the airport terminal. It was great to be back in the South.
My body clock was still on UK time meaning I was awake by 3am. This was helpful as the first leg of the trip was driving the 300 miles from NOLA to Tuscaloosa, Alabama. There were a couple of reasons to stop at Tuscaloosa on the Friday before heading to Starkville. Firstly the Alabama NIL collective, Yea Alabama was hosting a lunch for Crimson Tide head coach, Kalen DeBoer. I had managed to grab a ticket for this. However the timing was tight.
Secondly SEC Network pre game shows, SEC Nation, Marty & McGee and the Paul Finebaum show were on campus ahead of the Missouri game. On a Friday in season, the Finebaum Show is always live from the Campus that SEC Nation broadcasts from on the Saturday. This was an opportunity not to be missed, even if it meant a five hour drive from New Orleans. Yikes!
to the top!
The long drive also presented the opportunity to stop somewhere I had not been before. Plotting the route in advance I relished the possibility to drop in on a campus not on the list – Southern Miss in Hattiesburg. It was both a campus I wanted to see and was just a little over half way from Tuscaloosa. When I arrived it was a beautiful fall morning in Mississippi. My stop was a quick walk around campus, obligatory stop at the MM Roberts Stadium, better known as the Rock and of course a quick sprint around the School bookstore!
I grabbed some breakfast and continued the road trip to T-Town. With a firm timeline the drive through Mississippi and into Alabama wasn’t as leisurely as I would have liked. With one eye on the clock I knew lunch with DeBoer was under threat. And it was to be.
roll tide
I got into Tuscaloosa at just the wrong end of lunch so had to miss out on what the Crimson Tide head coach had to say. It would have been interesting to hear his thoughts in a relatively relaxed environment without the gaze of the mainstream media. In what is also the rarest of situations, Alabama mens basketball coach Nate Oats was to be his special guest. Fresh from their Final Four appearance, it has been a long time since Alabama basketball has outshone the football team. But it wasn’t to be.
It was also a blistering hot day. I had dressed for lunch not wandering around the Alabama campus in 90 degree heat. So without any arm twisting I was off to an Alabama store to grab a fresh shirt. Woe is me although I believe my credit card provider is on the other line….
Call Pawl!
Tuscaloosa, AL
I made it back to Wade Hall in time for the Finebaum show to be in full swing. If you haven’t seen his live Friday show it is typically a conveyor belt of guests who are on Campus that day. By the time I arrived I had missed Tim Tebow and Roman Harper. But making an appearance over the next four hours were Katie George & Joe Tessitore, Holly Rose & Chris Fowler, Jordan Rodgers, retired Alabama official Eddie Conyers – who at 91 has to be Paul’s oldest guest, Marty Smith, Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne, Basketball head coach Nate Oats and of course, Laura Rutledge. And it is the spot with SEC Nation host Laura Rutledge which is the most eagerly anticipated and to be honest draws the largest crowd. Paul and Laura have such a great dynamic and their weekly in season slot has become quite the double act.
Then and now
Rolling the clock back to that last visit to Athens, Georgia it was almost five years ago to the day that I met Laura for the first time. In Athens I was watching the Finebaum show live on a rainy Friday evening when I bumped into the SEC Nation host. Laura’s father is Scottish and we struck up an immediate friendship which continues to this day. We had already met this year in Dallas at SEC Media days in July but wherever there is an opportunity to catch up I will try to say hi. I also caught up with Paul after being on his show during media days. So while I missed Kalen DeBoer it was a great detour on the way to Starkville. And of course this was my first time back in T-Town after Coach Saban had retired. So here was my first opportunity to visit the newly renamed Saban Field at Bryant Denny Stadium. Which I did not miss out on!
The last Saturday in October was also Homecoming Weekend at Alabama and Tuscaloosa was crazy busy! I have been into the city on game days before but homecoming weekend was next level. The traffic was bumper to bumper and there were just so many people on campus. It was a lot of fun and a fantastic atmosphere. I am sure that gameday would have been even more hectic. Truth be told with the heat and the crowds I wasn’t so disappointed to be heading out of the traffic.
Next stop Starkville!
Columbus, MS
Next stop Starkville.
A quick side note. Most teams in the SEC are based in college towns, By that I mean that the School dominates the surrounding town and is usually the principal employer. By and large college towns are smaller than most US cities with Vanderbilt in Nashville the exception. Which means that unless you are lucky enough to live or own property in the town or you have booked super early, staying in town or on campus on gameday is very expensive. Given the last minute nature of my trip I elected not to meet the $800 per night charge for the LA Quinta in Starkville! It is neither the Savoy or the Mandarin Oriental. So I stayed about 25 minutes outside Starkville in Columbus, MS. The benefit being that Columbus was just over an hour from Tuscaloosa.
Given the long drive from New Orleans and the extreme heat (I was told unseasonably warm!) I was real glad to see the Holiday Inn Express in Columbus, Mississippi! Especially given that the game in Starkville was kicking off at 11.45am the next day. With credential pick up was at 8.45am an early start was required and the fast paced start to the weekend wasn’t letting up.
Next up…..Gameday Mississippi style!
GEORGE SOMERVILLE
COLLEGE FOOTBALL WRITER
GEORGE IS A LONG STANDING FANATIC OF LIFE AND FOOTBALL IN THE DEEP SOUTH AND WRITES HIS WEEKLY COLUMN CALLED “IT’S ONLY SEC” FOR THE TOUCHDOWN. HE IS ALSO CO-HOST AND ONE THIRD OF THE COLLEGE CHAPS PODCAST, THE UK’S FIRST PODCAST DEDICATED TO THE COLLEGE GAME.