Ole Miss is headed to the Texas Bowl

Dec 4, 2022 - 9:37 PM

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Bowl selection is part politics, part getting hot at the right time, and part geographical logistics, but mostly fans just want to know who, when and where to make hotel reservations.

Ole Miss fans, pack your bags and get ready for a trip to Houston!

What? Houston, Texas?

Yeah, Houston’s Texas Bowl will host the Ole Miss Rebels (8-4, 4-4 SEC) versus the Texas Tech Red Raiders (7-5, 5-4 Big 12).

OK, look, I was completely convinced the Rebels were headed to the Music City Bowl, had made reservations for a hotel, reached out to friends to make New Year’s Eve plans, but somehow Ole Miss fell to the Texas Bowl. No offense to the Texas Bowl, it’s just a lot less convenient to get to, and while there are plenty of Rebel alumni in the Houston and surrounding area, I can’t imagine there will be a huge road crowd for this kind of disappointing destination.

Maybe I’m wrong, but coming off a three game skid to end the season, the bowl game just seems to have lost its luster a bit. Then throw in the game is against an opponent the Rebels have faced several times in the last couple decades, and it’s just not an exciting game at the moment.

But the other side of the coin is that this is a massive opportunity for Ole Miss to make a statement. I mean, hell, at one point there was talk about the Rebels in the Citrus Bowl or even a New Year’s Six bowl a few weeks ago. The coaching staff has to rally the team to believe it has something to prove. Right now, the rest of college football thinks Ole Miss is a soft eight win squad who beat up on a bunch of bad teams and couldn’t beat a good team.

Texas Tech may not be a great team, but the Red Raiders did beat Texas and Oklahoma in the same season for the first time in school history plus it ended the season on a three game winning streak. With 24 days between now and kickoff, there’s a lot that will be done to prepare for the game, but it seems like TTU will be the hot team coming into it.

Ole Miss and head coach Lane Kiffin had a turbulent and drama-filled end to the season with rumors of him thinking about departing for Auburn. One way to put all of that to bed and build for the 2023 season is going out and stomping through TTU on Dec. 28. We’ll have more coverage of the Texas Bowl coming soon, but for now, it’s good to be a bowl eligible team, keep away the Sunday scaries with a cold one, and Hotty Toddy!