Joey Chestnut shows up at Ole Miss spring game, wins hot dog eating contest

It wasn’t your typical spring game at Ole Miss on Saturday, and that became very apparent with the presence of Joey Chestnut. The top-ranked competitive eater in the world joined the Rebels at the Grove Bowl to participate in a hot dog eating competition with the team.

Chestnut even let the other participants have a head start on him, but it ultimately didn’t matter for the world record holder. He breezed through 20 hot dogs to help the Blue team to a victory over the Red team, with the next closest person eating only eight hot dogs. You can view the moment below.

Welcome to the Glizzy Games 🌭@joeyjaws | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/kP6590T2MG

— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) April 13, 2024

The hot dog eating competition was just one of several creative ways that Ole Miss spiced up the Grove Bowl. The Rebels also held a slam dunk contest, tug-o-war and a 7-on-7 flag football game.

Overall, it was a highly entertaining afternoon and certainly a refreshing new spin on the typical spring game. It will be interesting to see if any other teams follow suit in the coming years.

Joey Chestnut has won a total of 16 Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating competitions, which take place every Fourth of July. He currently owns the world record for most hot dogs eaten in the contest, having consumed 76 in 2021.

Chestnut got his start in competitive eating in 2005 when he was a student at San Jose State. He won a deep-fried asparagus eating title by consuming 6.3 pounds in 11.5 minutes. However, as Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin pointed out, it took time for Chestnut to hone his craft.

“I’ve met with him before,” Kiffin said of Chestnut. “For everybody out there, don’t quit the first time. Joey lost his first eating competition. He lost a lobster competition and stayed with it. So like Michael Jordan didn’t make varsity and he got cut, Joey Chestnut lost the eating competition.”

Of course, Chestnut rebounded from that loss to achieve all of the accolades mentioned above. Ole Miss will aim to take a page out of that book this season at it aims to reach the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.

The Rebels are coming off of an 11-2 season that saw them win more games than they have in any other season in program history. If they can replicate that this year, it would likely land them an at-large bid to the postseason.

Ole Miss is set to kick off the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Furman.