JJ Pegues views playing in the Egg Bowl in an Ole Miss uniform a 'privilege'
There are plenty of off-the-field storylines going on within the Ole Miss football program but there is also a football game getting played in a little over 48 hours that holds great significance.
The annual Egg Bowl takes place on Thanksgiving night between No. 20 Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Once again bragging rights are at stake for the next 365 days.
For Mississippi natives on the Ole Miss roster the game means a lot to them and their friends and family. For JJ Pegues it means just a little bit more.
An Oxford native, Pegues returned home this year after playing at Auburn for two seasons then hitting the transfer portal.
Pegues grew up in Oxford and came to plenty of Ole Miss games, including Egg Bowls
“It’s a privilege just getting to play (in the Egg Bowl),” Pegues said on Monday. “I’ve been a youngin’ watching it and I’ve had a couple cousins play in it for both sides, Mississippi State and Ole Miss. It’s a big rivalry in our family.”
Pegues is not the first hometown son to play in the Egg Bowl minutes from where he grew up playing football at Oxford High School. DK Metcalf is the most recent native son of Oxford to also experience the feeling of playing the in-state rivalry game in his own backyard.
Pegues has the distinction of playing in two of the biggest rivalry games in college football.
When Pegues takes the field with Ole Miss he will have participated in both the Iron Bowl and the Egg Bowl. Not many players have that on their collegiate resume.
Big games such as those two are some of the reasons Pegues wanted to first go to Auburn and now return home to finish his college career as a Rebel.
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“It was one of the games I just really wanted to play in,” Pegues said. “Just when I was at Auburn the Iron Bowl was a big thing so Alabama was a game I wanted to play in, too. But, like I said, it’s a big rivalry and I always want to put on for my city and where I’m from, which is why I came back to Oxford.”
Ole Miss is playing Mississippi State on Thursday but Auburn is the team mostly connected to the Rebels this week.
A report by WCBI’s Jon Sokoloff that Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin is all but officially named the new Auburn head coach circulated on Monday night. Kiffin did not deny the report but did rebuff Sokoloff in his own way on Twitter.
Kiffin has been tied to the Auburn opening since Bryan Harsin was fired on Halloween and considered new Auburn athletic director John Cohen’s primary target, with Liberty head coach Hugh Freeze a close second.
Prior to the Twitter storm that brewed on Monday evening, Pegues was another Ole Miss player who stated Kiffin does not talk about his future with the players.
“We don’t really try and pay much attention to it,” Pegues said. “But just pay attention to our next opponent. Because that’s the biggest thing. The coaches put everything into us and we want to give back what they put in. We just don’t really worry about the media or anything like that. We just focus on the next opponent.”
Watch Pegues’ full press conference from Monday below. Video provided by Ole Miss Sports Productions.
