“Southern hospitality at its finest” The Ole Miss experience

One Evergreen writer shares his experiences with the SEC

DOUGLAS WOOD, Sports reporter

October 16, 2025

WSU Cougs take the field at home during the Apple Cup in 2025.

Last weekend I was fortunate enough to go to the Cougar football game against then No. 4 ranked Ole Miss. It went better than I could have ever expected.

When I got to the Grove at Ole Miss I was impressed by the sheer number of people and tailgates that were there. It was impressive, and everyone I talked to had good things to say about the Cougars and the fans. It was the best experience I’ve had at an away game.

Heading into the game I was hoping that the Cougars could at least keep it close in the first quarter and then whatever happened after that was what it was. I was ecstatic when they were able to stop Ole Miss on their first drive and then respond by scoring a touchdown.

In the visitors section of Vaught Hemingway Stadium it was raucous with how many Cougar fans there were. The vibes were high, and they stayed that way throughout pretty much the whole game.

With the ebbs and flows of the game, that coincided with how the Ole Miss crowd was responding to their team not playing their best football. Going into halftime I was unimpressed with their student section along with the crowd as a whole. It was not what I expected a big SEC crowd to be like. To be fair to them, it was an 11:45 a.m local kickoff and they were 32.5 point favorites over WSU.

In the second half, as the rebels played better, the crowd got more into the game and that was evident compared to how loud it was in the first quarter. Even with the crowd getting louder, the Cougars played just as good as they did all day.

In the fourth quarter I thought that the Cougars had a decent chance at winning the game, and they did. They showed that they are able to compete with high end teams that pay a lot more money for their players than WSU can. As I was leaving the stadium I felt proud to be a Coug and was grateful that I could go to the game to experience an SEC game.

After the game as I was walking around the grove an Ole Miss fan stopped me and said that he hoped that the Ole Miss fans were good to us and that the Cougars had put up a good fight.

It was cool to hear from the Ole Miss fans that they enjoyed the Cougars being there and that everyone was able to have a good time. It was southern hospitality at its finest.