OXFORD – Ole Miss's student section was in great shape one hour before the start of one of the fiercest rivalries in college football on Thursday night.

As the No. 22 Mississippi Bulldogs got ready for the Egg Bowl game in the north area of ​​Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the Rebels' students insulted them. One of the jabs was ironically relevant to the Bulldogs' game plan.

"Hey No. 7, you can not throw!" Shouted a student. "You can not go!"

Senior quarterback Nick Fitzgerald had some ups and downs as a smuggler this season, but the joke finally turned around the young man dressed in red and blue in the third row of stands, not Fitz.

It's not that Fitzgerald could not spend this Thanksgiving night. That's what he did not need to do. Mississippi State ran everywhere Ole Miss in the Bulldogs' 35-3 win over their bitter rival. Fitzgerald had 117 rushing yards and two touchdowns.

"Throughout my career, I've really learned to have thick skin," Fitzgerald said. "I've learned to read something online or to hear someone say something to you and just let it go in. If I had not learned to do that, I do not know where. I would be."

Mississippi State sprinted to the first quarter with a 14-0 lead thanks to a touchdown from sophomores Kylin Hill and Fitzgerald. The Dogs ran the ball 17 times in just four passes for their first three goods.

State's second touchdown was 86 yards on eight games, half of them with more than 10 yards. The Bulldogs finished the match with 309 rushing yards in 51 attempts. Fitzgerald only pitched the ball 18 times.

"From the start, we would run inside the area and throw the ball at them until they stop," Fitzgerald said. "We were definitely going to throw it a bit, but our main goal was to dominate the line of scrimmage."

Fitzgerald was forced to prove to home students that he could pass, he did. Leading 14-3 at the end of the first period, head coach Joe Moorhead decided to push the ball to the back of the field to increase his team's advantage.

Fitzgerald contacted Stephen Guidry 25 yards from the right. Then he forced the officials to ask the rebels' inference with a good ball to Osirus Mitchell, a sophomore.

In the next game, on the nine-yard Ole Miss line, Fitzgerald found junior catcher Deddrick Thomas perfectly geared to give Mississippi State a 21-3 lead at the locker room entrance.

"(That gave us all the momentum knowing we were going to have the ball in the second half," said Moorhead. "It was definitely a good way for us to go into the locker room until 21-3."

Fitzgerald only completed six passes in the second period. He did not need to finish anymore. After traveling 184 yards in the first period, the Bulldogs added more than 100 points in a second. Fitzgerald won nine goals on his second score of the night to make it a 28-3 match.

same A fight between the banks at the end of the third quarter could not hurt the Bulldogs' mojo. Three Mississippi State players – Jamal Peters, Cameron Dantzler and Willie Gay Jr. – were ejected from the match as a result of a fight that erupted after the cancellation of A. J. Brown's victory could be touched.

Ole Miss was not eliminated until the end of the third quarter, so Brown's superb score on the sidelines was canceled. The inverted call had no impact on the final result of the game.

State has always come back to score another ground touchdown after the skirmish on a dive from one meter up, Aeris Williams. Ole Miss could not stop the dogs on the ground and the result was a resounding triumph for Egg Bowl for the visitors.

"We want our game to be between whistles," said Moorhead. "And we want our execution and our efforts to be what we are talking about."

The Golden Egg returned to Starkville because of that. Supporters who mocked Fitzgerald before the match probably did not stay long enough to see the trophy win the trophy because it was an early exit night for Rebels fans.

"Knowing what it means to the people of Starkville, our students, our alumni, the state of Mississippi and, most importantly, our team, I am very proud to stay here and bring an Egg Bowl trophy to Starkville." said Moorhead.

Contact Tyler by e-mail at [email protected] and follow @tbhorka on Twitter

More: After the dominant match, Mississippi State defeated Ole Miss 35-3 in the chippy Egg Bowl rivalry