Grove Bowl 2024

OXFORD, Miss. (WLBT) - It wasn’t your traditional Grove Bowl in Oxford on Saturday. Ole Miss put a twist on their traditional spring game format.

Saturday’s events included a tongue contest tug of war, a Hot dog eating contest, and an obstacle. Course head. Coach Lee and Kevin wanted to lose me a little bit differently for his players and the fans.

“I just thinking outside the box with injuries really the value of spring games is, in my opinion, overrated... because you don’t show very many plays on offensive defense,” head coach Lane Kiffin said. “I thought the guys were really motivated by it... really energetic. We had some recruits here. May seem to say the energy levels were like nothing they’ve seen anywhere else.”

The players thought the Grove Bowl games were a success and could see this being copied by other schools across the country.

“It was fun,” starting quarterback Jaxon Dart said. “You’ve got to have a lot of guys getting involved in different things. I thought throughout the whole day the whole team was involved in every activity which made it super fun and the guys just competed. You’ll see more of that from other teams going forward.”

“I was excited to see how it was going to turn out and like I said it turned out great,” JJ Pegues said. “I can smooth down the road. Other teams might just copy it and see how it is because it’s fun and gets people around. Get to see a goofier side of us in the actual us just out there playing football.”

Perhaps the loudest it got during the day was when Joey Chestnut a world champion competitive eater came out during the hot dog eating contest and he even got involved to help the Navy team.

“This was awesome,” Chestnut said. “The fact that it was the first time they’d done something like this... It was amazing. They were either able to put something together. Organize it and get it done. And not only that but the student body and community embraced it. There are a couple of schools I’ve gone to traveling around then. I’m jealous. I wish this was Monica. I wish I was able to go to school here or none about it when I was a kid.”

The next time the Rebels will be on the field here at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is August 31, when they host Furman.

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