Commercial Appeal readers going ballistic over Dan Wolken's

[TaleofTwoDogs]

column about Cannon Smith and Coach Porter. But the thing that caught my eye was this piece from a reader's response:

"All good words about the article, folks. Wolken needs to go to work for some cheap weekly penny-saver rag...more his style."

"We were at the game. BIG MISTAKE...we wore our new white Tiger shirts and certainly "blended in." Yuck! Oh, and that NCAA rule where you can't ring the cowbell during a play - forgetaboutit! Those idiots rang them from beginning to end. We should have brough our vuvuzelas!"

"Might not be so bad this year...lots of potential in an otherwise ugly night. Oh, and the people of state....some of you were nice, but most made us feel like American soldiers in full uniform visiting one of those north korean military parades...hatred and loathing and more curse words than my husband heard in 7 years of the Navy! They need to take a trip up to Nebraska, or Austin, or even Texas A&M where the fans may yell at the game, but they respect your rights, and when you win, they compliment your team. One of our party had popcorn thrown on his head when they announced the ole' miss score. Morons. "

Is this just sour-grapes or have State fans dropped a few rungs on the ladder of good fandom? Any witnesses?

 

[8dog]

anyone that acts like that. Im can't say it didn't happen, but it was certainly a minority.

 

[AssEndDawg]

1. The Memphis fans in our area were treated really well. A lot of us come from Memphis, so there is no real animosity there. With some help from the UM fans I was teaching the State fans in our area the Memphis fight song because I really like it.

2. The people from the University of Memphis in general are idiots and the ones that post in the CA are specifically %@$%%%! morons. There is about a 90% chance those people weren't even at the game and just making **** up.

3. HUGE inferiority complex when compared to any SEC school makes Tiger fans hyper-sensitive. They take everything as an insult and have no sense of humor. It's a fair chance that people were just cutting up and they took offense.

4. African-American fans from UofM think any non-Tiger white people are in the KKK. Everything is racial and everything is a slight.

In short. If you hear this from other teams let's get concerned but Memphis fans are idiots just looking for something to be wrong. I would let it slide.

 

[benatmsu]

1. Losing teams' fans always complain about the same things. Whether it's in Starkville, Tuscaloosa, or Austin, TX. It's a defense mechanism. "Let's deflect the sting of the loss by pointing how awful their ENTIRE fan base is. We may have lost but we're still classier!" It's a tale as old as fandom. It also doesn't help that after an *** kicking like that, you're pissed off and you tend to spend more time letting little things fester (ie. Pop corn flying after a celebration, people yelling at you when you're wearing the opposing team's colors) rather than concentrating on the real issue that bothers you - which is that your team is awful.

2. So this person wanted a compliment of their team after the game? What did you want us to compliment you on exactly? Your team is awful. They didn't do anything right all night. Well, except for when we shut down to begin the 4q and our 3s and 4s were in on defense.

The bottom line is there are stories just like this from every game ever played. So I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

We had a good time talking with them. They knew they weren't any good and they were there to have a good time. One of them said they had been tailgating in the junction and having a blast.

 

[jacksdawgs]

but it wasn't any different than it would have been any where else.

 

[sleepy dawg]

I actually had several Memphis fans yelling stuff at us such as "Bulldogs suck". Pre-game, and even post-game. Not once did we ever even retaliate past ringing our cowbells.

As far as the cowbell goes, they are right...
It will be banned for good at the end of the year, and we will probably start facing stiffer penalties than we ever have. People around me were ringing the whole game... Even when we had clearly won the game, people were ringing as if it was a tie game against Auburn in the 4th quarter. It's a damn shame people can't follow the rules for just 1 season.

 

[DovaDawg]

I have my undergrad from MSU and my graduate degree from Memphis. I have attended several of the Memphis vs. Ole Miss games and as was mentioned previously, Memphis fans are ultra sensitive when it comes to the SEC. They usually start out with the overrated SEC smack. When they fall behind on the scoreboard, they switch to the big bad SEC has to play poor CUSA teams because we are scared to play real teams smack. And then they just usually try to start fist fights. They believed they were destined to be selected by a BCS conference this year and the 49 point beat down that was put on them last night has highlighted the fact that they are not ready. One of the Memphis fans with me kept complaining about the cowbells and how it was unfair that their team could not hear on the field. I told him that in conferences where fans actually show up for the game it is something you have to deal with and in the SEC we have to deal with it week in and week out. He got pissed when I told him suck it up, this is BCS football. I saw a few drunk students harassing some Memphis fans, but 90% of the Memphis fans were ignored for the most part. Everyone got crap thrown on them when the Ole Miss score was announced, I am sorry if that fan felt it was specifically directed at him.

 

[jakldawg]

after the independence bowl and peed on the car next to us (it was snowy. You could tell) missed this supposed College Station sportsmanship symposium. And don't get me started on the Longhorn fans. And popcorn. Seriously. Be lucky it wasn't the traditional student section baptism by Jack & Coke.