Last year’s controversy from an Ole Miss perspective
October 14, 2008
This weeks’ Alabama-Ole Miss game represents a sigh of relief from Alabama, but something edgier for the Rebels.
Ole Miss wide receiver Shay Hodge was at the center of the game’s controversial finish. Hodge apparently caught a 41-yard completion to the Alabama 4-yard line with seven seconds remaining.
However, the catch was overruled on replay when Hodge was judged an illegal receiver after stepping out of bounds on the play.
“It felt like he pushed me,” Hodge said, referring to Tide cornerback Lionel Mitchell. “When the play was going on, I had no idea how close I was to the sideline. He was pushing me. I finally got around it and then I saw the ball and I just went up and got it. I came back and saw the replay and then I was thinking, ‘I didn’t know I went out of bounds, but he pushed me, and if you get pushed out of bounds, you can come back in.’ But it went the other way.”
The play cost the Rebels a chance at a last-second victory.
“I got over it real quick. You have to get on with the season. I let it go real fast,” Hodge said. “I think about it all the time though. It could’ve been a big play to turn our season around and maybe things would’ve been different with the momentum of beating them, but I’ve let it go.”
Many Rebels fans, apparently, have not.
“Every time I go home, they always talk about that play and about how we got ripped off against Alabama,” Hodge said.
A year ago, the reaction was immediate. Fans showered the end zone with debris, including bottles and cups, empty and full.
“I had never seen that before. It was funny,” Hodge said, before quickly retreating. “It really wasn’t funny at the time but after thinking about it and then they said our fans needed to get some class or something like that, it was funny. It was crazy.”
Hodge is hoping for a better ending in Tuscaloosa. It will already be a big day. He turns 21 on Saturday.
