The hiring of Hugh Freeze turned things around. However, the symbol has not been limited to just the football field. 2 Alabama. The Ole Miss reveal event for Tony the Landshark was truly incredible pic.twitter.com/8sha2RsOOf. Red Cup Rebellion, an Ole Miss Rebels community, The Final Whistle: Ole Miss football plays with guts, comes up short in shootout with No. On a muggy Oxford afternoon in the summer of 2008, Tony Fein was frustrated. A two-year letterman after transferring from Scottsdale (Ariz.) Community College, Fein was the 2008 recipient of the Pat Tillman Award by the Military Order of the Purple Heart. On third and 10, with the Rebels clinging to a 31-30 lead in the final minute, Fein shoved off an offensive lineman and sprinted toward the sideline, dragging down Gators wide receiver Brandon James one yard shy of the marker. Jakorey Hawkins had other plans, however, and ripped the ball from Najee Harris’ arms, forcing the first fumble of the Tide running back’s career and stopping the momentum. But first we need to talk about an Iraq War vet and a life cut too short. @Lane_Kiffin | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/882c4v0D7q. The excitement of Nutt’s first two years in Oxford waned quickly. Jarring as the actual costume may be, the concept itself is grounded in historical relevance. Freeze’s uptempo spread offense was the star of the show, but the defense was finding some its old swagger. Three years into Freeze’s tenure and Ole Miss had the No. First-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin had little to say about the performance of his defense two days after the Rebels’ season-opening, 51-35 loss to Florida. On the surface, about the closest tie-in you can find is Pascagoula native Jimmy Buffet’s Landshark Lager. The Rebels won just six combined games in 2010 and 2011 and Nutt was canned. "At Ole Miss, 'Landshark' is a term adopted by the Rebel football team's defensive unit. After a well-designed onside kick attempt didn’t quite work out for Luke Logan, Harris took advantage of the short field and scored his fourth of five touchdowns on the night to go ahead 49-42. One Cut. “He thought he was the best linebacker on the team, and I agree. Fans wore foam fin hats. The scoring drive was capped off with a beautifully-designed jump pass to the 6-foot-4, 240-pound former Temple Owl for his third touchdown in as many games. 7 Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl. The coroner’s office would later rule his death an accidental drug overdose, citing a mix of morphine and anxiety medicine. The Ole Miss Landshark defensive secondary has been anchored by senior Cody Prewitt, who in the last two seasons has been a force going toward the ball with no … The fins up salute the country saw during the SEC hoops championship was what landshark purists called bastardized and what most Rebel fans referred to as the “rooster shark”: thumb extending from the forehead, fingers spread and, if Marshall was really feeling it, wiggling. The defense, studded with future NFLers like Peria Jerry, Jerrell Powe and Jamarca Sanford, adopted Fein’s landshark gesture as an embodiment of their aggressive, swarming style of play. Roughly a dozen species are found in the warm waters off the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but the state has no significant historical association with sharks. Er, at least his version of the landshark. He needed a signature celebration to go along with all those treys. Twitter promptly lost its mind over the muscled-up shark with its toothy grin and swept-back dorsal fin. Talkin’ exes and Os. Johnson and Issac Gross were making plays all over the field—and throwing up the fin to celebrate. More important than the points, perhaps, Kiffin did not kick a field goal on 4th-and-1! He was killing it in practice, and said something to the effect of ‘I’m here.’ He was smelling blood in the water, and he was the landshark.”. A battle cry of “Fins Up” also contributes to the players’ persona. Henderson had transferred to Ole Miss with an arrest record and a brash, swaggering attitude that immediately made him the most polarizing player in SEC basketball. Its historical association with Rebel sports spans a decade and is a story that includes Marshall Henderson, an upset win over Tim Tebow and the hiring of Hugh Freeze. School administrators followed the students’ lead, announcing that the landshark would be formally adopted heading into the 2018 football season. For a brief moment in March of 2013, Ole Miss was at the center of the college basketball world. Matt Corral found leading receiver Elijah Moore to open the game and then let tight end Kenny Yeboah go to work. @TheRebelWalk #OleMiss pic.twitter.com/sd6mx5Q2tJ. Opposing fans gleefully posted memes. As part of that identity, defensive players celebrate big plays by putting a hand to their forehead in the shape of a shark fin. To that point, though, the landshark remained tucked within the Ole Miss community, unrecognized by the average college sports fan. The landshark symbol became less prominent as Fein departed from the football field, however it reemerged during the 2014 football season, when the Rebels possessed the best defense in the nation. Ole Miss football couldn’t hang on down the stretch and fell 63-48 in a hard-fought, back-and-forth battle with No. Media members chortled. After four straight losing seasons, the Rebel football team returned to national prominence with a 9-4 record and a victory over No. Lebby rewarded his back and he powered it home a few plays later. The Tide answered, but nobody cares so BACK TO POINTS! Last year, Ole Miss announced it was once again changing its on-field mascot. Sam Williams is a serious dude and took quarterback Mac Jones down with one hand to force the punt. On the tail end of a rainy Saturday, Lane Kiffin led the Rebels out of the tunnel to square off with his former mentor Nick Saban, former offensive coordinator colleague Steve Sarkisian and the No. The finer points of form aside, however, Henderson had taken the landshark mainstream. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. Podcast Rebellion: The Hangover Edition is still drunk after that shootout, How to Watch Ole Miss vs. Alabama and OPEN THREAD, Roll Bama Roll graces the Cup with its prediction for Saturday. The fourth-and-one stop against Tim Tebow to upset eventual national champion Florida that season is etched into the mind of Ole Miss fans, but not as many remember the play preceding it. Instead, the Rebels hurried to the ball, caught the Tide defense off guard and Conner broke for 26 yards. But the shark has a distinct advantage over its predecessor. He found it in the landshark. The costume is, if we’re being honest, a bit preposterous, even by mascot standards. On the backs of Thunder and Lightning, Corral and his backfield orchestrated a melodious four-minute masterpiece which Ealy crowned with a cut-back so nasty that the crashing safety should check his britches. Man that dude Henderson from Ol Miss got the greenest light in basketball history!! Defenders like Cody Prewitt, C.J. After making a pair of sacks against quarterback Jevan Snead, Fein, according to accounts from coaches and teammates given to Magnolia State Live, vented his frustration with the gesture that would become synonymous with Rebel athletics: hand erect and pressed against the forehead, mimicking the dorsal fin of a shark ominously breaking water. As part of that identity, defensive players celebrate big plays by putting a hand to their forehead in the shape of a shark fin. The gesture spread to other Rebel sports: pitchers threw it up after big strikeouts, volleyball players flashed it after spikes. Both teams traded three-and-outs, which was big for Ole Miss. Named in a tribute to Fein, Tony was unveiled in August of 2018, and has been a fixture at all Rebel sporting events since, StubHub: Buy or Sell Ole Miss Rebels Tickets. “We believe that affection for the Landshark serves as a symbolic rallying point, something lovingly embraced among students from a variety of backgrounds, races, religions, creeds and political affiliations,” the Associated Student Body said in a statement. We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. An Ole Miss field goal would make it 49-45 with seven minutes remaining but the Rebels fell one touchdown short to the nation’s second best team in the end. His game was as brazen as his personality: that year, he broke the conference’s single-season record for three-point attempts by 87 shots. After a pair of positive Conner draws, Corral found his tight end streaking for a 68-yard touchdown to cap off the three-play, 79-yard touchdown drive. Roughly 24 hours before the mascot’s WWE-style intro, before the lights and smoke and angry tweets, the school quietly released the landshark’s name. Kiffin and Lebby are unbelievable play callers, Saban was in a mental pretzel most of the evening and there was hardly a moment before the final whistle that didn’t have hope. Anchored by a defense that ranked top-20 in both points and yards allowed per game, the Rebels went from three wins in 2007 to a nine-win Cotton Bowl champ in 2008 under first-year head coach Houston Nutt. The Cage Dive: Ole Miss damn near did it against Alabama. Alabama evened the score not five minutes later and had an opportunity to go ahead 14-7 after a turnover on downs. His unit was nicknamed “the landsharks.” He brought that toughness and tenacity to Oxford when he signed with Ole Miss as a top JUCO prospect. TD. Ole Miss Athletics/USA Today/illustration by Red Cup Rebellion This past Saturday, Ole Miss pulled back the curtain on its new on-field mascot: the landshark… Podcast Rebellion: The Hangover Edition is still drunk after that shootout, How to Watch Ole Miss vs. Alabama and OPEN THREAD, Roll Bama Roll graces the Cup with its prediction for Saturday, Ole Miss pulled back the curtain on its new on-field mascot, citing a mix of morphine and anxiety medicine, the Associated Student Body said in a statement. Alabama got the ball back and tied it up, but as a result, Lebby was back at the helm. 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