Mary Beckett Morgan might be a little confused. 

Every time she visits her grandparents’ house in Vicksburg, she politely kisses the Colonel Reb statute that is placed outside before she leaves. But she won’t let her grandmother say Hotty Toddy, and you probably won’t be able to say it around her either, because those words hurt her daddy’s feelings.

The 2-year-old daughter of the former Lana Claire Freeman and Rob Morgan is already used to splitting time between Ole Miss and Mississippi State. Her father was a quarterback for the Bulldogs and her mother was a Top Ten Beauty at Ole Miss. If that wasn’t enough to make her favorite colors maroon and blue, her Aunt Annabeth was a homecoming queen in Oxford, while her uncle Matt Wyatt was also a quarterback for State and now works as a color analyst for the Bulldogs. While you’re at it, go ahead and throw in the fact her grandmother attended Ole Miss while her grandfather spent his college years at Mississippi State.

And you thought your family had issues.

The family connection has roots deeply entrenched in both camps, and it’s been that way since Rob’s future mother-in-law taught him third grade at South Park Elementary.

“For my students’ Christmas presents I had collected Ole Miss cups in the stadium all that football season, and I had filled them with candy and gave them to the kids,” Debbie Freeman said. “Rob’s dad came and picked him up, and he politely poured the candy into his pocket and handed me the cup the back.”

Debbie has been dealing with balancing her unwavering affection for her alma mater with her link to Mississippi State since she and her husband Winky first began dating.

“When I called home to tell my parents I met somebody I liked, I didn’t know whether to say that he was a Catholic or he went to Mississippi State,” Freeman said. “I was raised in a very passionate Southern Baptist family and an Ole Miss family. I decided that I would tell my parents that he was Catholic first.”

But Debbie Freeman has now converted her husband into a bit of a turncoat, as the MSU graduate now roots for Ole Miss. The patriarch reasons that since his money went to the Rebels when his two daughters started school there, he now cheers for his investment.

“I don’t pull against Mississippi State, but I would rather see Ole Miss win when they play them,” he said.

Rob and Matt both have experienced firsthand the unabashed vitriol that can be associated with the Egg Bowl. The two quarterbacks were on the Mississippi State team that clashed with Ole Miss in a pre-game brawl in 1997 that drew the amusement of fans and ire of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

Rob knew who he had to look out for when the fight broke out — a family member, of course.

“I had a first cousin on Ole Miss,” he said. “When we started fighting I started looking around for (him). We’re blood, but I knew he was coming.”

That was 12 years before Rob would marry his Ole Miss sweetheart, a moment that would flip the Egg Bowl experience in their household upside down. Nowadays he and his wife joke about the rivalry while their little girl soaks up the best of both worlds.

“I’ll send her into the den with the cowbell ringing,” Rob said. “Or tell her, we like ‘Go Dawgs’ but we don’t say ‘Hotty Toddy.’”

It’s still a rivalry at the end of the day, and one that doesn’t simply die with family ties. At Matt and Annabeth’s wedding, Colonel Reb made a special surprise appearance.

“I must say, the look on his face when the Colonel jumped out on stage with the band was priceless,” Annabeth said. “Matt was totally a good sport about it all. He even let Colonel Reb feed him his MSU groom’s cake.”

Matt plotted his sweet revenge at Rob and Lana Claire’s wedding. After the couple said “I Do” at the altar, the former State quarterback pulled out a cowbell he snuck into the church and gave the newlyweds a heartfelt clang.

“He rang it as loudly as he could,” Lana Claire said. “I don’t think a cowbell has ever been rung that loudly. Definitely not at First Baptist Church, but that day it did.”

Matt said that while he and his wife do pick on each other during Egg Bowl week, their teasing falls short of what he would define as trash talking.

“Sometimes we do have very serious conversations about the rivalry,” he said. “Like, she tells me that Dan Mullen isn’t a nice person, and I remind her of the constant identity crisis the University of Mississippi seems to wallow in, and their fan base’s obsession with perception. Is that trash talking?”

With Matt calling this year’s Egg Bowl from the booth, his preparation for the game is a little different than the average fan. Annabeth said she appreciates the X’s and O’s mentality he brings to the rivalry while he studies film and breaks down the matchup.

“This time of year is very special to both Matt and myself,” she said. “We are both looking forward to a great game, as always. There’s something in the air the week of the Egg Bowl that is just electric, and we definitely have lots of conversations back and forth about who we think will bring home the Golden Egg.”

But when the clock strikes zero and the players have long left the field, this family realizes they are just that — a family. No game, even a blowout, is enough to break that steadfast bond.

“I never thought that these words would come out of my mouth because I was raised in red and blue … but I love Mississippi State because they were good to my sons-in-law,” Debbie said. “Something good can come out of Starkville, and one’s name is Rob Morgan and one’s name is Matt Wyatt.”

Rob seemed to agree, although don’t expect him to be doing the Land Shark sign any time soon.

“It makes you almost want to pull for them,” he said, before quickly adding, “But I don’t pull for them very often.”

The extent of the rivalry between the close-knit families was best summed up in Oxford after Mississippi State fell to Ole Miss. Rob’s youngest brother Brett was a graduate assistant for the Bulldogs, and he wanted to come to the family tent in The Grove after the game. Rob worried his brother would be on the receiving end of some harassment for his allegiances to State.

Winky assured his son-in-law that nothing of the sort would happen. Sure enough, Brett hung out with his Ole Miss family under the tent without a negative word uttered.

“I think we would all agree,” Winky said. “No matter what the rivalry is, we all think family is more important.”

In this household, you’re loved no matter what.

Even if you root for the wrong team.