Ole Miss hosts LSU in top game in the country, but Rebels not even most decorated football team on own campus

While Oxford, Mississippi is the epicenter of the college football world this weekend, with Ole Miss set to host its former head coach Lane Kiffin and LSU on Saturday night, the town is also home to a defending national champion in football.

Flag football, that is.

The Ole Miss Special Olympics College Flag Football Club represented the state of Mississippi over the summer at the Special Olympics in Minneapolis and, well, "Hotty Toddy," the Rebels won the whole darn thing.

Gold medal and all.

Pretty sure that makes this group of football Rebels the most decorated on campus.

"Hopefully, they (the football team) see us and they’re like, ‘Well, we’ve got to go get a national championship now," Ole Miss senior Jason Skocy said with a smile.

FROM FOOTBALL SATURDAYS TO ROUTINE WEEKDAYS, THE MUSIC NEVER STOPS AT THIS UT HOUSE FULL OF COLLEGE MUSICIANS EVEN ON OPENING WEEKEND, FOOTBALL PLAYERS AT CLEMSON, LSU MIGHT BE UPSTAGED ON CAMPUS BY THESE FURRY FRIENDS Skocy is a center for the flag football team, which is comprised of Ole Miss students like Skocy, who are called partners, along with local and regional individuals with intellectual disabilities.

They are called athletes.

Flag football in this category is played 5-on-5, and for each team, there are always 3 athletes to 2 partners on the field at all times.

Make no mistake, there might be flags instead of tackles, but this is still football.

There are playbooks, touchdowns, running, passing and players chasing each other all over the field.

"These kids have play cards on their arms, I call plays," said Hunter Crabbs, the intramural sports and sports clubs coordinator at Ole Miss who was one of the coaches of the gold medal flag team.

"It’s a much smaller playbook than what we might be using on Saturday night ( against LSU ), but it’s a very similar process." Abbreviated or not, something in the playbook is working.

After earning the right to represent the state of Mississippi at the Special Olympics by defeating a team from Mississippi State, the Rebels overcame all kinds of adversity in Minnesota to bring Mississippi its first-ever intercollegiate gold medal in flag football .