SuperTalk Media MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-09-18

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Get ready to go beyond the headlines and join a meaningful conversation with people from around the state. You're listening to MidDays with Gerard Gibert here on SuperTalk Mississippi.

Gerard Gibert (1:01)

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays. SuperTalk Mississippi. I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Element Wealth Studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music on this radio.

Man, oh man, we've made it. The big weekend set up in Ox Patch with the LSU Tigers rolling into town with their head coach, Lane Kiffin. What a controversy he has ignited. There's like a billion memes going around, aren't there? Some pretty creative ones, too, I might add. But just kind of, I guess, adds to what is set to be a very contentious affair, and lots of law enforcement going to be on hand just to keep everything going all right and smooth, and some concerns, of course, about safety, just given the contentious nature of this competitive affair, with the old ball coach coming back to where he kind of, I guess, rose to the level of prominence that he is today when LSU came in and said, we'll give you a whole bunch of money to come down to Tigerland.

Rhino (2:21)

You rehabbed his resume.

Gerard Gibert (2:23)

That's right. Yeah, because it kind of declined a bit just prior to his stint with the Rebels. But everybody's looking for the big game. All eyes of college football will be focused on it. ESPN game day in town. We know now that we shared it with you yesterday. Morgan Freeman, he's going to do the pick on ESPN game day.

That'll be fun. That'll be kind of cool. I suspect they'll be set up as they normally are in the Grove. My wife is already worn. We got to leave like six hours ahead of time to make sure we get there for kickoffs. Something like that. The traffic is expected to be rather heavy. We had the mayor of Oxford, Robin Tannehill, on yesterday talking about that. Normal traffic routing.

The traffic's already congested in Oxford, honestly, without a football game. And my travels to the campus a fair amount. When school is in session, a completely different picture in the summer. I was fortunate to speak in the summer up in Oxford. And yeah, the traffic's quite light. Easy to get around town. Easy to get around campus. But man, once it gets cranked up, and it's good news in that the enrollment at the university has spiked considerably. Heck, I think when I was there, Ryan, we had like 8,000 on campus.

What is it now? It's over 22, 23, something like that, at the Oxford campus, if I'm not mistaken. It's just busting at the seams. And of course, many of the students flocked to Oxford from other states.

Rhino (4:14)

22,290.

Gerard Gibert (4:16)

OK. Well, I was right on it.

Rhino (4:17)

It's a reported number.

Gerard Gibert (4:18)

That's, I mean, that's almost 3X what it was now. I was here a long time ago, but it felt like it was crowded then.

It's a neat campus in that it's compact. Mississippi State's a lot the same way. They're not sprawling from the standpoint that you got to go a long way between buildings.

Rhino (4:37)

It pretty much depends on which major.

Gerard Gibert (4:39)

That's true. Mississippi State's a little bit more.

Rhino (4:41)

A little bit more sprawled than Stark Vegas.

Gerard Gibert (4:44)

But I give you, LSU is really spread out. It's like, wait, we're still on the campus here? You know, you like go through town, and you got lots of houses and bars, and then boom, there's another classroom building. I may be exaggerating a little bit, but I'm not sure. What it feels like. It sure feels like that.

Rhino (5:05)

Most of their sprawl is gravel parking lots.

Gerard Gibert (5:09)

That's true.

That is true. There used to be a golf course there, right on the campus that I played the LSU golf course. And you could, of course, from the fairways, you could see the back of Tiger Stadium, the south side, I believe. And I don't think that course is there anymore. I don't know. I hadn't been out there 40 years, but I played that course because it was all I can afford. And the reason is because I just met a guy out there one day, and connected up with him to play as golfers normally do. So he was the sports anchor for WBRZ, the ABC affiliate. Not far from campus is where the station was located, but he was the off-peak time, like the 5 o'clock guy, not the 6 o'clock, right? So he'd do his deal, and he'd meet me at the course at about 6 o'clock.