Carleigh’s Corner: Tens Across the Board

By Carleigh Holt

HottyToddy.com Intern

Oxford and Ole Miss saw a number of 10s in a matter of days last week. The hoops event Square Jam had a lot of scores of 10 from judges, Eli Manning had his number 10 jersey retired and Ole Miss defeated LSU to move up to No. 10 in the Top 25 AP Poll.

On Friday night, I attended Square Jam to watch the Women’s and Men’s Ole Miss basketball teams in competitive games. The event is used to build anticipation for the upcoming basketball seasons. 

Rebel forward Jaemyn Brakefield took two young volunteers from the crowd and leaped over them, resulting in scores of 10 from the judges. It was nerve-racking watching him, but I knew he had the confidence to do that. 

Later that night, I attended the live broadcast of FOX News’ Laura Ingraham Show on campus. I was photographed behind her in the broadcast. 

Manning returned to relive his college days at Ole Miss. Sports Illustrated gave me the opportunity to attend his press conference, and I thought it was a very cool opportunity to film and photograph an Ole Miss legend. Not only was I was the only girl in the room, I also was the shortest person there. 

Saturday’s game was officially sold out for the first time in a while, which added to the excitement. I got to capture the moments of Eli walking down the Walk of Champions and retiring his jersey at halftime. I was on the field capturing all the raw emotions from his family seeing the curtain be taken away to show the 10 beside the retired No. 38 of Chucky Mullins and No. 18 of Eli’s dad, Archie. 

The next day after Ole Miss had retired Manning’s 10, the football team was ranked No. 10 in the Top 25 AP Poll. It was their first time in the Top 10 since 2015.

Link to my Sports Illustrated article on Ole Miss vs LSU click here.