Roberson Remembers: Zeigler Returns to Mississippi for Special Weekend

For an all-star high school quarterback to end up as a productive college tight end and live on The Square in the southern town of Oxford, Mississippi, is something Doug Zeigler would never have imagined as a kid growing up in Wilmington, Ohio.

How could he? Zeigler didn't even know much about Ole Miss until he was being recruited by the Rebels for his football talents.

Tommy Tuberville assistant coach John Lovett recruited Zeigler for the Ole Miss staff, but so did some other pretty good football programs of the era. West Virginia was on Zeigler's list, as was Kentucky. Purdue, with a quarterback named Drew Brees, also made his final four.

But the kid from Ohio chose Mississippi, and on a drive from his hometown in Wilmington back to his other hometown of Oxford this week, he talked about all that and more, reflecting on what turned out to be a six-year stay from 1998-2004.

"I was a Midwest guy," Zeigler said. "It was my junior year of high school when John Lovett came up, and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. Ole Miss just kept staying in the conversation. My quarterback coach in high school, Jody Ames, had some connections in Mississippi. He kept saying I should take a look at this school. Beautiful campus, great atmosphere, that's what intrigued me to come down and take a couple of visits."

Zeigler's time at Ole Miss likely brings to mind several thoughts for Ole Miss faithful, like his arrival as a quarterback when Romaro Miller was here. And then moving to tight end, as many recall, but perhaps not realizing that move would happen before his freshman fall of 1998, a season in which Zeigler redshirted.

"I had a pretty good feeling when I was being recruited, unless I went to a smaller school, that quarterback probably wasn't going to be my position," Zeigler said. "A lot of people said they were recruiting me as an athlete, and I was pretty well okay with it."

A few months after he arrived for college, right after the Battle for the Golden Egg in 1998, Tuberville and staff left for Auburn. Then came the era of David Cutcliffe, Zeigler's head coach the remainder of his time at Ole Miss.

Along the way he had some tough battles with injury - a broken arm his junior season in a game against Georgia, and a broken leg his senior season in a game against Vanderbilt.

Both happened on Hollingsworth Field. Fans in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium felt pain too, if not more physical than emotional, as Zeigler dealt with his own moments of real pain.

But there were also great times, like a 35-24 Ole Miss win at LSU, a night that Zeigler caught two touchdown passes from his roommate on The Square for three years, Eli Manning, in the Rebels' big victory in 2001.

"I had both of those touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal that win," he said. "That game really stands out, and I have fond memories of that one. The next week was the seven-overtime game against Arkansas (an Ole Miss loss in Oxford), and I have bittersweet memories of that one. It was a long game for sure.

"In 2000, I had my first touchdown catch, which was in a game at Arkansas. We won that game (38-24). Romaro was scrambling and he threw it, and it was almost like he was throwing it away. But I kind of jumped up and caught it."

There was another 2001 game that was in the significant category for Zeigler. The first game after 9/11 - Ole Miss had three weeks between games due to the cancellation weekend and an already scheduled open date after that - was at Kentucky. Ole Miss won 42-31.

"The thing I remember about that Lexington game was it was the first time I played pretty close to home, and I think I had 100 to 150 people at the game from Ohio. It was cool to see all those people afterward who came down to support me."

Even before all that, there was a memorable game on the east Alabama plains in 1999.

"Going to Auburn to play Tuberville, we got that win," he said. "I had a catch on like third-and-1, and Romaro threw it deep down the middle to me for about 50 or 60 yards, one of my best catches that year. Cory Peterson had the game-winning touchdown, and that was a big day that season."

Zeigler is currently ninth on the Ole Miss all-time receptions list for tight ends with 48, tied for ninth for touchdowns at the position with five, and in eighth place for receiving yards by a tight end with 612.

A Rebel co-captain his final season, he healed up and worked out for a year after completing his football career at Ole Miss following the 2002 season. He continued to live on The Square with his former quarterback as Eli competed for every trophy and championship in college football that 2003 season.

Zeigler worked himself back into playing condition after those two horrendous injuries, enough to give pro football a shot. That lasted two seasons.

"I did the pro day in '04, didn't get drafted and went free agency to Tampa Bay. Got ready for the '04 season and got cut in training camp down there. Went to the Browns practice squad for about four or five weeks, then got picked up off the Browns practice squad by San Francisco and was there the rest of that '04 season. Then in '05, I was with San Francisco through training camp, was on the practice squad, then got released.

"I had lost so much confidence because of the major leg injury. If you can't play the game with confidence, you can't play it at the high school level or the NFL level. I probably could have bounced around and maybe gotten a shot here or there, but I didn't have confidence in my game anymore. I knew it was time to be done."

After living in Columbus, Ohio, for a while, it was back home to Wilmington among family and friends and people who had supported him as a kid and as a young football player. Zeigler first worked in construction, but has been with State Farm Insurance since 2008. Romaro Miller being a State Farm agent in northwest Mississippi isn't lost on Zeigler.

"That's our connection off the field now," he said. "Every few months we talk about business. That connection is pretty cool."

Zeigler and his wife, Carrie, also from Wilmington, married in 2008 and have a 10 year-old daughter, Jillian.

Zeigler never threw a pass in a game in college. He did see recent former Rebel tight end Dawson Knox complete a pass to his Buffalo quarterback, Josh Allen, on a two-point conversion in the Bills-Titans game this past Monday night.

"I was watching that. He looked good," Zeigler said of Knox (it has since been disclosed unfortunately that Knox had surgery on a broken hand from that game). "I tried to get Coach Cutcliffe to let me throw a ball, but he never did."

So Zeigler has returned to Oxford to enjoy several days among friends and former teammates, among the people who supported him then and remember him still, and to honor his old friend and former roommate, Eli Manning, the two-time Super Bowl champion and two-time MVP.

"If you'd have said a guy from Wilmington, Ohio, would be living with Eli Manning on The Square in Oxford, Mississippi, I would never have envisioned it," he said. "It's weird how it all worked out, and sometimes I don't even know how it all worked out."

He and Eli keep in touch. When Manning was inducted into the M-Club Hall of Fame Thursday night at the Inn at Ole Miss, Zeigler was among those sitting at the table with the Manning family.

"He's been gracious enough to let me tag along to Super Bowls and come up to New York. We tried to go up once a year and watch him play. About a month ago ,I texted him and told him I didn't know what all was going on this weekend in Oxford, but I wanted to be a part of things and that I'd be here.

"We had great times in Oxford," Zeigler said, mentioning it's his first time to be here in nine years. "I'm super excited to be back again."

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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