A single camera shot during Sunday night’s college football matchup between Ole Miss and Louisville turned an Ole Miss alum into an overnight social media sensation, and by Monday she was publicly recounting the wave of direct messages that followed.
The moment came during the third quarter of the Liberty Mutual Music City Kickoff, played in Nashville, as broadcast cameras captured a fan visibly worried about the Rebels’ struggle to close out the Cardinals. Within hours, internet users had identified her as Sara Smith, an Ole Miss graduate.
Smith’s Instagram account went private soon after the clip spread, but not before her inbox filled up. On Monday night, she posted on TikTok confirming she was the fan behind the viral moment and walked through some of the messages she received over the previous 24 hours.
Among her favorites was a message from a self-described “God-fearing business owner” who listed his qualifications, including being over six feet tall and earning $500,000 a year. Another offered to pick up groceries for her from Whole Foods, while a third simply read, “Bankrupt me.”
Smith also received more conventional propositions, including requests to have children together and offers to buy her designer bags from Paris. A handful of stranger messages made her highlight reel as well, including references to clouds, an offer to “save” her, and at least one message criticizing her appearance. Another message suggested she pursue modeling for brands such as Gucci.
Ole Miss went on to beat Louisville in the game that started it all. The viral attention adds a lighter footnote to the opening week of the college football season, which also featured a power outage during a Monday night game in Tallahassee and a heavily discussed sequence in Baton Rouge.
