He didn’t realize it at the time, but when Johnny Wickham’s name was called in the final moments of the 2004 Egg Bowl, he would become the last quarterback to take a snap under Coach David Cutcliffe at Ole Miss, who left after the season ended. 

A native of Tennessee, Wickham grew up watching Cutcliffe groom future hall of famer Peyton Manning as offensive coordinator, and when he took the head coaching job at Ole Miss Wickham became excited about the prospects of coming to Oxford. 

“I really wanted to play for David Cutcliffe,” said Wickham, who passed up a scholarship to another school in favor of “the Ole Miss experience.” He also named offensive assistant Curt Roper as incentive for his decision to enroll.  

After receiving ‘preferred walk-on’ status, and only being about a year younger than the other Manning-future hall of famer Eli, he already expected not to see much playing time, and was “okay with that,” because he just wanted to be part of the program. 

Although Wickham spent most of his career scout teaming, longing with hopes to see real action on game day, he was able to go two for two for 17 yards in the annual spring game.

“I like to joke with my friends that I am statistically the greatest quarterback that ever graduated from Ole Miss, even though it was the Grove Bowl,” he said jokingly.

Riding off the confidence of this performance, Wickham said, “My whole senior year I was really excited, I was finally gonna get to play,” although the games came and went, until finally the Egg Bowl arrived. 

“The seconds were winding down in the fourth quarter, and when I heard my name called I actually had to look for my helmet,” he said with another laugh. 

Wickham, and two other walk-ons who were able to play in the 20-3 victory against Mississippi State, were given a chance to raise the trophy at the 50-yard line. 

Casting football dreams aside, he moved to L.A. immediately after graduation to follow up on a summer internship he had with a production company.

After that, Wickham got hired by HBO and started working on digital comedy, then eventually writing scripts, which led to one getting independently financed and made. 

“The rest is history,” he said about the theatrical release of “Invisible Raptor” on Friday, Dec. 6 – which will include a showing at the Malco at Oxford Commons. “It was a long time coming.”

When Wickham learned that “Invisible Raptor” would be playing at select theaters throughout the country, he thought “it would be really cool to get one in Oxford to play it,” particularly the weekend following Egg Bowl, considering his connection to Ole Miss.

“College kids are going to eat this up,” Wickham said, of what he describes as a “creature feature, with absolutely no creature.” Also, “an homage to a lot of 80s movies we grew up with.”

These include films by Jerry Zucker, who specialized in writing slapstick comedy films in the 1980s, and whose office Wickham was able to work in for two years, where he learned to cut his teeth.

Although an obvious spoof on Spielburg’s “Jurassic Park,” he says it’s not as much a parody as an “homage comedy,” involving a washed up paleontologist, a celebrity chicken farmer, and a security guard who have to stop a highly intelligent escaped invisible raptor from destroying the town.

“Ole Miss and Oxford hold such a dear place in my heart, that I’d kick myself if I didn’t try to get it in a movie theater there,” he said, being that it’s already received international film festival buzz. 

“I’ve put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears into that place, so I wanted to get as many people out as possible.” 

Unsure of how long the local Malco theater will run this film he wrote and produced, Wickham feels it will likely be based on opening night attendance. 

Invisible Raptor also debuts on Apple TV+ streaming network on Dec. 6.