Family & Football

Cali Prieskorn uses social media to share about life as part of an Ole Miss football family.

Written by Leslie Criss | Photos Contributed by Cali Prieskorn

When Cali and Caden Prieskorn met at the University of Memphis, there was an instant connection. Caden, a Michigan native, came to Memphis as a quarterback walk-on. Football officials took one look and told him he should play tight end.

“So, he shape-shifted to tight end,” Cali said, laughing.

The two were together whenever football and classes allowed the time. Cali, a native Memphian, and Caden, and infant son Mac, moved to Oxford when Caden transferred to Ole Miss for football. The two became engaged, married in July 2023 and are now the parents of 3-year-old Mac and 3-month-old daughter Romy.

Last November, Cali began posting videos on TikTok and later Instagram of baby Mac and her husband’s football games.

“One of the first videos I made was to show friends how cute Mac looked in his Halloween costume as a dog,” she said. “I had no idea anyone would be interested, but it went viral.”

She has gone from about 80,000 followers to almost 400,000 today. Visitors to her pages see monumental family moments and also get a peek into the family’s daily life: She’s done videos of Caden’s evening Dad routine, including bath time, feeding his kids, getting them ready for bed and tucking them in.

This will be Caden’s final season of Ole Miss football — he is expected to soon declare for the NFL draft.

No matter where the Prieskorn family ends up, Cali plans to continue her social media contributions.

“I want to branch out, still doing family things, but also more about life and motherhood and raising two kids,” she said. “I never in a million years imagined there would be this much interest.”

Invitation: Give us a brief history from when you and Caden met until now.

Cali: Caden and I met in September 2019. He was a quarterback who had just walked onto the University of Memphis Tigers football team as a tight end. We instantly had a huge spark between us. Our son, Mac, was born in 2021. And the next year, Caden had a great year on the field and decided to enter the transfer portal. He looked at a few schools, but ultimately Ole Miss was the one that felt true to home. We moved to Oxford in February, got engaged in April and then married in July. Caden’s dad had been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer, and it was extremely important to us that his dad be able to be at our wedding, and we are so thankful that we could make that happen. It was definitely a night we will always cherish. We were excited to expand our family and found out I was pregnant a few months later. We welcomed our daughter into the world in May 2024!

Invitation: How do you balance mother-hood and family with Caden’s football schedule?

Cali: Caden and I really balance each other out well. While he is away a lot for practice and meetings and such, I’ve been fortunate enough to work from home and stay with the kids. Caden does his best to take care of things on the field, and I do my best to take care of things at home, and every day when he gets home, we try to spend the time that we have together as a family. Not being together every moment really makes our time together more valuable.

Invitation: When did you know football would be central to your lives? Were you a football fan before you met Caden?

Cali: When Caden and I met, we spent many of our weekends watching football together, and he was always quizzing me on the positions and players. I had been to a ton of football games, but it was just never something that I fully understood.

For as long as I’ve known Caden, he’s known football, and he has always been the hardest worker. He’s one of the first ones there and the last one to leave … always putting in the extra work even outside of practice, and that’s something very admirable about him. There are so many instances where I know he would love to be home with the kids, but I know that everything he is doing, he’s doing for us. Even when he was a walk-on who didn’t touch the field, you could just see the incredible ambition and drive he had for the sport. Not everyone has the determination that he has been blessed with.

Going to the NFL has always been a dream of his, but he is incredibly humble, so in previous years, if you had asked him what he wanted to do after college football, he would’ve told you he wanted to be a coach. Long term that is still a goal of his, but now, to see his dream of going to the NFL being so close, all you can do is be proud of him and all the hard work he’s put in these few years.

Invitation: What is it like to be part of the Ole Miss football family?

Cali: The Ole Miss football family is incredible. Oxford, as a whole, is just unlike any place I’ve ever been. It truly is a Hallmark town. We were welcomed with open arms from the moment we visited, and since we’ve been here, so many people have taken interest in Caden’s journey with football and our journey as a family through social media. I truly don’t think words adequately justify how much the people in this town mean to us.

Invitation: What are you most looking forward to this football season?

Cali: This season, I’m really looking forward to taking our kids to the games. Every day that Caden is at football, he’s working to be the best version of himself on game days, and how rewarding is it for him to have his children in the stands, cheering him on. Our son has really taken an interest in the football games and truly just gets so excited to see his dad down there on the field. We have a tradition where Mac and Caden share a “lucky bump” before each game, and I’m so excited to incorporate our daughter into that tradition as well.

Invitation: You have a lot of followers on social media. What do you hope people learn or take away from your posts?

Cali: A lot of people have started to keep up with Caden’s football journey and our journey as a family. I love being able to share somewhat of an inside scoop of what it looks like for Caden to be a husband and father, while also never giving up on his dream. I feel like so many people feel like they are held back from their dream or put their life on pause when they have kids, and I feel like my page is a reminder that you can introduce your children to the things you love, and there is nothing more enjoyable than doing the things you love to do with your children by your side.

My platform has also allowed me to give back to the community. There was a time in my life where I didn’t have anything, so to be able to be in a position to give back is something that I could’ve never dreamed of for myself. And somehow, despite any other accomplishment, giving back will always be the greatest one.