Rebel Roundup - 9/24/09 - SEC Gameday

Gameday
I've got that nervous gameday feeling in my gut this morning.  It is a feeling which can best be described as "the uneasiness felt three hours after having eaten undercooked chicken vindaloo while hungover...  Oh, and you just got punched in the face."  Regardless, I'm ready.  Break out the red and blue and pour yourself a stiff one, Rebels. 

RedCupRadio
That was last night.  It went alright but I feel we were scrambling a bit with our new hour-long show format.  We promise we will only continue to improve.  If you missed it live, you can download the podcast at the TalkShoe website or clickify the widget on the bottom right hand side of the site.  Thanks again to Cock N Fire of TeamSpeedKills for coming on to discuss tonight's game from the South Carolina perspective. 

SBNation's Preview Page
Every game has one on our network's main hub.  Here you can find links from all over the SBNation network which concern tonight's game.  Tons of good stuff there so, really, it's your loss if you don't clickify it.

Flu Could Bug National Championship Race | CBSSports.com
I guess it could, just as a great deluge could suddenly drown championship contending teams or just as lightning could strike Colt McCoy dead, but I doubt it does.  Save for my skepticism, the article is a good look at how illness has affected college football this year.  Being as how we had over two dozen guys out for a week of practice with vomiting fits, it's applicable.

At Ole Miss, resurgence comes as division rises | USATODAY.com
USA Today, a newspaper which is proudly supported by the Cup as having the nation's greatest sports section, features this Kelly Whiteside piece which looks at the strength of the SEC's Western division as well as the skyrocketing prowess of the Rebel football program.   Yes, there is a reference to the West being "wild."  I'm pretty certain that's a requirement of all major media outlets when penning something related to the division. 

Time for Ole Miss, S.C. to put up or shut up | Rivals.com
That's actually a pretty good way of putting it, Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports.  Both teams do have a lot to prove.  For Ole Miss, the questions surrounding the legitimacy of their rankings are very valid.  For South Carolina, the enigmatic performance of their team thus far has a lot of folks scratching their heads. 

Ole Miss' Nix Gets Another Shot at Gamecocks | ESPN
Last year's defensive pratfalls against South Carolina--namely Chris Smelly eclipsing 300 yards passing--were blamed mostly on DC Tyrone Nix by Rebel fans.  Yes, I do think the idea that he being a former Steve Spurrier underling had much to do with the poor performance, but also we cannot forget that the Rebels from then are completely different than the Rebels from now.  Nix should have his boys ready to play.  Either that, or Spurrier really will have his number and passing-game-rape our secondary for the second year in a row.

We can show people what we're all about | Jevan Snead via The Sporting News
Quoth the Snead:

That loss still stings; it's still with us.  I don't see anything wrong with the revenge factor, as long as it makes you play harder and stay focused.

Hell.  Yes.

Rebel Great Manning Discusses Past, Present | GOGamecocks.com
Go Gamecocks dot com interviewed Archie Manning about the Rebel program, his time in Oxford, and tonights ballgame.  Archie, it seems, is a bit nervous.  I'll forgive him because a) I have to and b) the last time we were ranked this high, an Archie Manning led Rebel team lost to an unranked Southern Miss (OMG who we are sooooooo aFrAiD to play cuz we are Ole Pi$$ Weebsters) team and completely derailed what could have been a very promising season....  Ugh, that hurt to think about.  We really do love for our heroes to be charmingly tragic in Mississippi.