Mid-Season Musings...

 

Rebel Brothers and Sisters,

It has been a difficult season for an unabashed eternal optimist. I, like many here, tended to dismiss our youth and inexperience at some key spots once we learned that Jeremiah Masoli was cleared to play this season. I jubilantly and naively tucked away the memories of Coach Nutt saying time and again that he and his staff had circled this year as potentially the most difficult of their coaching careers. I figured that it would be a cinch to come into the midseason sitting at 5-1, a single victory away from bowl eligibility. I suspected that all of our starters would avoid injury, allowing us to build depth in more preferential ways. I was riding high, and I really believed that the season would play out to prove that Ole Miss Football was here to stay in the immediate future. Some may suggest that I wasn’t even bothering to mix the Kool-Aid, preferring instead to snort giant lines of the stuff through crazy straws and wooden flutes.

 

For all the dogs and hogs that populate our message boards, I’m glad that the increased revenue goes to folks like Chuck and Neal, but I sometimes feel like a stranger in a strange land when I read some of the posts. It seems that no one can post anything either critical or hopeful without others lambasting them; either calling them short-sighted idiots or mindless kool-aid drinkers while demanding to see their 501c form to check their donor records.

I really enjoyed Romaro Miller and Todd Wade’s comments to the fans. When I was a student, I was most certainly guilty of not showing up early, and then of leaving in the 2nd half. While reading his comments though, I made a commitment to myself that I would never miss the end of a game again, though I only make it back every so often. I wish I had read that as a student, I would have made it to a few more victory celebrations in VHS, and still have had ample time to enjoy everything the Grove has to offer. Thank you guys for your heartfelt contributions both on and off the field.

I think it’s pretty cool that Michael Thompson takes some time to read the boards. I especially enjoyed reading his comments coming back from the Alabama game. He has an eye for details, and that is where we will make up the difference, bit by bit. Don’t get discouraged brother, keep fighting the good fight!

While we should not have lost against JSU and Vanderbilt, we did get two pretty good wins against Fresno State and Kentucky. The Wildcats, especially, are a dangerous team as we saw this past weekend. That being said, if the Coach Spurrier kicks a field goal instead of trying to out-wizard Les Miles, the game may well have been won by the Gamecocks. Our team played their butts off against Alabama. The dropped pass on our first drive might have been housed if caught, and that changes the entire complexion of the game. I know, I know. Shoulda, coulda, woulda. The fact still remains that our defense played like maniacs, and outside of one big play to Trent Richardson, they largely shut down a very efficient offense. I feel like a bad Rebel by saying this, but I was actually surprised and impressed at the licks we were putting on their ball carriers. Our offensive line played their hearts out, and while they got beat some, they will emerge stronger for their toils against Alabama’s defensive line. At the end of the game, I was disappointed with the outcome of course. I was a little upset about the number of penalties, and about a couple rather "tentative" calls on the field that did not go in our favor. I was encouraged though, by some of the good things I saw, most notably the competitive fire. Coach Nutt had those men believing that could go to Tuscaloosa and beat the defending National Champions, and they had their chances. They know they can play among the best teams in the conference. We should all be buoyed by their efforts, and look ahead to the most important part of the season now. There are some big time games coming up, and our Rebel Football team needs our unconditional support. Maybe it’s all for naught. Maybe our team will get killed by Arkansas, or Auburn, or LSU, or God forbid Mississippi State. Maybe our team will be the surprise team of the second half of the season. Maybe they will perform somewhere in the middle of that, which is what I suspect will happen. You’ve already made it this far as fans, stay the course!

Our team is very young in most spots. They will take some lumps this year. Building depth takes some time, some luck, some good recruiting, a good conditioning program, more time, and a little more luck. I get discouraged reading about losing “recruit x” or “recruit y”, but it’s still a long way until signing day. We can’t fault kids for choosing to go elsewhere too much though, for whatever reason they may have. We can’t expect everyone to feel the same way we did about our University. I don’t know about any of you, but before I arrived on campus to visit, I knew there was no way in hell that I was going to school at Ole Miss. When we did arrive, I remember banging my head against the window in disbelief, because there was something about the place that I could not explain. It just felt right, like I had been lost and found my way home. We can’t expect everyone to love the place. We can’t expect all the top Mississippi prospects to make what seems to us to be “the obvious choice”. We shouldn’t vilify these kids and make all kinds of accusations because they choose to play football elsewhere. I am not so naïve as to say that rules violations don’t happen in recruiting; they do. But I wouldn’t be so quick to start slinging mud around, it cannot and does not help us to look like petulant assholes.

Can we get bowl eligible? I think so. I think this weekend’s game will end with a Rebel victory. It’s something about this game that I think our players will come through. Although I think that even if Mallett does not play, our secondary will have their hands full with Arkansas’ air attack. I don’t think our coaches will allow another JSU to happen this season, so I think we throttle LA-Lafayette. After that we only need one more out of AU, UT, LSU, and MSU. I think we can get one of those. Dare I say it, or even think it, but I believe we could get two of those.

Finally, I agree that it’s tough to get up for games against JSU and UL-L on Saturday mornings. However, give us a good opponent in the afternoon or early evening and our gameday experience can be pretty awesome. Some would say this shows a clear fallacy in scheduling, but I’m not so sure. This could have been a good year of home games, having winnable games against JSU, Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Fresno State, UL-L, and MSU. For a supposed rebuilding year, it actually set up nicely. But as we have seen, that’s why they play the games. I would say things like “next year our home schedule will be great, and we should field a very experienced and competitive squad.” I would. But I think our team has yet to play anywhere near their best football this year. I’m not ready to write off this year’s team by any means. And neither should you.

Hotty Toddy Rebels.