Ole Miss Rebels 36 - LSU Tigers 43 | Requiem
by The Ghost of Jay Cutler on Nov 22, 2010 7:34 PM EST
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PrintDisclaimer: I'm on vacation, in the Kansas City International airport drinking a beer (Boulevard Brewing Company's unfiltered wheat - it's wheatey) waiting for my plane to the Big Easy to begin boarding. If this comes off as if I'm aloof, in a hurry, and a bit off-center at an early-ish hour, it's because I am.
I'm not going to go through this and deliver a ton of platitudes or attempt to eloquently describe what we saw on Saturday. And instead of trying to direct the narrative with longer, efforted explanations, I'm just gonna offer my observations. Do the same and, if you care to, let's really get the discussion going in the comments thread. That's what it's there for anyway.
- Coach Nutt was ready for LSU. Damn him for not putting the same type of effort and intensity into Vanderbilt and Tennessee, but give him credit for yesterday. He kept our team in it. His fourth down attempts were ballsy but effective. His players played hard but dumb (so very, very dumb). His team was ready to knock off the number five team in the country.
- Tyrone Nix, however. Wasn't.
- LSU's offense is one of the worst in this conference, and they scored 43 points on us. Marinade in that one for a little bit and tell me with confidence that State won't hang at least 30 on the Rebels next week. It'll suck.
- There were lots of opinions expressed during and, to a lesser extent, after the game of our defense "showing up" against LSU. Aside from a few key plays, though - most notably the huge redzone stands - the Landsharks were once again gashed by mediocre to bad offensive players. How bad was it? Jordan freakin' Jefferson was just named offensive player of the week by the conference. That's how bad it was.
- This doesn't mean the guys didn't play hard. Cornell, Powe, Shackleford, and especially Damien Jackson showed some absolute tenacity out there. When those guys are in the right places at the right times (once again, that only happened maybe half of the time due to poor scheming) they can do some real damage.
- Jeremy McGee and Johnny Brown got abused out there. Brown, either unaware or unphased by this, however, decided it best to jaw-off at opposing receivers and tight ends, generally making all of us look like a bunch of assholes. Johnny, that's my job, and I'd appreciate it if you left such up to the professionals.
- Nix is gonna get fired.
- Seriously.
- Jeremiah Masoli had a fine game. He's been given flak by partisans and objectives alike for yesterday's performance, but his two picks were hardly the result of his shortcomings, the first resulting from a good LSU defensive play and the second coming during a last-second Hail Mary play (therefore, in the grand-scheme of the game, it's negligible).
- Jeff Scott's going to be very good for us, especially considering the youth and potential for development along the offensive line.
- Markeith Summers is a dolt, Andrew Ritter has clearly decided to get stoned or something before ballgames, Korvic Neat was a half-yard out of position on a play that could have tied the game with a few seconds remaining, and Bobbie Massie loves chop blocking dudes well after the play is over. This is, unfortunately, only a sampling of Rebel dumbassery which took place yesterday. This is insanely frustrating because, when seeing Powe, Cornell, Masoli, Scott (not you, Rodney), Jackson, and others make heads-up, efforted plays, you wonder what the hell happened to half of their teammates.
- LSU is a damn strong football team, but the Rebels had them. Had the whole team played as intelligently and intensely as the aforementioned, and had the entire coaching staff called signals as well as Nutt did (give the wacky sumbitch credit; his offense was moving last night), the Rebels would be riding high into the Egg Bowl. We're not, though, which sucks.
- We're not trying to make excuses, and this right here is the only place where you're gonna see me use the words "moral" or "victory": yesterday wasn't a "moral victory." Yesterday was fun, but when it was all over with, we all can't help but wonder where this team was all season, where our defense went, and why the hell Jeremiah Masoli wanted a part of our collective misery.
So we miss out on a bowl game, meaning that the players don't get stupid gifts, another 20 extra practices, and increased exposure. Also, you better believe this hurts recruiting. But, in a frustrating change from last week, not a single bit of that is - if you only consider yesterday's events - at all the fault of Houston Nutt. I won't forgive Count Giggity for Vanderbilt or Tennessee, ever, but I'm fine with his effort yesterday.
Let's hope he puts half a damn into Mississippi State this week. Hotty Toddy and go to Hell State.
And please, pick up where I've left off. I've got a plane to catch.
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Some more accolades:
Bolden out ran Peterson at least twice. I really have a man-crush on him.
Ja-mes Logan made two 4th-and-long catches. Not only were Nutt’s calls ballsy, he put enough trust in Logan to be consistent for the two said catches.
Lekenwic Haynes just about killed a man which resulted in a forced fumble. I was particularly excited to see this, because he’s one of my students.
Tyler Campbell averaged 61 yds in his punting… That’s like kicking a ball the length of a blue whale.
I do have a few questions though. 1) Where was Grandy? 2) How could Nix’s firing affect other things such as personnel and recruiting and our current roster? 3) Since I’m new to all of this, is it common that we lose 2-5 players due to suspensions/quitting?
1: Grandy basically disappeared after yet another tiptoe-ing kickoff.
2: I think if Nix is fired, Derrick certainly leaves with him. If that happens, I’d like to see Vaughn rotated to RB’s (he played RB at Arkansas). I think if we are willing to put down the cash for a good DC, the recruiting won’t be effected much. If anything, it might help across the board since we could also say to offensive recruits, “Hey look! You won’t lose games despite putting up 30+ points because the defense is the worst in OM history!”
3: Suspensions/quitting is a normal part of college football. The concern for me is that it is happening during the season. This crap usually happens during the offseason when they have more time on their hands. That it’s happening during the season worries me that a number of the players don’t give a shit.
Pig Pen this here's Rubber Duck, and I'm about to put the hammer down.
Vaughan was not a RB at Arkansas
Dickerson was; Vaughan was a LB at Murray State during Nutt’s stint as HC there.
Just another "good for nothing law school grad".
by RebelBarrister on Nov 24, 2010 12:06 PM EST up reply actions
A couple observations
1.) This OL is going to be good next year. Da Monsta had a dumb play. Masoli’s first INT was a result of Sowell failing to take the DE out of the equation, and later a Masoli fumble was on Sowell’s inability to pick up a blitz.
THAT SAID, we gashed the best defense in the SEC for 36, on the road, on senior day. Sowell made Drake Nevis his bitch on more than a couple of plays. We have the 14th ranked rushing offense in the nation, and are the 17th best in sacks allowed thus far. All this with an OL that has featured Jared Duke and Patrick Junen. Give Markuson some of that Nix money.
2.) Jeremiah Masoli, when you truck two LSU DBs and drag another one into the endzone on your back to take the lead in the fourth quarter in Tiger Stadium, you cease to be a mercenary. You are a Rebel, good sir. I’m sorry this team hasn’t lived up to what you deserve.
3.) Brandon Bolden is special. I’m excited about what he can do next year as this line improves.
4.) I agree that we had some self-inflicted wounds, but that’s pretty unfair of you (Ghost) to lump Korvic Neat in that group. It was a hail mary. If that ball is batted down at a different trajectory, it hits him in the chest. That’s not a boneheaded play, its just a play with a very low probability of success that we happened to come close on.
5.) As someone said, Ja-mes came to play on Saturday. He is turning into a big time possession receiver. I think his game is similar to Chris Collins.
6.) LSU is a damn strong team, but we made Steven Ridley look like Walter Peyton. I’ll join the chorus here: Tyrone has gots to go. Gots. to. go.
one foot in the grave, one foot on the pedal...
I will cosign everything you said.
Much easier to ignore the questionable quality of things that are covered in cheese.
Not bad?
Boulevard is delicious.
Good game, and seriously, Houston Nutt went all out for the win. I absolutely respect that. You can say a lot of things about Ole Miss, but you certainly cannot say they didn’t give maximum effort in that game. Y’all came to play.
Fake Pundit. Real Fan.
And The Valley Shook!
A few things...
1) Welcome back to the Magnolia State Ghost- hope you have a nice Thanksgiving wtih friends and family. Try to clean up the metro Jackson area while you are there, if possible.
2) As disappointed as I have been with this season and the coaches in general- I agree with you. Nutt stepped up his game yesterday and the team looked good on offense. Props to him. I haven’t always liked his playcalling at times this season, but overall, the offense has been more than adequate for us to make it to a bowl game. So, he deserves praise for that. However, I would like to hear him offer an explanation for why he seems to just overlook games. I have heard him say multiple times he was counting Vandy, UTK, and Jax State as wins. That is great- but we lost those, and I would like to know if he just basically looked at the schedule, counted those as wins, and moved on. Also, he said after we lost to MSU last year that he “didn’t appreciate how big a rivalry we had with State.” Well, now you know. How about winning that game and actually prepping for games next season? That would be great. All that said, let’s keep Nutt and fire…….
3) Tyrone Nix. There is no excuse for the D to be this bad. None. We had a top defense last season, and returned several guys who had significant playing time. We lost some great players too, so I don’t want to overlook that. But, these guys have underperformed greatly. Nix may be a great recruiter, but surely we can shell out some money and bring in someone to do what Trooper Taylor does at Auburn or Orgeron does at USC. Everyone knows those guys recruit and don’t coach anything. We need to bring in a new D coordinator, and now is the perfect time to do it. We are losing a lot of guys off this year’s defense. Let’s start fresh and see if the problem was coaching, lack of talent, or something else.
Red Stick Weekend
Per usual, I made the trip to Baton Rouge and spent the weekend with some LSU buds that do the same anytime the football/baseball games are in Oxford. Couple things:
1. Not a single LSU fan talked smack to me before the game…I think I only heard “TAHGUH BAAAYT” one time while sporting my Ole Miss PFG. Then after the game, most LSU fans’ comments were along the lines of “Great game”, etc. There was one LSU fan that yelled at me from within his RV when I decided to stay in the road a bit longer than I should have but I blame the Maker’s.
2. Oh yea, handle of Maker’s. Yum.
3. Even more yum? Boudin….I must have eaten 5 servings of boudin over the weekend and I don’t care WHERE it comes from or WHAT’S inside. The best was the boudin omelet from Chimes. If you haven’t eaten at Chimes (there’s 2 locations), you must go there on your next trip. Brunch is off the chain.
4. Speaking of recruiting, I completely agree that this is where we get hit the hardest….especially considering State’s success this year. Dunno if many of y’all listen to Bo Bounds (I bet a lot of y’all hate him and yea he’s a State homer) but one of his biggest thing is making a bowl game 5 years in a row. Consistency speaks volumes in the world of college football and while two back to back Cotton Bowl victories sure is something to hang your hat on, it doesn’t really equate to consistency.
5. I REALLY hope Nutt doesn’t get fired. And before you hoop and holler, tell me who his replacement is…..
CAPS LOCK IS CRUISE CONTROL FOR COOL YAKNAWIMEAN?
considering Ole Miss's struggles this year
I was really impressed by the number of Rebels that made the trip to BR*. I’m glad to see the rivalry heating back up after the lost years of Orgeron. And, as many others have said, mad respek to Nutt for playing to win. It’s not for everybody. 4 for 5 on fourth down is rolling the dice and winning. Not everybody has the stones to play that kind of ball. Nutt just terrifies me. He could be coaching little sisters of the poor and I’d still have the tiniest twinge of anxiety.
*Having said that, I woke up in NOLA on Sunday morning rather than my house in MS so maybe my mind is playing tricks on me.
by haveagreatday on Nov 23, 2010 10:11 AM EST up reply actions
I took that as Brown sticking up for McGee, but there could have been other instances of it.
19 knocked McGee on his ass after an incompletion and Brown was jawin’ at him for it. Then 19 knocked him in the grill. So was nice to see them playing with a chip on their shoulder, if not well…
I don’t really think Masoli had anywhere else to go that would have afforded him the same opportunity………(dot dot dot)
-——
Question for ya’ll, maybe best served for after the Egg Bowl but not sure I’ll want to think about football for a while (Ole MIss football anyway).
How much of this season do you put on Nutt?
Looking back, going into last year, i bought in early on us having a great year because we had 25+ seniors on the roster. Conversely, I knew that ‘10 was going to be a bad year because we’d be losing all of those upperclassmen. I want to blame the Ogre for not recruiting enough O-Linemen and secondary players. I think our current staff is very good at offensive line-play – We’re second in the conference in rushing with a mish-mash of linemen on the interior.
Our staff has definitely taken a step back defensively, especially on the edges (Loss of Lockett huge there obviously), at linebacker (though I’m excited about some of our younger players), and in the secondary.
That transition from Orgeron to Nutt was really bad, and we have had a lot of attrition from the first two full classes that Nutt brought in. I’m not sure we’ve lost any difference makers other than perhaps Barksdale (but think we’re struggaling more at corner than at safety).
Obviously Nutt is 100% responsible at this point and going forward, we should be 6-5 at this point but the wheels have just came off for whatever reason and I think part of that is due to the hiring/firing of Orgeron and the transition from a very poor staff to a middle-of-the-road one.
Now a bloggeur - http://www.msbeernut.com/
I put about 40% of our struggles this season
on Coach Nutt. The defense has been the biggest problem this season by far. The offense has done well for most of the season. My biggest issue with Nutt, as I have said several times on this board, has been his apparent lack of game prep for games he considers to be wins when he looks at the schedule (Jax State, Vandy, UTK this season). I don’t think he needs to be fired, and I believe he is an adequate coach right now, but I worry that one day these recruiting classes will start to pay off and we will have a season with a legitimate shot at an SEC West title and we give it away because of blowing a game or two to inferior opponents. Sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way, but I don’t think that was the case in the three games I mentioned. We just looked grossly unprepared to play in those games. The same thing has happened the past few seasons under Nutt as well. It may just be that I expect too much, but we easily coulda, shoulda been 10-2 at the end of the regular season last year if it hadn’t taken the coaching staff half the season to figure out how to use Dex. This year, we had an easy schedule that included the three worst teams from the East (and the worst UTK team in about three decades) and four gimme nonconference games and still stumbled.
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