Lindy's Football has picked our beloved Rebels 9th in their preseason Top 25, but think we're going to finish 3rd in the race for the West.

Thoughts after the jump

It probably isn't normal for an Ole Miss fan to feel upset about #9 preseason ranking (unless, said fan is superstitious or thinks our boys like proving themselves), but after reading a summary of Lindy's preseason ranking (here) and poking around on their site, that's exactly how I felt.  Of course it's great they put us in the Top 10.  Sure we have 5 preseason All-SEC players.  Certainly it's good to hear we should have a double-digit winning season.  But picking us third in the West?  How does it make you feel.

Any Rebel fan can tell you this is our year to make a run at Atlanta.  We've got the talent, coaching, and schedule we need to do it.  After reading through Lindy's predictions, however, you'd think we're a dark horse with LSU and Bama defnitely finishing ahead of us.  I'm not saying we're going to Atlanta (see superstitious above), but I do think we have a heck of a better shot than they do.  My reasoning is based on a few oversights I feel they've made.

1.)  Scheduling: Lindy's mentions the fact that LSU has to face Florida but fails to mention that the Tigers have to travel Oxford, Athens, and Tuscaloosa.  That's one helluva schedule to win the West with.  On the other hand, the Rebel don't play Tebow's squad and host UT, LSU, and Alabama.  My main concern with our schedule is going to S. Carolina on a Thursday (I've already starting praying about that one).  Needless to say, no West team is going to stroll into ATL.

2.)  Players:  Lindy's seems to have full faith in both the Tide and the Tigers for their ability to replace/fill key positions.  QB should be no problem for them...despite the fact that McElroy has only "proven" himself in spring training and Jefferson in the last few games of the '08 season.  Also, they seem to over play our loses to the draft while characterizing LSU's and Bama's as managable.  Call it both ways, ref.

3.)  Coaches:  Saban is a good coach. Period.  But so is our boy (giggity).  I'm not at all inspired by Les, however, and I actually have real doubts about his ability to coach his players.  He's got chutzpah, but that'll lose as many games as it wins.

Basically, I think that Lindy's couldn't bring itself to put the Rebel ahead of either team.  But hey, we are ...Ole Miss