Wednesday Answer: One of Inefficacy

On October 1st, I wrote an article about how I thought Ole Miss would go 8-4 in the regular season and how I would be fine with that. It didn't seem crazy at the time. Now, it's insane. Ole Miss is 7-0 for the first time in the modern era. The defense is superb. The offense is quite good. The rest of the SEC isn't as good as I thought when I wrote that. A lot of factors have come up roses for Ole Miss.

I can say that with the games remaining on the schedule, anything less then 10-2 would be pretty disappointing. 10-2 may even be a little disappointing, all things considered, but I think my psyche could handle ten wins and a big bowl game. If Ole Miss were to win eleven games, objectively, that would be astounding.

The trouble I really have is in figuring out how Ole Miss gets to 10-2 in a manner that isn't disappointing. We can easily say that losing to Presbyterian (not going to happen) or Arkansas (incredibly unlikely) would be debilitating. Those teams have no business beating Ole Miss, with far inferior talent and at least somewhat lesser coaching prowess. So that leaves LSU, Auburn, and Mississippi State. Which two of those could Ole Miss lose to without leaving me feeling let down?

Let's say for the sake of argument that Ole Miss beats LSU, losing to Auburn and Mississippi State. Is that okay? Stepping away from the situation, an Ole Miss fan could gather from the season that the only real upset the Rebels pulled was a win over Alabama (and an Alabama team which was almost beaten a week later by Arkansas). Does that a sterling season make? Are the options of losing to both LSU and State or LSU and Auburn any better?

The more that I think about it, the more I think 11-1 or 12-0 are the only non-letdown scenarios, which puts Hugh Freeze in a terrible situation. If Ole Miss goes 10-2 in year three of his rebuild, fans are upset. Imagine that.