Ole Miss

What happened to this football program last year?  The Rebels only won 2 games in 2011.  That is far worse than I ever could have predicted.  The team quit, the coaches quit, and the administration quit.  Last year was just a bad deal all around in what I consider one of the worst, if not the worst, football seasons in the history of the university.  With all that being said 2012 is a new year, and a lot has changed in Oxford.

It did not take the search committee long to find a new coach.  As everyone already knows that coach was Hugh Freeze.  Only time will tell if this hire was a good one or not.   Hugh Freeze better be a really good football coach because he has entered into a tough situation.  Houston Nutt was running a circus of a football program.  There was zero discipline on or off the field the last 2 years at Ole Miss.

The question marks about the team entering the 2012 season are endless.  The Rebels do not even have a full roster heading into this season because of academic and discipline issues left behind by Houston Nutt.  The academic issues are still not settled, and the Rebels could lose more players before the season starts.  The negatives far exceed the positives heading into the 2012 season, but that is not necessarily a bad thing in this situation. With expectations low the fan base is expecting nothing from the Rebels this year.  

Hugh Freeze has never done anything but win as a head coach.  The levels he was coaching at in no way compare to the SEC, but a winner is a winner.  How will a man who has only won handle the adversity of losing this year?  I am not predicting a win total yet for the Rebels, but 5 wins would be a successful season.  I see several potential blow outs on the schedule this year.  Hugh Freeze has a lot of gloomy days ahead before the sun will start shining through.   

Ole Miss does have a few really talented players.  One that really sticks out to me is Donte Moncrief.  Moncrief is an impressive football talent.  He will play on Sundays one day.  Moncrief by himself could keep Ole Miss in a couple of games.  Another really talented player with question marks is Jeff Scott.  If Jeff Scott does not get cleared academically it would be a devastating blow to the Rebels.  Scott may be the best player on this football team. 

Most of the talented players for Ole Miss are skilled position players.  Both the offensive and defensive lines for the Rebels last year were terrible.  Just like I mentioned with MS State you win and lose based on your big men in the SEC.  On paper it does not appear that the Rebels have the depth or talent to compete in the SEC.

The biggest thing I am going to look for this year with the Ole Miss football team is do they have some fight in them.  This season will be unsuccessful on paper, but if the Rebels fight and start to believe in themselves again they could build something for next year or the next.  From the comments Freeze made at SEC Media Days he knows he is in for a rough year, but he sounds to me like he is ready to embrace it. 

This was probably one of the hardest blog posts I have done so far because I really can not believe Ole Miss let Houston Nutt put them in the position they currently are in.  Thankfully Ole Miss has a new coach and Athletic Director.   Losing really sucks especially at a school with a good fan base.  The thing this football team and staff need most is time. 

Mississippi State

Ms State was the first of the two SEC schools from Mississippi to arrive at Hoover, so I will start this with them. What I gathered from Dan Mullen at SEC Media Days? Nothing. He says exactly what he is supposed to say. Can Ms State actually contend for a National Championship? No, but what else is he supposed to say? No coach will ever say we have no chance to beat team x or team y. 

Predictions are not where I am going today, but instead I am going to give a few really early things to think about. Can MS State replace Vic Ballard? I feel like losing Vic Ballard is going to hurt Ms State. I was a big fan of everything he brought to the table, and I feel like he was not used appropriately last year. I expect the Bulldogs to throw much more this year which will help fill the void of Ballard. MS State does have 2 talented backs (Perkins & Griffin), but until they are proven I question this position.

Will the veteran wide receivers and Tyler Russell finally step up and give Ms State a feared passing game? If the answer to this question is yes the running backs will benefit. Ms State has never had a very good passing game, and the single season passing records are a joke. I like what Tyler Russell brings to this football team. He seems like he has been around forever, but he has 2 years of eligibility left. The potential for these two groups is high.

Can Mississippi State get some depth on the offensive line??? This is the biggest unit question I have for this football team. Football games, especially SEC football games, are won at the line of scrimmage. Every team has talent on the outside, but what separates the boys from the men are the big guys. The starting 5 for MSU is just as good as any other line in the conference, but you have to have 10 guys to compete on a weekly basis. The team benefits this year from some injuries last year, but I still don't know what this group has. If this group gets depth and over performs then watch out for the Bulldogs. If they do not get some depth the ship could sink fast.

My final question for this team is can they make that extra play to take them from being good to great?  I believe this is the most talented football team Ms State has had since they went to the SEC Championship game in 1998.   The Bulldogs will at the very least be a good football team.  Being good in the SEC gets you to 6 to 8 wins.  Ms State will be in contention in every game they play this year.  The step they need to make to get to great is for someone to make the big play.   It is much easier to go from ok to good than it is to go from good to great.  The Bulldogs learned how hard the next step is last year. 

Every question I have had so far has been about the offense because I feel like the Ms State defense will be really good. This defense has a chance to be one of the top defenses in the SEC. If the offense sputters then this unit will carry the Bulldogs to some wins.

Are you ready for some football?!?!

There are a few distinct events that let me know we are ready for some actual football. Those events are the release of NCAA for XBox or PS3, SEC Media Days, and the Neshoba County Fair. People will say I can understand the first 2 because they are directly related to football, but how does the Fair factor in. The Neshoba County is an event much like game days in the South. The Fair is basically a warm up for people tailgating. If you have never attended the Fair it should be on your bucket list.

Ok, back to actual football(6 weeks from tomorrow we have college football).. With SEC Media Days over 2/3 of the way complete, we are getting ready for some actual football. I honestly don't read much that the journalist write prior to August because they are just trying to fill space up until practices start.

SEC Media Days

These college football coaches are smart men. You do not get to the position of being a football coach in the SEC without a lot of hard work and a lot of intelligence.  They do not get caught in question traps and most media don't ask inappropriate questions because a media credential is tough to get. It is a privilege not a right to have a media credential for SEC Media Days. With that being said the SEC Media Days is really pretty boring. You get a lot of coach speech, i.e.:

"We have some great senior leaders"
"We have some young guys that are really talented that we expect will come into their own and be major contributors"
"Our fan base is the best in the country and we love them"
"I haven't been around the players this summer, because you know I can't, but I have "heard" the players have been working really hard"

Every single coach at the podium has said at least one of the above comments if not all of them. With all the attention on SEC Media Days they have everything scripted.  The one thing you don't want is to provide bulletin board material for a rival or opponent.  Steve Spurrier is about the only coach that doesn't mind taking a jab.  He took one this year at Ole Miss.

I don't know if I was really impressed with John L. Smith because he seems interesting or if it was because I am just glad to not see Bobby Petrino.  I think it was more that I am just glad to not have to hear Petrino.  I think Bobby Petrino is a piece of ****.  He is a top 5 scumbag in all of sports.  My judgement of Petrino is not made from his most recent drama.   His history is bad at every place he has been.  What he did to the Atlanta Falcons organization, players, and coaches was cowardly and unacceptable.  I don't care how good he is at X's and O's the guy is a terrible human being.  Lawyer Milloy said it perfect about his most recent situation "That's karma".  Lawyer Milloy was a part of the Falcons team that he ran out on in the middle of the night.  It would not hurt my feelings to never see Bobby Petrino coach again.

Preseason polls are as irrelevant as pay phones.    I can't sit here and confidently provide you with a top 10, but I can tell you this.  When the dust clears at the end of the year there will be a SEC school playing in the National Championship.  The conference deserves that right until someone from another conference beats them.  I feel like overall the SEC may be as strong this year as it ever has been from top to bottom.  Adding Missouri and TAMU certainly helps that (I welcome both of those schools to the SEC and wish them luck).  The SEC West is going to be the toughest division in all of college football again, but I believe the SEC East could make a surge back into play this year.  South Caroline, UGA, and Florida all have question marks, but it would not surprise me to see one of them have a magical season.

I will be blogging tomorrow about Mississippi State and Friday about Ole Miss.  Thank you for reading and as always please feel free to provide me with comments, criticism, questions, etc. 

SEC Football Schedule Grid 2012