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.
Good post, Wally. I don't think anyone expected Nutt to come out and win 9 games in 2008 or 2009. We only expected him to bring some sort or relevancy back to the program after Orgeron. He did that, but slammed us in the end. Offseasons are difficult to do really well or really poorly. Most of them end up sort of average. I think Freeze has done better than expected during this offseason, and I hope that he will carry that over into this season.
ReplyDeleteAs far as expectations go, I expect us to line up and actually run football plays. I expect our DBs to be within 15 yards of the WRs and expect our coaches to get the play called in time for our QB to get to the line with more than 5 seconds left on the game clock.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I'll miss when watching this year's football team is the comic relief from last year that came in the form of Bradley Sowell. I've never seen a lineman that could find the open field like Bradley, not to mention his acrobatic dives.
Good post Wally.