On OleMissSports.com, fans were asked to send in their questions for Houston Nutt for a segment entitled "Ask Ole Miss." According to the piece, "over 75" questions (what the fuck does that mean? 77?) were sent in by fans but, for brevity's sake, only a dozen were selected. One particularly hard hitting question, obviously sent in by someone either under 12 years of age or comletely unaware of SEC football entirely, was this:
Q: What is the biggest fish you've caught on your lake at your new house? A: A three-pound bass
Whoa, watch out there. We wouldn't want people thinking this is Fayetteville. I mean, damn, take it easy on the guy, he just got here! Pretty soon we'll be asking him questions about last weeks sermon, his undoubtedly kickass corn salsa recipe, and his daughter's extracurricular activities. And we thought Arkansas was brutal!
Saturday Sound Offs, a very all-inclusive football blog which makes great use of the blogosphere community, asked us to do a piece on the upcoming football season. We were asked 5 questions, and we gave 5 answers. Check it out here.
As always, comment, criticize, chastise, and/or politicize.
Yesterday at Big East Media Day, which would have been otherwise completely insignificant, Pat White, senior quarterback for the 'Eers, complained that there were no black players on the WVU Baseball Team and said that head coach Greg Van Zandt "wasn't too high on it."
"It," assumedly being either "recruiting people who play baseball well regardless of their color" or "not getting fired for operating outside the confines of federal law."
The CNN article linked above reported statistics like the percent black population in West Virginia (3.3) and the percent of black Division I baseball players (5.7). What CNN failed to report is how this RRRRRRRRACISM has infiltrated other other facets of West Virginia and American life including the Mountaineer Swimming Team (get your mind out of the discriminatory gutter), the Mountaineer Rifle Team (sweet stereotypical sassifrass!), and even THE UNITED STATES SENATE!!! (though to a lesser degree).
Hey, Pat White, I know it must suck thinking about all the money you're going to be making in, oh like nine months, but why don't you suck it up, join a softball league, and realize that NOT EVERY conglomeration of persons made up primarily or entirely of one shade of skin or another is so composed because someone is out to get you.
Neal McReady is a good journalist. He writes fairly well and most certainly writes with integrity, avoiding "sunshine pumping" and "passing of the Troy" at all costs. I like Neal's work which, as a sworn enemy of Rivals and OMSpirit, makes me feel a little weird.
Well, ok, not all of his work. To be fair, I can't necessarily say I "dislike" this piece, but it most certainly made me pull a double-take. In writing about linebacker prospect Larvez Mars, whose nickname just so happens to be "Pooh Bear," McReady cranked out this gem:
"Opposing running backs sure wish this Pooh Bear would leave the gridiron and search for honey pots and heffalumps in Christoper Robin's enchanted woods, because Mars is an absolute tackling terror between the tackles."
Whatever, Neal. I know his nickname is Pooh Bear and I think the references are, I dunno, "neat-o" but the article is a bit on the overdone side. I did like the bit about the name "helping him off of the field," though. That was a clever touch, you sly bastard you. Rivals members, don't miss out on this gem.
Ok, I'll concede this point: you've gotta do whatever it takes to get people to read what you write. This time, it worked.
EDITOR'S NOTE: None of this is premium material. That quote came off of the main Ole Miss Rivals page.
We've picked at the East a good bit with this series of misguided prejudices, so now we turn our attention to our closer neighbors in the West. Mississippi State, you're up.
Best Tradition: Mississippi State University cheese. I'm not even going to put any sort of Ole Miss spin on this one. Their cheese is damn good and a small part of me deep down inside is a bit envious that my beloved alma mater is not renowned for its culinary arts. My earliest experiences with Mississippi State cheese came around Christmas one winter when a dear family friend of ours (non-Southerners, please see "hunting buddy") and an alum of State gifted us with a "cannon ball," or a big round lump of Edam cheese made in Starkville. We loved it and gobbled it up like we were from the fattest place in the Western world, giving the cheese a shelf life of 2 or 3 days, tops. Even Oxford's very own Big Bad Breakfast, a favorite among the Cup writers, pridefully uses Mississippi State band cheese in all of their cheese-related dishes. They even make a point of mentioning it in their menu, and rightfully so. You haven't had a cheese omlet until Starkville's best is stuffed inside it.
Worst Tradition: You all saw this one coming from a mile away: cowbells. I mean, sure, when the only school in the conference with fewer fans attending their games is Vanderbilt you've got to make up for that noise deficit.Clangity clang clang! And what better way to do that than to celebrate your school's agricultural heritage and redneck image by utilizing antiuquated farm equipment? Clangity clackity clang clang kaclack kerclang! I'll give it to ya, State; they're loud and obnoxious which gives you, the clanger, ample reason to enjoy ringing that shit in my, the clangee's, face. Clikkity kerclack clang clang clang whoooooooooo! Hell, the story of the use of cowbells at State is just as absurd as the tradition itself in that a cow trotting onto the field of play is involved. Rattle rattle, here comes the cattle. Oh, and good work on borrowing Texas A&M's uniforms and Georgia's mascot. CLANG! CLANG! MOTHERFUCKING CLANG!
Thanks to our guest contributor, Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore
Hello, hi, yes, of course, welcome, yes, welcome, thank you, thank you very, very much. I am here to speak to you today about an issue which is very crucial to not only ourselves, in the present, but our children and our grandchildren, in the future. This issue is, of course, the issue of worldwide global climate change, also known as "Guh-low-bull Waaaar-ming." Yes, due to our society's continual and exceedingly reckless use of fossil fuels, which emit dangerous amounts of what scientists call "Guh-reen-house Ga-yuh-siss," the entire Earth is subject to rising temperatures as these "ga-yuh-siss" trap the heat produced by our all-knowing and loving sun God, Ra sun.
Now, I, as a Democrat, have a lot of friends within the scientific community who have done a lot of research which supports these theories. Everything from core samples of our arctic ice to increasing occurrences of unusual weather phenomena point to one thing: we've increased the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. This increased level of carbon dioxide can raise temperatures all across our globe and have dire, dire consequences.
For example, I have been told that you Ole Miss Rebels have pushed back the kickoffs of your home football games due to increasing temperatures in and around Oxford. While many of you may be celebrating this change, citing more time to sit in your "Grove" and drink your "alcohol" in preparation for an undoubtedly more pleasant football game, you must not ignore the role your irresponsibility has played in this increasingly important global epidemic. Many of you purchase many expensive foods for your elaborate pre-game celebrations and adorn yourselves with high quality fabrics, most of which are imported. This demands an unnecessary use of fossil fuels which could easily be avoided. Furthermore, many of you arrive to your, how do you put it, "tay-ull-gates" in large gas guzzling SUVs and have even been seen supporting one of the world's largest Hummer advocates. These are dangerous habits which, of course, must be broken.
Ole Miss, you can do better. As I understand it, your Chancellor recently signed the university to a green initiative. I also understand that traffic has been severely reduced on campus and that academic departments are being encouraged to purchase and use educational equipment which utilizes as little energy as possible. These are all wonderful steps in the right direction...
Wait a gosh-durned minute! What? You mean to tell me, Al Gore, that you people are building a newJyumbuhTrawhn?** What?! God-damn you people! I created the motherfucking INTERNET! Have you not learned anything?! I'm being totally serial here! Damn you, Mississippi, damn you to a one-or-two-degrees-Fahrenheit-hotter-than-normal Hell!
**Thanks are in order to NAFOOM for this rendering.
We've added ads. I know they look kinda tacky right now but give us a little bit of time and we'll be able to make them look, errr, how to put this.... not shitty. Also, another big change is in the works, I'm certain y'all are gonna like it.
EDIT: I just now fudged around with the posts template and I feel that it's a bit more streamlined. Let us know what you think, assuming that you actually notice any changes.
For any of you non-Ole Miss fans, I don't think you can fathom what this has done to the Ole Miss faithful. Jerrell Powe has been a myth in Rebel circles for three years. His legend has taken on fantastically large, Paul Bunyan-esque proportions. If the legends be indeed true, he once ate a live bear because he thought it was Casey Dick and even scared Kobayashi away from a hushpuppies eating contest. I've also heard that his stat line against Memphis will be 16 tackles, 13 sacks, 4 interceptions, 3 forced fumbles, 124 rushing yards, 6/6 for 300 yards passing, 8 touchdowns, and three injury causing tackles. To many of us, all of our wildest hopes and aspirations for this young man are finally beginning to take form.
But seriously, Jerrell Powe will make a defensive line that was already set up to be one of the conference's best (see: two players projected to go in the first round this April) into a line that rivals any in the nation. While I don't have incredibly high expectations for Powe's actual output, he can provide 10-15 solid plays a game as a high intensity, 325-pound man who, for his size, can fly to the ball-carrier (he has a reported 4.9 forty).
Thank goodness he didn't go to junior college. Had he gone, he would have definitely been a junior college all-American. We all know ourtrackrecord with those.
So here's to Jerrell Powe. We're proud of you big fella. Now go work out.
1. We're the #2 party school in America, again. Motherfucker. What are we going to have to do to get over that hump? The #2 party school ranking is sorta like NCAA super regionals for us.
2. An announcement saying "Powe is 100% in" will be made later today. Tune in to OleMissSports.com for more information.
As we continue to wind our way through the SEC's best and worst traditions, we would like to encourage you, our readers, to suggest your own ideas as to what the best and worst traditions of the SEC are. Furthermore, if you're of the persuasion of a school we've picked on we would love for you to share your ideas about Ole Miss. We'll get around to that later on, but we'd really appreciate your ideas on that one.
Ok, so, on to Florida!
Best Tradition: Heismanwinningquarterbacks. What can we say? They've got 'em, we don't. Florida has as many Heisman winners as the entire SEC West and Tim Tebow has potential to bring another trophy to Gainesville this fall. And, while they are despised in both Tallahassee and Athens, the personalities and peculiarities of Spurrier, Wuerffel, and Tebow have made them adored by the media and college football fans outside of the Southeast. Whether it be Coach Spurrier's no bullshit approach to, well, everything or Tim Tebow's foreskin snipping, you can't help but enthusiastically pay attention to these Gators.
Worst Tradition:Jorts, hair gel, and self tanner. Georgia fans know exactly what I'm talking about.
I know football season is fast approaching, but Andy Kennedy released the 2008-2009-basketball schedule the other day. There are actually some intriguing match-ups on it.
Highlighting the schedule are games at New Mexico, against Louisville in Cincinnati, Southern in Biloxi, West Virginia and South Alabama at home, the return game with UCF and the Glenn Wilkes Classic in Daytona Beach.
Apart from these games you have your expected pushovers with teams like Alabama State, Morgan State, etc.
Louisville – Do not expect to win this game. Even though Pitino looks like some sleazy used car salesman and may be the first person to out dress Craig Sager on a basketball court, he is still a fantastic coach and has plenty of talent on his team. While he is losing players like David Padgett, Juan Palacios (felt like he was there for 6 years) and Derrick Caracter (may be a good thing), Pitino still has talent such as Earl Clark and Terrence Williams returning. Add two big (literally) time recruits in Terrence Jennings and Samardo Samuels and you are looking at a top five team.
New Mexico – The Pit is never an easy place to play, and Steve Alford is quietly elevating New Mexico back into the national spotlight in basketball. The Lobos will sorely miss J.R. Giddens, but return two of their top scorers for their senior season and will add some good looking recruits including Jackson, MS native Isaiah Rusher. Alford was also able to beat our Kansas for SG Phillip McDonald. Despite the rather easy victory over the Lobos in Oxford, I expect this one to be very difficult to win.
West Virginia – Bob Huggins appears to be throwing his old boy a bone with this home and home series. WVU made the sweet 16 last year but suffered a big loss when Joe Alexander declared early. Huggins is still left with talent at guard with sharp shooter Alex Ruoff, Joe Mazzulla who had some big time performances in the Tournament and Da’Sean Butler. They also add one of the top recruits in the nation in Devin Ebanks. Check out this kid's video and remember his name. Still, I see this as a winnable game for the Rebels. The Mountaineers are very similar to Ole Miss not only in coaching style, but their roster as well. Having graduated the bulk of their front court they are an undersized team and will rely on incoming freshmen down low this season.
These are the three main games on the OOC schedule. The SEC schedule is the same as it is every year. We open on the road, play the SEC West teams twice and if we played an East team on the road last year we have them at home. Sadly, this may be surprising to some Ole Miss fans.
At best, I see the Rebels taking two of these three games. In all honesty, we have very little chance of beating Louisville and given AK's history on the road I am not all that optimistic about beating New Mexico. I think we beat the Mountaineers and run the rest of the OOC schedule putting us in good shape for a Tourament run in a wide open SEC.
We continue our harrowing journey through the mystical land of Southeastern Conference tradition with a look at the land of bourbon and horses: Kentucky. The tailgating atmosphere around Commonwealth Stadium gets more congested about two hours before game time, and many tents play the game "corn hole." For those not familiar with this game, it's not a reference to the movie "Deliverance," but rather a plywood angled board with a hole near the top of it that patrons and drunken fans throw bean bags into from a distance of 10 or more feet. Corn hole sets at Kentucky are brilliantly decorated with Big Blue shit and sticky with Woodford Reserve or Maker's Mark. While this tradition is fantastic, there is another that comes to mind with the Kentucky Wildcats.
Jared "Finger Lickin'" Lorenzen, Age 7, AKA Pillsbury Throwboy
KENTUCKY
Best Tradition: Basketball. Yep, even though it's nearly kickoff time for the 2008 season, most Wildcat fans are already focused on Billy Gillespie and a collection of McDonald's All Americans that will intimidate some teams into defeat. They've got seven national championships in basketball, and basically win the SEC every year even when they aren't up to snuff nationally. It's the ability to say to a Georgia or South Carolina fan after defeat in football season, "Hey, see you in basketball season!" and watch the victor cringe as they remember past blow-outs and alley-oops from guys like Dan Issel, Louie Dampier and Tayshaun Prince. Kentucky basketball raises the SEC's RPI every season by approximately 149 teams with the exception of a few years(see: last season).
Worst Tradition: The Bluegrass Miracle. While not a tradition, it sums up the football history of Kentucky. This is one of the worst coverage disasters in SEC history. Kentucky returned the favor somewhat this past season by defeating the Fightin' Tigers in three overtimes, but this loss still has to sting.
SECSports.com has released the picks made for the All-SEC team and SEC Champions at SEC Media Days and, honestly, there are some interesting surprises. For example, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner was not a unanimous selection for All-SEC. In fact, there were no unanimous selections at any position. Not Tebow, not Oher, not Moreno. Furthermore, Peria Jerry did not make it onto either the first or second team unlike in other preseason All-SEC team. Perhaps this demonstrates the depth and level of talent in the SEC, or perhaps this displays the lunacy of some of the voters.
Take for example, the picks for SEC Champion. There were a total of 70 voters, each of which laid out their predictions for the final standings in the SEC East and West and then picked who would win the SEC Championship game. Florida took the cake with 36 votes, Georgia netted 18, Auburn 13, LSU 1, and Tennessee 1.
That makes 69. The final vote-getter for SEC Champion was none other than the Ole Miss Rebels. Seriously, somebody voted us to win the SEC Championship. Neither State, Kentucky, Vandy, Alabama, South Carolina nor Arkansas garnered a vote to be the SEC Championship game victor, yet somehow our Rebels did.
Who in the hell is behind this? Yancy? Chuck? The little black boy in Angels in the Outfield ("it could haaaaappen")? Some kid working for the DM who's attending Media Days for college credit? Who gets to vote in this thing? If anybody knows who is behind this, let us know. Right now, you're crazy. However, if in the miraculously bizarre off chance that you're right, you can rub it in our faces all damn day.
Post Scriptum - To you Spirit posters: we don't want the Rebels to fare poorly. Hell, I'd be the happiest bastard in Dixie if we were to win the SEC Championship, but if I were given one of 70 votes at SEC Media Days, I wouldn't it waste it on some homerific delusion. Half, if not most of the SEC is better than us nearly top to bottom. Deal with it.
The SEC has received publicity for the tradition and pageantry that surrounds every moment of the season. Even SEC media days has 'Bama faithful giddy like Corky from "Life Goes On."
We care a lot about our teams and our traditions, and every team in the SEC has a tradition that, deep down, every other team admires or enjoys in some realm. We're starting off with one school that sometimes(see: during football season) represents the butt of many jokes in the SEC, but at the RSC, they have our respect and admiration.
VANDERBILT
Best Tradition: Wealth. The name of this institution says it all: Vanderbilt. Their alumni are loaded and well connected. The great and wealthy Cornelius Vanderbilt started the university with a $1 million endowment while also feasting on Pterodactyl eggs every morning and lighting finely rolled cigars with burning pages of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Vandy fans I have met at games over the years are also wise enough to see beyond their sub-par seasons and flaccid tailgating and look forward to the years they'll spend on their private island where they live without the rough and tumble world of college football.
Worst Tradition: The Foghorn. Anyone who has been to a Vandy game has most likely heard the bellowing of this horrible tradition. Wait, let me rephrase that. If you went to a Vandy game where their inept offense actually got the pigskin over the goal line, you have heard this semi-Canadian, definitely not Southern tradition. Okay, I get it. It's like a foghorn on a boat and your team mascot is a boat captain of some sort. Why not shoot off some cannons from a large boat in the end zone? Maybe get an alumnus to give away shares of his company for every point the other team scores, so they'll actually make some damn noise. I'd even settle for showing a clip from the major motion picture "Captain Ron" when "Ron" helps Martin Short's character overcome guerrillas by faking an injury and calling for help below deck.
Vanderbilt, for a SEC school that doesn't even officially have an athletic director, you do pretty well for yourself. A foghorn, wealth and just enough talent to frustrate SEC opponents to the point that makes even the most loyal fan consider selling their season tickets, because in all honesty, a loss to Vandy is pretty much the end of your season.
Erik at DeepSouthSports has put together a fairly detailed rundown of preseason Ole Miss hype from a varied sundry of sources. He features the struggle of JerrellPowe, Vegas betting odds, and the king of the Gypsy snake-charmers, Phil Steele, among other things. It's an interesting read and should get you salivating for football, if you weren't already.
With concerns to other bits and pieces of preseason hype, Greg Hardy has been named to the Ted Hendricks preseason watch list and four Ole Miss Rebels have been named to the coaches' preseason all-SEC team. Michael Oher and Greg Hardy were both unanimous selections to the list. I imagine that both Oher and Hardy will live up to their respective hypes this year and could even make a few clutch plays which separate wins from losses. Oher will be Jevan Snead's best friend on the gridiron and frustrate the hell out of opposing defensive ends while Greg Hardy will pull one of (I'm now taking bets as to which one) John Parker Wilson's limbs clean out of socket.
I know it sounds kinda silly and he says it far too often, but Houston Dale is right, we're hungry, dammit. I'm starving for more than 4 wins. If that causes me to come off as being overly optimistic, then so be it.
Speaking of Houston Dale: what the hell is going on in this picture to the left? If you visit any of the links above regarding preseason accolades, you'll be sent to the newly designed OleMissSports.com which features this bizarre picture of HDN. While I like the new design and feel it to be a bit more professional, it has its little quirks. As far as I can tell, the picture was taken at Coach Nutt's welcoming press conference/tent revival at the Ford Center and is kinda taken at that "hey, vote for me, victory rah rah" angle, but whose fucking hand is that? Is that Houston Dale's? If so, that man's got some big damn paws. And scary ones, at that! I dunno, maybe I'm looking into this a bit too much but it looks as if some sort of demonic creature is protecting HDN's dark yet dear, dear womb. I know that I'm either not looking at something correctly, or it's some sort of optical illusion, or maybe it's a camera trick, but that shit's still weird. Oh, and Arkansas fans, we already know you're going to come in here with a bunch of "well lol he's been doinalot of txtinhahalol PIG SOOIE," so please, save us the trouble.
EDITOR'S NOTE: We know a lot of you don't give a shit as to what exactly we're doing with our summers. We don't care. We need to pass the time somehow.
After leaving Asheville, Whiskey Wednesday and I drove through the Great Smokies to reach our ultimate destination: Gatlinburg, Tennessee's Pancake Pantry. I know it may sound stupid to, well, everyone that isn't us, but this place is seriously one of the greatest Southern eateries. With a huge breakfast menu that features 20+ different varieties of pancakes mixed and cooked to near perfection, you cannot go wrong with this place (there's also one in Nashville if you're not into kitchy crafts and bizarre mountain folk).
A couple hearty stacks of flapjacks and a pot of coffee later, we hit I-40 to visit Knoxville and, more specificially, take a look at Neyland Stadium. After getting lost on Tennessee's campus, we pulled our car onto Pillip Fulmer Way (yep) and parked beside the stadium. Despite the ongoing construction, we easily sneaked onto the upper deck and were treated to a pretty impressive view. I only had a camera phone with me, so you'll just have to get over the grainy, off-color shot.
Neither one of us had ever been to a game in Neyland, so we were both sufficiently impressed. Another great quality about the stadium is it's proximity to the Tennessee river which lends to the SEC's 2nd best tailgating tradition: the Vol Navy. As far as college campuses are concerned, Tennessee's is nothing special. It's not too far from downtown Knoxville or the Smokies, though.
After our stopover in Knoxville we headed on into Nashville. Nashville has always been one of my favorite cities in the South. Great music, great bars, good people and a clean(er) downtown area lend to Nashville's reputation. We visited Vanderbilt's campus and made a point (as we have everywehre we've been so far) to visit the football stadium. After having seen Neyland, it was easy to be unimpressed with Vanderbilt Stadium but, let it be known, it is still impressive that a conference's "token academic school" can consistently fill a 40,000 seat venue. I'd like to see if Duke, Wake Forest, or Stanford could say such a thing.
That night, we saw a show (on a Wednesday, mind you) that would have easily headlined Proud Larry's on a Saturday which was only attended by a few dozen people. Our hosts, Scott and Lisa, explained to us that people from Nashville are more-or-less "burnt out" by all of the shows and rarely, if ever, attend them. Another thing I noticed about the audience aside from it's unexpectedly small size is that they actually listened to the music as opposed to drunkenly chatting over it.
That's it. It was a short a trip but it was incredibly fun to see things which I knowingly should have seen a long time ago (espcially Athens and Neyland). Hopefully I'll actually get to visit Georgia and Tennessee during game weekends sometime in the near future. If any Bulldogs or Volunteers have a few couches for a few of us Red [REDACTED] Cuppers to crash/maybe vomit on, we'd gladly invite ourselves.
Now, in order to be good, Chris Warren is going to have to do several behind-the-back assists per game. Everyone, please temper your excitement. Warren will only be working with Nash for three days. It's not like he's spending the whole summer training with the guy.
Yes. He was invited by Nash. Warren is a beast. That doesn't mean he's as good as Steve Nash fellas. Don't get me wrong. I hope he's better than Steve Nash, but that's unlikely.
Next thing you know, the message boards will "leak" a story about how Will Bogan actually turned down the Skills Academy, so Nash "settled" fro Warren. Honestly, could we stop pumpin up our inbound players to heights they cannot reach?
I saw a post that compared Terrence Henry to Jarvis Varnado "with offensive ability". He has never played a minute in college. Varnado led the NCAA in blocked shots last year. Do you see how long his arms are? They almost drag on the ground! Can we set our expectations just a little lower? If we set our expectations low, we don't have do deal with too many of these or these next year.
NOTE: If I figure out how to save XBox screen captures, I'll post some pictures 'n' shit. For now, this is purely textual.
My addiction to pixellated Ole Miss football recently relapsed with a purchase of EA Sports' NCAA 09. As mentioned in a previous post, I was anticipating this game to be the most improved of the series thus far and, after a few days of playing, it is yet to disappoint. The game runs incredibly smoothly compared to the 2008 version and, as far as parity and difficulty of play are concerned, is much more accurate to actual NCAA football. Overall, I am extremely pleased. The only real gripes I have with the game as of right now are (as always) poor evaluation of our players (Mike Wallace with 90 speed? Really?) and seemingly frivolous changes. For example, on the XBox 360, the RB receiver has been switched to LB and now RB is a button used to throw the ball away. While it may seem silly, I have had a hard time getting adjusted to this change. For the first couple of days of playing I garnered several incredibly frustrating intentional grounding penalties. Why EA decided this needed changing is beyond me.
Besides all of that, Ole Miss is pretty fun to play with in the game. While no players, save Michael Oher, are off-the-charts good, there are a lot who are very fun to play with. Cordera Eason breaks tackles well and is a solid back. Enrique Davis is one of the fastest players on the team. The defensive line underachieves a bit, in my opinion, but they're still a lot of fun to work with. Jevan Snead throws the ball fairly accurately and has decent mobility. Shay Hodge is a very reliable receiver and Dexter McCluster moves fairly well. Speaking of McCluster, one can run the WildRebel (or, as some have put it, the McClusterfuck) in this game and, if your timing is good, utilize it with some success.
Thus far I've played the first six weeks of the upcoming Ole Miss season and am sitting on a better-than-anticipated 5-1 record. My only loss came to a South Carolina team which I simply couldn't keep out of the endzone. The wins over Vanderbilt and Florida were incredibly tough and, especially in the case of Florida, riddled with good luck streaks. If this video game is any sort of indicator of the upcoming season, we will need 2 INT's (one for a pick 6) thrown by Tebow, a successful Hail Mary throw to Mike Wallace, and a missed Florida field goal to eke out the Gators in the swamp.
It's been fun so far and I imagine that the new "Online Dynasty" feature will give me yet another excuse to waste a few hours every afternoon.
I haven't been able to follow up on the article I wrote a few weeksmonths ago. I just hadn't encountered anything I felt was worth posting as far as message board idiots are concerned (other than arky boards). That was... until now.
Posted from the OMSpirit Message Board:
"roadking2000 Posted: Thursday 8:21 PM Subject: Croom & staff are liars Earlier to day i listened to Tupelo High School FOOTBALL COACH SPEAK AT CIVITAN LUNCHEON. hE IS FROM lOUSIANA NOT LSU GOD FORBID. hE HAS BEEN HERE A COUPLE OF YEARS. hE STATED HE SENT A LETTER TO LSU FOR 1 OF HIS PLAYERS TO RECIEVE A SPECIAL WALK ON DESIGNATION. aLSO A QB AT TUPELO JUST COMMITTED TO LSU. HUMMMMMMMMMMMM COACH TOLD ME AFTERWARD REBS DID NOT RECRUITE MCCH LESS OFFER QB. NOT WITHSTANDING QB'S DAD IS N. MS PRES OR WHAT OF MUUUUUUU ALLUMIN MILKERS. NOW 2 POINT COACH SAID MSU OFFERED QB ( GARRET) & SAID THEY WOULD NOT OFFER ANOTHER QB IN THIS CLASS; HE WAS TO BE THE CORNERSTONE OF CLASS. WELL GUESS WHAT THEY OFFERED ANOTHER QB. THUS HE FELT AS THS COACH STATED HE WAS LIED TO HE COMMITTED 2 MSU ON THAT BASIS; THEY LIED TO HIM."
I'll wait until you can all compose yourselves.
Ok. So, roadking2000 = amazing. Obviously, he heard some information that he felt it necessary to share, and he didn't know how to go about it other than exposing himself as an idiot. First, I'm going to re-write what he said in order to try to understand.
Earlier today,I listened to a Tupelo High School football coach who spoke at a Civitan Luncheon. He is from Louisiana, but he is not an LSU fan,heaven forbid. He has been at Tupelo High School for a couple of years. He stated that he sent a letter to LSU asking them to allow one of his players to receive a preferred walk on designation. Also, a QB from Tupelo High School just committed to LSU. Brief Humming Break. The coach told me after his speech that the rebs did not recruit, much less offer the quarterback. Totally unrelated, the QB's dad is the North Mississippi President OR WHAT OF MUUUUUUU ALLUMIN MILKERS (I can't correct this because I have absolutely no clue what it means). Now to the point of this senseless rant, the coach said that MSU offered the QB (Chris Garrett) and said they would not offer another QB in this class.Garrett was to be the cornerstone of the class. Well, guess what. They offered another QB. Garrett felt, as the coach explained to me, that he was lied to. He committed to MSU on that basis. MSU lied to him.
Looks like "The King" could use some English classes taught in the fine building of FarleyHumeThe Lyceum every damn building on campus.
The best part about this post, and the only real part that bears mention is that he switched to all caps early in his post, didn't realize it, and went on to post the entirety of his "magnificent" story. Early on, you see that he was trying. The beginning of each sentence is lower-cased signaling to those of us with half a brain that he was intending to capitalize those while not capitalizing the rest of each sentence. Eventually, it's all caps, so he just gave up.
A lot of you are insanely clever people, so I'm leaving this one up to you. Giggity giggity, indeed. Enjoy the rest of your barren, football-free weekends.
Preseason expectations: casual fans love them, Ole Miss athletics veterans shun them. If you're not sure as to why that is the case, allow me to cite cases in which they incorrectly said we would be excellent and incorrectly said we would be horrible.
With concerns to Ole Miss athletics, they're hardly ever correct. That is why my early evening perusal of the internet today yielded rather personally disturbing results.
According to ESPN's Chris Low, Jevan Snead is the #1 newcomer in the SEC (a la Brent Schaeffer). Enrique Davis is #8 and Trahan along with Powe were mentioned as possible impact players.
Neal McReady of Rivals.com writes that Snead is motivated by high expectations. While his is not a proven sunshine-pumper, McReady's article is positive enough for this skeptic's "überoptimism" meter to go off.
The Dunaway and Brown radio show recently featured an on-air phone interview with, you guessed it, Jevan Snead in which they spoke about everyone's high expectations for this upcoming season.
I hope you don't take this as me being a serious NAFOOM. I want Jevan to do very, very well and I hope he can be a crucial part of whatever success our team may have this season. It's just that the heartbreak of blue-chip-dual-threat-quarterbacks-past is still weighing heavily on my poor, wearied soul.
Jevan, if you're reading this, please break the trend as laid forth by your predecessors. Be a badass. Throw for 5 billion yards, deflate Bobby Petrino's bubble, rip off Sly Croom's walrus 'stache, slay the hydra, etc etc.
EDIT: Here's another one! Yeah, we've got a shot to be "this year's Kansas." Well, hell, we're doomed now. I will say though, this one is pretty well written. Huzzah to "Mad Love," whoever you may be.
This t-shirt was sold at a recent Jackson area Mississippi State alumni event. If you have yet to read our power rankings of the SEC fanbases (shame on you), check out number two and tell me I wasn't dead fucking on with that one.
If you see someone wearing this shirt, be sure to let them know just how much of a moron they are for dropping a Hamilton on it.
After our stay in Athens, we headed up north to the Tar Heel state. Whiskey Wednesday was interested in seeing Asheville, NC (he digs granola) so we wandered through the southern part of Appalachia for a day and eventually reached our destination.
On the way we had a brief stop over in Clemson, SC. This was more or less my idea because I've always fancied them to be the most SEC-esque program outside of the SEC. Seeing Howard's rock was, for me, the highlight of the afternoon. The stadium is not too far from the center of the campus and has a very "collegiate" feel to it. The campus itself displays a very interesting mixture of the modern and the historic with regards to the architecture and is located within immediate vicinity to a few bars, shops, and restaurants. Seeing all of this reaffirmed my excitement for our future home-and-home series with this particular band of Tigers.
After Clemson we drove through Greeneville but, with our goal of reaching Asheville before sundown, did not take the time to peruse the downtown area. This was foolishly against good advice from our readers but it has given me an excellent excuse to return to the Palmetto state.
An hour-and-a-half later or so we were smack-dab in the middle of downtown Asheville, NC. The city is more, ummm, "liberal" than many in the South, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it. It is very clean, well organized, and full of a myriad assortment of bars and restaurants. After checking into our hotel we moseyed around the downtown area for a few hours. We ate at a brew-pub with an excellent menu selection (andouille pizza=fantastic) and exceptional live music before a brief stint of bar-hopping. If you enjoy having a wide selection of locally brewed beers from all over the South at your disposal (see: "if you are a Southern male"), I would recommend the Biergarten. While not a "true" Beer garden, their selection is matched by few and surpassed by even fewer. After the Biergarten we walked a block to the "Frog bar," or "the Flying frog," or something along those lines.
This bar was obviously a higher-end bar for the fancy haircut crowd. This became apparent after learning that, despite the "$2-off all whiskey" drink special, we were paying $7 for a glass of Makers Mark. Despite this obvious attempt at socio-economic segregation, we invited a bum to snag a drink with us. True story. He wanted a few quarters so he, according to his own words, could buy a beer.
"Well," I said. "I don't have any change but, tell ya what, I'd love to buy you a beer!"
He followed right along and sat right next to the both of us at the bar. He got his beer (a Budweiser... he orginally asked for a Bud Ice) and turned out to be an excellent conversationalist. He described to us all of the local "swimmern' holes," told us about his grandcildren, and divulged into the intricacies of petroleum economics. He was thankful for his free beer and temporary friends but, being a nomadic bum, eventually made his departure just as we were heading in for the night.
Next up: Nashville, TN with a lunch break at Gatlinburg's "Pancake Pantry" and a brief visit to Neyland Stadium.
EDITORS NOTE: Written the morning of July, 15. When poor and on the road, the internet can be hard to come by. We'll still be posting about our college town visits, albeit a couple of days behind.
Still a tad hung over from last night, The Ghost of Jay Cutler and I are on I-85 N heading out of Athens, the first stop on what looks to be a hell of a road trip. As a fitting follow-up to our ranking of various SEC fan bases (in which UGA came out on top, by our estimation), here is a only-slightly blurry account of our various undertakings in Athens.
First of all, hats off to our gracious host Ben, who let us crash in his vacant condo a couple miles from campus. Very nice fellow, this Ben, who called us a cab and even trusted our drunk asses with a copy of his house key.
So Athens had often been described to both of us as a larger version of Oxford. Although we had a hell of a time, that description doesn't quite fit. I'd say that it is more of a smaller Nashville. The city has a more progressive feel to it, less fratty and more granola; somehow though, these hippies still had a nice southern air about them. Also glad to report the general lack of fake tans and hair gel in Athens. Keep up the good work, guys. As far as other differences, Athens is significantly bigger, which has the expected set of tradeoffs and benefits. There are a million bars, but not as concentrated as the Square. But enough sociological commentary, on to our account of the evening.
So we took a cab (!!!) to downtown Athens, and after begrudgingly forking over a $16 fare, wandered around until we stumbled upon The Transmetropolitan, a pizza joint/bar with an impressive beer list. I had an Anchor Porter and Ghost had a Paulaner Hefeweizen to accompany a huge chicken pesto pizza. This place beats the hell out of Old Venice, folks. Minus OVPC's practice of hiring ridiculously hot girls, the place doesn't stack up in quality of food, drink selection, or price. That brings us to perhaps the most important discovery of the evening: booze is cheap in Athens. Cheap. $2 domestics almost everywhere. $3 premium beers and wells. $5 car bombs (with free tee shirts at Flanagan's). It's almost as if alcohol is subsidized by the Clarke county government.
This wonderful development allowed us to blindly wander around downtown Athens with only a few twenties between us and still get sufficiently boozed. Throughout the night, we went to the aforementioned pizza joint, The Copper Creek Brewing Company, Flanagan's, The Village Idiot, and a few other places whose names escape me. The highlights of our night include seeing Dave Bliss and all of his tongue-waving bullshit at Flanagan's; borrowing a couple of guitars from some coked-out rednecks and playing a few songs at a local open mic night (much to the delight of one of the creepsters and the chagrin of another); and seeing a local street performer/crack addict play obnoxious rap songs on a poorly tuned guitar.
This morning we awoke and, looking to assuage the misery a good night of marathon bar-hopping causes, returned to downtown Athens to look for a good place to snag a cheap lunch. We stopped at The Thai Spoon and, after dropping no more than 7 bucks apiece for a few piles of curried chicken, we were more than satisfied. We then drove through UGA's campus to get a good look at the student body and Sanford Stadium. After our short campus tour we headed out of town.
Next stop: Asheville, NC with a brief detour to Clemson, SC. If our time spent Athens is any sort of indication, this trip should be a good one.
Parrish Alford is reporting that Jerrell Powe has been cleared to play. He's just awaiting a formal call from the SEC at this point.
I'm not sure we've ever had an actual news source report that Powe has been cleared in years past. I'm not ready to say that Powe will get in yet, since he hasn't even gotten to practice on the field with the team yet this year (as he was able to do last August). Still, this has to be encouraging news.
If he gets in, I don't expect him to play every down or anything near that, but I do expect him to be a difference maker during the plays when he is in the game. If we can just get 15-20 snaps a game from him that are solid, it would help a good bit.
As for people who want him to lead the "Are You Ready" against Memphis, that probably won't happen. The Powe-tron may not even be ready by then (though I know they say it will be).
1. 40 second play clock which commences at the end of the previous play.
2. After an OB play, clock resumes when ball is set by the officials.
3. Any contact with the facemask is now a 15 yard penalty.
4. When a kick-off goes out of bounds it is now marked at the 40, not the 35.
The Bleacher Report mentions a few other rule changes on their site and you can click on that link to see them.
I am not a big fan of these rules, just as I was not a big fan of the 2006 clock rules. I do not see why they are set on trying to speed up the game. No one wants that to happen. The abolishment of the incidental facemask is another blunder being made by these rule changes.
While doing nothing, I decided to start an internet fight... with everyone.
Here's the deal: I've spent a fair amount of time observing SEC sports. Certainly, many of you have paid greater attention for longer, but I imagine that I have gathered enough information as to who I like and don't like and that is especially true with concerns to the fan bases of each respective conference member. Therefore, in my continuous boredom, I have put together a power ranking of the SEC fan bases. I'm obviously biased towards Ole Miss (and, as you'll see, against some others) so I will rank the 11 other conference members with 11 being the most enjoyable fans and 1 being the least enjoyable fans. Enjoy.
-These first two fan bases and I have shared fairly extensive interaction, almost all of which has been fun, cordial, or both.
11. Georgia First up are the Georgia Bulldogs. From all that I have gathered, Georgia fans are a class act. My first experience with the original Bulldogs came two years ago in the Grove. From the time we set up our tents to the time we passed out on Saturday night, the Bulldog faithful were out in full force. We suffered a surprisingly close loss that evening (remember the phantom holding penalties?) in front of a national audience yet, despite having been defeated, the Georgia fans on hand weren't ones for shit talkin' and drunken hooliganism. Y'see, Georgia is better than you, and they know it. After a gridiron victory they don't have some sort of inferiority complex kicking in and bringing them to taunt the children of the opposing fans. For example, after last year's Sugar Bowl I met dozens of Bulldogs on Bourbon Street. Whenever a defeated horde of Hawai'i fans were in the vicinity the aforementioned Georgians didn't resort to asinine taunts or jeers. Instead, they gave their recent opponents the "I just fucked your girlfriend" look and moved on. In addition, these UGA fans had nothing but respect for me and my friends for being fellow SEC fans. They love their school, they love their team, and they love the SEC in general. It should be noted that the only Georgia fan I've ever not liked was this harlot I met recently in Montgomery, AL. She had a whiny attitude and a snotty demeanor more appropriate to a denizen of Starkville than that of, well, anywhere outside of Starkville.
10. Vanderbilt Here's an anecdote: At last year's Vandy game I witnessed one of the most embarrassing defeats of my life. As I was hanging my head in shame (literally), an older gentleman wearing a gold and black polo patted me on the back and said, "It's just a game kid." While a bit of a "pop warner" response, I feel it clearly illustrates my point: Vanderbilt has not been consistently good at anything in decades and their fan base reflects that. They're quiet and do a fairly good job of minding their own business. Their school has an academic reputation to maintain and they will oftentimes place that before athletics. At the aforementioned game, a grizzled man in his early 40's wearing black gym shorts, a Vandy jersey, and black Reeboks drunkenly waved a homemade Commodores flag while taunting my friends and me to our faces. To boot, the man couldn't afford a $30 pair of AM/FM headphones and was literally holding a small radio up to his head to tune in on all the action (I wish I had taken a picture). Another, wealthier Vanderbilt fan, seeing this, quickly came over and assured us that this man most likely never attended Vanderbilt. We were losing the game, yet this man was focused way more on the integrity of his degree than that of his football team. I will say this though: their fans are terrible hecklers. A few Commodore students were sitting in front of us during the Vandy/LSU game in Hoover this past year and the best insult they could collectively muster was "hey, ummm, LSU guys, umm you're gonna LOSE!" Apparently, "clever" isn't something the college admissions boards look for.
-My experiences with the next two fan bases are much more limited. They're not "nonexistent," but they're not as strong as the fan bases on the top or bottom of these rankings.
9. South Carolina Realistically speaking, my experience here is too limited for me to appropriately opine on the matter. I think the whole "cockaboose" thing is pretty cool and I really enjoy the Garnet and Black Attack so, huzzah, South Carolina! Furthermore, the fact that your these fans fill their 80,000+ capacity stadium even when they're the bottom of the SEC is incredibly admirable.
8. Kentucky I have never been in an environment with Kentucky fans in which they gave a shit, meaning that I've never attended a Kentucky basketball game. During the one Kentucky football game I attended I was able to witness one of Coach O's rare SEC victories. I was also able to interact with several of them at Hoover. Most of the fans at the SEC Baseball tournament were the typically quiet friends and family of the players however, sitting in front of us during the Kentucky/Ole Miss game were what looked like crosses between Jared Lorenzen and Kevin Federline: snotty, fat, goatee-having, baggy-shirt wearing Kentuckians. They directed their heckles and taunts at the families of the diamond Rebs, specifically the younger sisters of Cody Overbeck and Brett Basham. Shortly later, their fat asses were escorted from Hoover Metropolitan with Stewie Griffin's sousaphone blaring at their backsides.
-Number 7 isn't so much a rant against the fans as people, but rather it's a rant involving my disgust with a certain behavior of theirs.
7. Auburn I hate the War Eagle chant. To be fair, it's not necessarily the chant itself (the words, the rhythm, etc) that I detest, but rather the terribly bizarre situations in which you'll hear Auburn fans shout it out. A friend of mine had always made fun of War Eagle saying "they'd likely scream it at funerals," but I never believed it to be that sincere until I attended a wedding between an Ole Miss girl and an Auburn guy once in Montgomery, AL. At the rehearsal dinner, an old guy pulled out an "are you ready" during a toast he was giving. I, along with the other Rebels in attendance, casually rolled my eyes and thought the whole thing was silly. He didn't get his much desired "Hotty Toddy." Yet, a minute later, the same man blurted out a War Eagle to which a few dozen folks, young and old, replied loudly in kind. I was stunned. "They'll literally say War Eagle when and wherever provoked," I thought to myself. It's a like this Scrubs clip. Press play, enjoy the clip, and substitute the word "pickles" with "War Eagle." You'll swear you're on the plains of Alabama.
-These next four schools have the worst affliction of sidewalk fans in the conference. They are able to fill their megastadiums not only with students and alumni, but any asshole who can afford a ticket and an appropriately colored hat.
6. Florida As has been said, Floridafanswearjorts. There is photographic evidence of this all over the internet so we would be remiss to incessantly harp on this point. While Florida most certainly fits in the category of a team with a large "sidewalk" fan base, their in state rivals of Florida St. and Miami are even guiltier of said offense. This is troublesome because the increasing encroachment of the Northeast (New Yorkers relocating to die retire) on Florida's once Southern soil has brought techno music, hair gel, and protein powders into the mainstream among Gators fans. While not particularly mean-spirited, the Florida fan base is quite a nuisance. I guess that's why a touch of Schadenfreude wells up in your gut when you see things like Auburn's kicker mocking the "Gator Chomp." It's sort of like the rest of us saying "dammit Florida, you're so fucking weird."
5. Tennessee Orange, orange, orange. You see it everywhere, coating everything. "And it's not like that orange you can stand...it's that 'throw-up' orange. It's not that orange that you can sit with, (it's) that puke, inside of a pumpkin orange." Tennessee fans are everywhere and there's seemingly no end to them in sight when you're trekking through the Volunteer state. They've ruined Rocky Top (yeah, it's a real song) for everyone and, for that, I cannot forgive them. In addition, a lot of their sidewalk fans are a part of the "kooky hill folk" strain of meth users people and are generally quite insufferable.
I will say this though: they're not nearly as hostile or willing to publicly start an argument as our SEC Western division foes. I visit Tennessee often and whether it be the Smokies, Nashville, or Memphis, I'm likely to encounter anywhere between a dozen and a billion Volunteer fans. Yet, I haven't experienced any real hostility to date.
4. LSU LSU is 4th on this list? How the fuck did that happen? Good God, how things have changed. I have several friends who attend or attended LSU and many of them are well versed people who always serve as good company. Unfortunately, cajuns breed at a rate most rodents would find shocking and neglect to send their offspring to institutions of higher learning (I mean, somebody's gotta man the trawlin' nets). This leads to an LSU following which is comprised primarily of incomprehensible assholes. At last year's Mardi Gras, a coverboy for Guido Douche Elite Magazine found out I was of the Ole Miss persuasion. After receiving hell for a minute or two I naturally assumed him to be an LSU tiger. Nope, not at all. Turns out the guy "went to" a community college. Note, I didn't say "graduate from." I turned to the guy, smugly swigged my beer, and calmly said "community college, huh? I'm a graduate of a four year university." I could see his blood boiling even under his self-applied tanner. Also, those asses who walk around dressed as pimps should be thrown alive onto a flaming pyre.
3. Alabama The Bear is fucking dead. He died over two damned decades ago. Live in the present for once. Honestly, if you weren't so insane I would really enjoy Alabama fans. Most of the students and alumni of Alabama that I have met were fairly intelligent and rather classy individuals. It's the crimson clad slackjaws coming down from Sand Mountain every weekend that are the problem. I'd swear, some of these folks act as if they have aims of reuniting the ethereal spirit of the "Bahr" with the corporeal body of "Saint Nick" via voodoo charming/ouiji. It's tragic really. Alabama is a good school with a storied football program; yet it is completely ruined by the crazies.
-Nazi Germany didn't hate Gypsies as much as I hate these next two sets of jackasses. They're ignorant, backwards, and illogical; the whole lot of em. Alright, maybe not the "whole" lot, but more of them are bonkers than what would normally be proportionally healthy. Furthermore, their staggeringly high inferiority complexes cause them to annoy us at no end.
2. Mississippi St. What a nuisance these guys are. I don't think there is another group of football fans outside of College Station, TX who put more emphasis on beating their instate rival than the Mississippi State band of Maroons. If they have a 1-11 season coincide with an 11-1 Ole MIss Rebel season (a fantasy, I know), with their win/our loss involving the exchange of a Golden Egg trophy they would be more than ecstatic. Take, for example, last year's Battle for the Golden Egg. An Ole Miss team which was winless against all SEC foes was defeated by an unlikely fourth quarter comeback. The cowbells clanged, the maroon flags waved, the Walrus' tears flowed, and the owners of YouTube had to slang rock on the side just to cover the new bandwidth costs. I swear, you'd assume these poor bastards had beaten USC in the Coliseum or won an SEC title but, no, that didn't happen. They squeaked by a shitty Ole Miss team. Way to go.
1. Arkansas Up until a fewweeksago, Arkansas would have been 6th or 7th on this list, maybe. I had little experience with them and it wasn't horrible (or particularly pleasant) at that. I was rather indifferent towards the Razorbacks, just as most of us Rebels were. I found a few of them to be reasonable folk and made sure to mentally segregate them from the ozark-grown corn liquor sector of the fan base. Now, with the circumstances surrounding the dismissal and hiring of Houston Nutt, those lines have blurred. They're all off the reservation, and that's not just us saying this. Literally, everyone on the outsidelookingin sees just how nuckin-futs these oinkers have become. No wonder Houston Nutt seems to be in dire need of intravenous Xanax supplements. I link all of this Arkansas insanity to an incredibly strong inferiority complex that sees its roots way back when in the old Southwest Conference days. Then, Arkansas' biggest rival was Texas. To Texas, however, they were an afterthought behind Oklahoma and Texas A&M. Once they merged into the SEC, a fake "golden boot" rivalry was formed between the Hogs and LSU. LSU, though, would be quicker to call us Rebels, the Florida Gators, the Alabama Crimson Tide, or the Auburn Tigers rivals than they would the Arkansas Razorbacks. With the Las Cronicas de Boss Hawg unfolding and eventually winding down in Oxford, MS, the Hawgs finally have that rival they've been so anxiously waiting for. Or so they thought. Yes, even to us Ole Miss Rebels the Arkansas Razorbacks will likely forever be a 3rd tier rival. Certainly this season will see an unusual amount of weight placed on the annual SEC West meeting but the tensions will subside sooner rather than later, on our end at least. This may sound silly to some of you, but I've seen sentiments to this effect expressed by Arkansas fans.
So, where do you think we fit into this? I, of course, am directing this at any and all SEC fans outside of the Ole Miss family. Throw some sweeping generalizations our way and let us know how horrible we are to you with respect to other SEC foes. We'd love to hear it.
Continuing in the "Hard to Write about Football in July" theme, let's try our hand at questions. Today's question is
Who has the most favorable schedule in 2008? Mississippi State or Ole Miss?
Say what you want about Croominator 2.0 (I say he's the walrus), but he appears to have brought the Bulldogs out of the Munchkinland, if not all the way to the Emerald City. And there is little reason to think that State will be demonstrably worse than the Red and Blue in 2008. So, picking which team will boast the best record on November 28 might be a function of which team has the most favorable schedule. If you'd like to do your own coloring before I break out my crayons, check out the schedules for the Dogs here and the Rebs here.
...
Okay, now that we're all up to speed, here are my thoughts (you can leave yours in the comments below, but be mindful not to mention Ouston-Hay Utt-Nay, lest you be bombarded by hog sh*t).
As far as their non-conference shedules go, Ole Miss has three patsies (Memphis, Samford, and UL-Monroe) to Mississippi State's three patsies (at Louisiana Tech, Southeastern Louisiana, and Middle Tennessee State). Louisiana Tech, though, could be considerably better than Memphis, and the game is in Ruston. Mississippi State should still win, but those factors are enough to give 'Titti Tate the Patsy Edge.
Both have one real-live non-conference game in Wake Forest for the Rebels and Georgia Tech for the Bulldogs. The Magnolia teams both travel, and I'm not sure either matches up with their opponent very well. However, Georgia Tech's personnel don't really suit Paul Johnson's 16th-century style of play, and Jim Grobe actually feels kinda confident about his team. Edge: da Rebbahs
Next, let's examine their home conference schedules. Mississippi State has three winnable home conference games in Vanderbilt, Kentucky, and Arkansas, and they should be favored against the cellar-dweller twins. Ole Miss, similarly, has three winnable home conference games against Vanderbilt, South Carolina, and Mississippi State. Auburn visits Starkville and Oxford this season, resulting in poorly-selling t-shirts in East Alabama proclaiming themselves to be "Mississippi State Champs!" In this category, the two teams really wash.
Finally, the teams must play away games. Ole Miss travels to Gainesville, Tuscaloosa, Fayetteville, and Baton Rouge, while the Fightin' Crooms shoot up Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Tuscaloosa, and Oxford. This is where Mississippi State has a demonstrably easier schedule. The twin trips to Tiger town might wash, but few things sound less pleasing than playing Tebow in the Swamp. It might not be easy winning on Rocky Top, but it's easier than beating the Gators in Gainesville. Meanwhile, history plays against the Rebels in Tuscaloosa. State has beaten Alabama a total of 17 times, 9 in Tuscaloosa (including 2 in a row). Meanwhile, the Rebels still sport a meager 9 wins against the Tide all-time, with (I think) 2 big wins in Tuscaloosa. Again, a slight edge for State. Finally, State's visit to Oxford will be much less stressful than when the Rebels and (he who shant be mentioned) have to go to Fayetteville. Edge: Ole Miss
So, because it's easier to find wins in conference road games, I hereby declare Mississippi State to be the 2008 Soft Schedule Runners-Up (I'm lookin' at you Southern Miss)!
If you haven't already, check out OleMissSports.com. They've re-designed the website and added a new feature called "Rebel Vision" which will provide video clips as well as live, streaming videos of football, basketball, and baseball games. It's sorta like OleMissSports.tv but better, I guess.
Losing to LSU is never fun, but is accepted, any loss to State stings for quite some time, but nothing gets to me more than not being able to beat these BCS rejects down in Memphis.
The talking heads on Memphis radio and the UTK rejects on MemphisTigers.org start spewing their delusional and ill-informed opinions regarding the Ole Miss game around this time every year.
Today’s example comes courtesy of MT.org poster, MemphisCanes.
"For all that they toute their recievers, ours are head and shoulders (figuratively AND literally) above theirs."
You win Tiger fans, those receivers (“I” before “e” except after “c”) that we constantly “toute” are not as tall as Carlos Singleton. Let us take a look at some statistics though, and remember you run a pass happy offense in the CUSA while we had two incompetent rejects playing quarterback for us last season.
Last season your top three receivers were Duke Calhoun (14 ypc), Carlos Singleton (15.0 ypc), and Stephen Black (11 ypc). Our top three WRs were Shay Hodge (14 ypc), Mike Wallace (19 ypc), and Dexter McCluster (12 ypc). These stats seem pretty even to me. I will give you the advantage in WRs, but your guys are not as good as you all make them seem to be, with the exception of Duke Calhoun.
"Oher is an anchor, but one lineman does not a line make."
Does not a line make? Really? Was that just some cute way of trying to make your point or your fine Memphis education? And you are correct in saying one lineman does not make an offensive line. That is why we have guys like pre-season second team All-SEC John Jerry, returning starter Reid Neely, and veterans Darryl Harris and Mo Miller. To steal a quote from an Ole Miss poster on MT.org, "Our offensive line has had more books written about them than your basketballteamhasread."
In reality, their squad has more question marks than ours. New Coach, new QB, new RB, and a suspect D.
No arguments here except for you bit about suspect defense. The only thing suspect about our defense is going to be the cornerback position. Our front seven boasts 4 All-American or All-SEC candidates and one of the top incoming linebackers in the nation. Again, there is nothing terribly wrong with your statement, but the next part of the sentence (term used loosely considering your last one lacked a verb) is what explains why UTK denied your application and your attendance at Tiger High. It is so ludicrous I am going to have to break it down piece by piece.
“The Tigers have an experienced QB who should be able to plug right in to our system.”
How can you call Arkelon Hall an experienced QB? It is beyond me. We may have a new QB, but at least it is one who has played in a division one-football game against a BCS opponent for the Texas Longhorns. Also, judging by Hall’s less than sterling 6-14 performance, it looks like he has some work to do. However, you probably did not see that because only 800 people went to the game. That is how you support a program!
You cannot win an argument by saying Ole Miss has question marks at positions A, B, and C and then turn around and say the new (read: unproven) players Memphis has coming at the same positions make us a better team, which you proceed to do.
“Walton, our DC, has studied at defensive powerhouses like LSU and Miami, and has brought in considerable JUCO talent this year.”
Our last head coach studied at national powerhouses like Miami and USC, but he could not coach his way out of a paper bag. He still managed to beat you three times in three years. Weird.
And I would love to know this considerable JUCO talent that is coming in this year. Last I heard your prized recruit from Clemson decided North Dakota State was a better fit for him, Tim Mcgee failed his needed summer classes, and no one else on your commitment list looks like they are worth a damn. Your team, especially on defense, is nothing more than a bunch of other team’s rejects who averaged giving up 32 points per game this past season. Oh, and you lost to Arkansas State 35-31.
Add to that our new blood at RB, which should only do more to juice our offense, and I can't really see what Missy fans are so confident about.
So us having new RBs is a negative, but your new running backs are going to put you over the top? I do not think so. You are sending out Curtis Steele, a between the tackles type of runner, with your spotty offensive line against our front seven. I will not even bring up the guy we signed.
Kudos to The Lexington Brothers for putting how we all feel about the months of January-August into song. Also, sorry for all the youtubery today, but I am running out of ways to pass the time before August 30.
I recently downloaded the demo for NCAA 09 from XBox Live and, after perusing the game, I'm certain this version of NCAA is going to be one of the best yet. Many of the biggest problems with the 08 version, namely the slower frame rate and inexplicable pauses, seem to have been solved and a ton a new features have been added. These features include an "Online Dynasty" mode and the ability to add custom stadium sounds. Yep, that means Hotty Toddy can be a part of your gaming experience so long as you upload some sort of sound file into the game.
The demo only allows you to play with LSU (Ryan Perrillouxzzr is still on the game) or Ohio State so I wasn't able to gauge how good the virtual Ole Miss Rebels are. However, some screenshots of the roster from who-knows-where should help. In addition, this screenshot should give you an idea as to how the Rebels and the southwest corner of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will appear.
Being as how I only casually played the demo version, I can't give much more than the aforementioned as a part of my "review," so I'll just leave that up to the professionals. This video should also give you an idea as to how improved this version of NCAA will be.
Also, as many of you know, Darren McFadden, everyone's favorite getter of "dat woooooood," is the cover athlete for the XBox 360 version of the game. While I most certainly think Darren McFadden is a great choice for the NCAA 09 cover athlete, it would be interesting to see what the cover would look like with an Ole Miss Rebel. Say, I dunno, Jevan Snead maybe.Yeah, like that. I awoke to this gem sitting in my inbox yet no credit was given to the cover's designer. Whoever you are, I'd like to buy you a drink. Seriously. While not legit, it looks pretty damn close and obviously took some time to make.
And while we're on the topic of alternate covers to NCAA 09, Gump for Heisman put together an excellent bunch of alternate covers featuring Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, and others. My personal favorite is: Yeah, I'm pumped about the 15th. Since I've got nothing better to do, I may end up being one of those hapless souls waiting around WalMart at midnight just to get my hands on a copy.
Best Tradition: Mississippi State University cheese. I'm not even going to put any sort of Ole Miss spin on this one. Their cheese is damn good and a small part of me deep down inside is a bit envious that my beloved alma mater is not renowned for its culinary arts. My earliest experiences with Mississippi State cheese came around Christmas one winter when a dear family friend of ours (non-Southerners, please see "hunting buddy") and an alum of State gifted us with a "cannon ball," or a big round lump of Edam cheese made in Starkville. We loved it and gobbled it up like we were from the fattest place in the Western world, giving the cheese a shelf life of 2 or 3 days, tops. Even Oxford's very own Big Bad Breakfast, a favorite among the Cup writers, pridefully uses Mississippi State band cheese in all of their cheese-related dishes. They even make a point of mentioning it in their menu, and rightfully so. You haven't had a cheese omlet until Starkville's best is stuffed inside it.
Clangity clang clang! And what better way to do that than to celebrate your school's agricultural heritage and redneck image by utilizing antiuquated farm equipment? Clangity clackity clang clang kaclack kerclang! I'll give it to ya, State; they're loud and obnoxious which gives you, the clanger, ample reason to enjoy ringing that shit in my, the clangee's, face. Clikkity kerclack clang clang clang whoooooooooo! Hell, the story of the use of cowbells at State is just as absurd as the tradition itself in that a cow trotting onto the field of play is involved. Rattle rattle, here comes the cattle. Oh, and good work on borrowing Texas A&M's uniforms and Georgia's mascot. CLANG! CLANG! MOTHERFUCKING CLANG!
Thanks to our guest contributor, Former Vice President and Nobel Laureate Al Gore
Okay... where's the hidden camera? When is my alarm clock going to rip me from this sublime dream?
Speaking of Houston Dale: what the hell is going on in this picture to the left? If you visit any of the links above regarding preseason accolades, you'll be sent to the newly designed OleMissSports.com which features this bizarre picture of HDN. While I like the new design and feel it to be a bit more professional, it has its little quirks. As far as I can tell, the picture was taken at Coach Nutt's welcoming press conference/tent revival at the Ford Center and is kinda taken at that "hey, vote for me, victory rah rah" angle, but whose fucking hand is that? Is that Houston Dale's? If so, that man's got some big damn paws. And scary ones, at that! I dunno, maybe I'm looking into this a bit too much but it looks as if some sort of demonic creature is protecting HDN's dark yet dear, dear womb. I know that I'm either not looking at something correctly, or it's some sort of optical illusion, or maybe it's a camera trick, but that shit's still weird. Oh, and Arkansas fans, we already know you're going to come in here with a bunch of "well lol he's been doin alot of txtin haha lol PIG SOOIE," so please, save us the trouble.
If you haven't already, check out OleMissSports.com. They've re-designed the website and added a new feature called "Rebel Vision" which will provide video clips as well as live, streaming videos of football, basketball, and baseball games. It's sorta like OleMissSports.tv but better, I guess.
While I most certainly think Darren McFadden is a great choice for the NCAA 09 cover athlete, it would be interesting to see what the cover would look like with an Ole Miss Rebel. Say, I dunno, Jevan Snead maybe.
Yeah, like that. I awoke to this gem sitting in my inbox yet no credit was given to the cover's designer. Whoever you are, I'd like to buy you a drink. Seriously. While not legit, it looks pretty damn close and obviously took some time to make.
