Post Game: Cotton Bowl

Sorry this didn’t go up last night, but the day started for me at 6 AM after precisely zero hours of sleep. A brief work shift, lunch at KFC, an awesome football game, and Evan Williams white label put me out cold until almost midnight. Having said that, here is a hastily thrown-together set of post game observations:

1. Texas Tech did not play a poor game. Your team was not prepared for the intensity that Ole Miss brought on every play. Sure, a lack of talent in the secondary caused us to give up some points, but Graham Harrell's pocket was usually a small and unpleasant place to be. The receivers got jammed hard, and manned up by guys who should not be able to hang with them athletically. The linebackers occupied throwing lanes and chased down guys in space. There were none of the wide open spaces that Tech had become used to. And the defense? Tech's defense was far worse than I could have hoped for. Assuming that Tech had an average SEC offense, and played in the SEC (so they wouldn't be helped by getting a lead early, time of possession, etc.), they would have had the worst defense in the conference. Bank on it. So no, you didn't play poorly, you just got beaten.

2. Pat Summerall is a bad overbite away from being Lou Holtz. Terrible. He made many mistakes about personnel on both teams. Oh well. It starting being amusing when we stopping being terrible and took control. I especially enjoyed hearing that Michael Oher might be a first-round pick in NEXT April’s draft, and hearing about Ole Miss running back Inrick Davis.

3. Tech is a good team, and offensively, the game didn't go much differently than they predicted. Obviously, Crabtree wasn't 100%, and would have had more production had he been healthy, but the main thing that limited him was pressure on Harrell. I love that we got to see one of the nation’s most hyped quarterbacks flinch in the face of pressure, throwing errantly off his back foot and hoping for the best. Still, their offensive line did a much better job of holding back Peria Jerry and company than I expected, and the receivers displayed good hands and good routes for the most part. We just robbed them of the ability to make plays in space, and they weren’t able to dink and dunk it forever.

4. The Ole Miss offense is for real. We didn’t show it early, but the lucky convergence of Jevan Snead, Michael Oher, Dexter McCluster, Shay Hodge, Mike Wallace, Kent Austin, and Houston Nutt makes Ole Miss the 2^nd best offensive unit in the conference, and one of the better units nationally. It is hard to scheme against a team that can literally do anything with the football like the Rebels currently can. They were certainly the reason we won this game, and putting up 38 points (47 minus the pick-6 and safety) against anyone when you have three turnovers is pretty good.

5. Big XII fans are silly. Honestly, look at yourselves. Put away the hand signs, the hair gel, the silly outfits… Talk to most self-respecting SEC fans, and you’ll talk about the upcoming football contest, not about “How BAD UR teems gonna L00se, SUCKER, LOl.” Of course, there are fans all across the country that put far too much personal pride on the line when their team takes the field, but this crowd of Red Raiders seemed to take this game as something personal, and their collective psyche had a hard time considering that maybe their team wasn’t as awesome as they’d first thought. I dunno, maybe Rebel fans are just used to realistic expectations, and realize that sometimes things don’t work out like you’ve planned. We’re only occasionally used to this whole ‘winning’ thing, and I hope that if it continues, we’ll continue to handle it gracefully.

6. The national media is silly. Dear ESPN: stop talking about the teams that look cool and have interesting, feel-good stories, and start talking about the teams that know how to play football. I guess sometimes it’s hard to tell who’s who, but by now, it seems like the SEC is usually the most dominant conference, it’s usually easy to tell who the best teams are in other conferences, and there are only a few BCS buster teams worth talking about, ever (Boise, TCU, and Utah). I hate seeing undeserving teams get coverage because of their location and/or the size of their fan base.

7. Rankings. Here’s how I’d stack up the top 10 or so (I know the games haven’t been played out yet, more on that later). I’m basing this on (get ready!!) how good each team is RIGHT NOW, rather than penalizing a team for losses that happened in September.

1. Florida (provided they beat Oklahoma)

2. USC

3. Utah (hard to choose between 2 and 3, but hard to argue against USC’s late dominance)

4. Texas (provided they beat Ohio State)

5. Oklahoma (provided they don’t get blown out. Flip-flop UF and OU if OU wins)

6. Ole Miss (I’m not backing down here. These 5 teams are the only teams that could beat a healthy, well prepared Ole Miss team right now)

7. Oregon

8. TCU

9. Penn State

10. Alabama

11. Georgia

After that it gets fuzzy, but I defy you to claim that Ole Miss, right now, isn’t a top 10 team. And that’s pretty cool.

We’ll probably post more about this game and its ramifications in the future, but for now, I’ll stop taking it about and bask in the awesomeness just a while longer.

Post-'Game' Report

Well Ole Miss fans... wonder why 'game' is in quotations in the title? Games have a set system of rules, adhered to in the spirit of equitable competition. Then there was this 'game...' It started with 7 free points awarded to Wake. Apparently, it is a sound and legitimate strategy to push a punt return blocker into his returner after a fair catch, cause a fumble, and recover. Seven free Wake Forest points. Fine. Continue to the rest of the game, where Ole Miss beats Wake 28-20. No matter, however, officials to the rescue! Pass interference call on Marshay Green on Wake's late drive. Marshay has the position, and his eyes on the ball. Usually, pass interference on the defense does not occur in this situation, unless the officials have interest vested in the outcome of the game. 15 yards, automatic first down. Also, thanks for reviewing the obvious Ole Miss TD beforehand, just to make sure. Glad to know we're interested in the fair outcome. So then, with seconds left and 41 yards to the FG, Skinner drops back IN THE POCKET, throws the ball out of bounds, 15 feet over the receiver's head, and flags remain in pockets. While Wake fans are well-versed in rules involving double-dribbles and moving picks, they (and officials) might be surprised to learn that such a play is the classical rule-bending situation that constituted the inception of the INTENTIONAL GROUNDING rule. Penalty at the spot of the foul, loss of down. Instead, 10 free points. Wake (read: Duke basketball) fans may not be convinced, but Ole Miss wins this game with legit officiating 8 of 10 times. We are the better team. You have no Snead. You have no McCluster. You have no Bolden. You have no Hodge. You have an arbitrarily assigned pre-season ranking, protected as long as you are the only ranked ACC team. Enjoy it.
Ole Miss gets fucked out of a game a year, on average, and you've already cashed in.

While Ole Miss won this game on the field, here are a few observations that may have caused us to win by two or three touchdowns:

You have to wonder why we kept it in the Wild Rebel so often. Dex throws a stupid pick, we get stuffed a couple times... Also, why not run it more often on 1st and 2nd down? We have a clear physical advantage. We are better on both lines. Use it. Use Bolden to his strengths. Don't make Jevan win the game for us in the air. No doubt, Jevan did win us the game, but ended up losing the 'game.' Guess you have to play with the hand you're dealt, which meant giving Wake as few offensive plays as possible, even though we stopped them three times more than the scoreboard indicated (the personal foul kicker interference on Trahan was Busch League).

Tackle better. This is something that has improved more, but must improve more if we are to beat SEC teams. Watching Auburn today, the reason they won despite some turnovers was their sound tackling and quickness to the ball. We were lax in that department probably six or eight times, allowing a couple of first downs that shouldn't have been converted, and a sack or two that should've been wrapped up.

Whether you or an Ole Miss or a Wake fan, you have to agree: we have the players and the coach in place. This game was winnable, but, fair or not (I say bullshit), the breaks went Wake's way at home as the only ranked team in a BCS conference struggling for validity. Ole Miss will win some SEC games. Wake, an ACC title contender, would win three or four in the SEC.

I still feel good about the Rebs. Wake, enjoy your 'win' in this 'game.'

Yahhh Trick Yahhh!

Oh Baseball.... Why must you play with our hearts and emotions? About this time last week, the Rebels had one the final Sunday game against Alabama, the Tuesday game with Memphis had been rained out, and the Rebs were sliding.

Oh the difference a week makes. After Must Be The Wind threw in his towel on the season, Bianco's Boys got their brooms out. They came back to beat Memphis on Wednesday and showed a lot of heart. On Saturday, they fought hard to win the first game and cruised in the second game. Sunday, the Rebels whipped up on Vandy once again. Keep in mind, Vandy came into the weekend ranked #6.

The 5 game win streak seemed to be an aberration as the Jaguars of South Alabama poured on 5 runs in the top of the third inning.

Poor fielding and concentration plagued the Rebels that inning. It got so bad at one point that one angry fan yelled "Rebels, South Alabama's better 'an you"
The Rebels, however, were not through. After scoring one run every couple of innings, the Rebels sent the game into the tenth. Scott Bittle, "The Bittler,"


came in and mowed down the opposing batters. The only problem with the whole extra innings thing is that we were in the bottom of our order. Miller, STUYVERSON, and who even cares who after that. Miller does not reach first. So, one out, and STUYVERSON is up to bat. After passing up on a 2-0 fastball, he sent the next one over the fence.

Make it 6 in a row for the Rebels.

Positives about Tuesday's win: heart and competitive spirit

Negatives: stranded base runners, errors, lack of concentration

Next game is tonight at 6:30 pm.
Pitching Match-Ups:
Philip Irwin RHP 5.55 ERA (2-1)
vs
TBA for South Alabama

Prediction:
Rebels 11-7

USA Today: A Respected News Source

Does anyone want a job at USA Today? According to this article, it's as easy as creating a blog on Blogger. EDIT: The article has been changed. An excerpt of the original article:

"Mississippi figures to provide a challenge to an Ohio State team that plays solid defense as the Rebels have four players who have scoring averages in double figures. Senior forward Charles Rhodes leads the way with 17.5 points a game, followed by junior guard Jamont Gordon (17.1), sophomore guard Barry Stewart (11.7) and sophomore guard Ben Hansbrough (10.2).

Mississippi is also strong on the boards, a spot where Ohio State is vulnerable, as Rhodes is averaging 7.7 rebounds a game and Gordon is averaging 6.5 to go along with 4.9 assists a game."

Seriously, how much work does it take to realize that Jamont Gordon, Charles Rhodes, Little Brough, and Jarvis Varnado (pictured here) are not Rebels? Just read one article about the "Mississippi Rebels". It would be much easier to understand if the journalist had just mixed everything up and written "Mississippi State Bulldogs", but to call the team the "Rebels" and then list players who are Bulldogs just seems like it would be a hard mistake to make.

In speaking with a friend of mine who knows a lot more about journalism than I do, I found out that this mistake is absurdly common for the two Mississippi Schools. Apparently, when Mississippi State was very good at basketball and we were just awful, we received votes every week in the top 25.

Still, I would hope that USA Today would have better knowledge of college athletics than that of Bumpkinville, ME's Bumpkinville High Beat Writer (who, though not real, was recently awarded a vote in USA Today's College Basketball Polling).

I could also understand it if our basketball program were laughable this season, but we were making national headlines often early on in the season.

I'm not asking for some absurd SMB(Spirit Message Board)-style boycott of USA Today. It just upsets me when a nationally-distributed paper's NIT beat writer can't spend 5 minutes figuring out which two teams are half of the tournament's final four.