No real consolation...

Wake Forest fans are talking up Jevan Snead. It doesn't make the loss sting any less, but it's good to see that we're not staring through red glasses when we say he's good.

Obviously, his stats were good for the game, but I was the most pleased with his ability to elude defenders and keep his head in the pocket. Honestly, I really think he's the third best quarterback we've ever had at Ole Miss. That's more than I expected.

Go to Hell, Wake

And take your shitty, motorcycle ridin' mascot with you.

Vroom vroom, motherfucker!

Have fun winning your horrible conference. Damn, this one hurt big time. If we don't turn over the ball and if Wake doesn't shove blockers into punt returners (how in the fucking hell is that bullshit legal?) we beat them by 14. Easy.

Samford, you're on notice. Rebels, enjoy the rest of your weekends, if you can.

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.'

Wake Preview

For this week's game, I talked to a friend who is an undergrad at Wake Forest about their team. If I'm horribly inaccurate, I will not hesitate to blame it all on him.

QB Riley Skinner is good, but let's remember that Skinner's TD:INT ratio for his career is 24:18. It's not like the guy is all-world. Last season, he passed for 2200 yards, 12 TDs and 13 INTs. Skinner doesn't kill with big plays. He kills with his skill. Last season, Skinner completed 72% of his passes. That's unbelievable. I would expect Skinner to have very little trouble with our defense, though I'm sure we'll pick him off at least once.

HB Josh Adams rushed for fewer than three yards per carry against Baylor. Something tells me our defensive front is better than Baylor's. Adams had a decent season last season in the ACC (953 rushing yards), but I'm not concerned about him. Redshirt freshman Brandon Pendergrass is someone who has multiple Wake Forest fans excited, though he didn't play well in their game against Baylor, averaging 2.4 ypc. I think that, while Wake is probably going to torch us through the air, we'll be able to contain them on the ground.

At wide receiver, Wake has a bevy of options, but if their game against Baylor is any signal, TE Ben Wooster is the receiver to worry the most about. Wooster caught the ball six times for 90 yards. Luckily, I anticipate that our outside linebackers have sufficient coverage skills to keep Wooster to minimal gains. I still just worry a lot about our secondary. They were certainly better than adequate against Memphis, but I want to see them contain a passing game that isn't poorly built on bubble screens and a situation where they don't have a 24 point lead. Senior DJ Boldin caught seven balls against Baylor, but the Baylor defense held him to thirty three yards on those seven catches. Obviosuly, he can get open, but he doesn't appear to be a threat with the ball after the catch (though I didn't actually see the game).

Wake's offensive line had significant trouble against Baylor. If we had Hardy and Jerry, I would say that we would be able to put real pressure on Skinner and completely bottle thier running game, but without those two, I really worry. I was talking with Ghost of Jay Cutler, and we agreed that if there was ever a game when we needed Jerrell Powe to step up and be the player we hoped for, this is the time. I don't have extensive hopes for Powe's season, but if he could just help us win this one game, it would be worth it. This game is so important. We need this victory to gain momentum heading into vandy and Florida.

On the defensive side of the ball, I wasn't able to get a lot of information from my casual fan friend.

On the defensive line, Wake Forest isn't very big, but they do a good job crashing holes and tackling the ball carrier. They could give us trouble up the middle, but our tackles will certainly dominate their defensive ends. They did a good job against Memphis, and they will be riding a high from their dominant performance against Memphis.

At linebacker, Aaron Curry could give us some trouble in coverage, and his run-stuffing skills are excellent. Seriously, run away from the guy. I'm fine with not throwing the ball to Gerald Harris (who will be the primary player that Curry defends, apparently), but I don't want Mr. Glass Dexter McCluster to get hit by this guy. He didn't know anything else about their linebackers, but a quick visit to Wake's athletic site tells me that Hunter Haynes is another linebacker to be somewhat concerned with. He was second in tackles against Baylor and appears poised for a decent season after being named to the All-ACC freshman team last year.

At cornerback, obviously Alphonso Smith will be trouble for us. Still, he's only one corner. I would hope that we'll just avoid the receiver he covers and not give him chances to get a pick. Brandon Ghee on the other side does a good job wrapping up the ball carrier, but you have to wonder if he'll be able to take down Brandon Bolden. Still, his name is another to keep an ear out for. Out of high school, he reportedly ran a 4.34 (according to his bio on Wake's site). I think that Jevan is going to have to be picky for us to win this game. Wake takes advantage of too many turnovers. If we don't throw any picks, we've got a chance. If we do, we can put this one in the loss column.

Safety Chip Vaughn led the team in tackles last season. That's usually not a good sign, but Wake won nine games last year. I guess he's a playmaker who excels on run defense. I have no factual evidence to back that up.

In the end, while we match up relatively well against them, I'm just not sure that our hopes aren't too high for this team. Remember. We didn't win an SEC game last season.

Prediction: Wake by 7.

Who Is This Guy? Alphonso Smith

Alphonso Smith has an axe to grind.

The former quarterback of national high school football power Pahokee HS (Fla.), Smith was unnoticed by Florida State and Miami, so he ended up at Wake Forest, which, has only won twenty games and an ACC Championship in the last two years, thank you very much.

He was one of the guys Baylor fans were worried about heading into that game. And for good reason, Smith recorded his fifteenth career interception last Thursday night. You can only imagine what he wants to do to the SEC Newcomer of the Year starting his first road game. Smith is confident. In his first play of 2007, he picked off Matt Ryan and took the interception 21 yards for a Deacon touchdown.

Ominous.

Coach Houston Dale Nutt told OM Spirit on Monday that Smith is "one of the best cornders (sic, yeah, I know, big surprise right?) we'll see all year."

What's it all mean, Basil? Jevan never connected on the long-ball against Memphis, but he also did not underthrow it. Perhaps we are safe from being picked off deep. What we have to be careful for, however, is Brandon Bolden or Dexter McCluster making ill-advised short attempts when Smith is in the vicinity. If he's on the field, Bolden and McCluster need to look first to the other side.

Tomorrow (from me anyway): State of the Opposition, concrete picks included at no extra charge!

Tuesday Question

Generally, we are the "authors" of "content" around here - "here" being a blog and not a message board. Recognize, we do, that you've come here not to contribute, but to consume. Nevertheless, there is the sporadic occasion where, either for our benefit or for to exercise the thinkifiers of the masses, we ask you a question. Today's question is ...

Can we/How do we/What if we don't put pressure on Riley Skinner?

Wake Forest has a good quarterback. His name is Riley Skinner, which, unfortunately, does not sound like the the Norse god of street cred, but does sound sufficiently like somebody who might be Avril Lavigne's sk8trboifriend.

Meanwhile, Ted Laurent and Jerrell Powe averaged half a tackle between the two of them, Peria Jerry will be all of about 21 days removed from surgery and probably have all the mobility Wilford Brimley on a Rascal even if he's back on the field, and Greg Hardy is still getting blazed and playing Xbox rehabilitating.

Skinner is more of a pocket presence than either Will Hudgens or Sir Arkelon Lord Hall the Planet-eater were. Perhaps, Kentrell Locket's speed will be more of an asset this weekend. We might not sack the quarterback, but we have to force Skinner to make some mistakes.

Discuss.

Who Is this Guy? Riley Skinner

Efficiency is the name of the game for the man destined to be the greatest quarterback in the history of Wake Forest football - Riley Skinner.

Stop laughing.

Okay, laugh a little bit.  Heck, Skinner did:

"It's not too impressive of a record, I guess," said Skinner, who rifled a career-best three touchdown passes to lead the victory. "It feels nice. I just hope I can add onto it a little."

Nevertheless, a team like the 2008 edition of the Rebels cannot afford to overlook the "best in the history" of anything. So, Skinner's performance (27-36-220, 0 INT, 3 TD) against the admittedly pedestrian Baylor Bears is notable, if for no other reasons than Baylor can't be much worse than the hapless Tigers and Skinner's stat line reads better than Jevan Snead's traditionally ordered string of numbers (10-22-185, 0 INT, 2 TD). And, in fact, Skinner connected on 17 of his first 19.

If you're still laughing about the winningest quarterback in Wake Forest history, perhaps your revelry will subside with the knowledge that Skinner returns for his junior season after being the nation's most efficient quarterback in 2007 - 72 percent of his passes were completions.

Whoopity-doo, Basil, what's it all mean? The Rebels will be lucky if they get an interception off of this guy. But, the aggressive style of aerial defense employed against Memphis will hopefully force Jim Grobe to turn to his running game, which gained a respectable but deficient when compared to the Rebs' 156 yards against Baylor.

NEXT: Who Is this Guy? Alphonso Smith.

Post Scriptum: Clearly, I Google Imaged "Riley Skinner" to obtain the photo reproduced above. Google Imaging "Riley Skinner" is neither family-friendly nor safe for work. And while that link is SFW, I would follow the chain no further.

Tuesday Question

Generally, we are the "authors" of "content" around here - "here" being a blog and not a message board. Recognize, we do, that you've come here not to contribute, but to consume. Nevertheless, there is the sporadic occasion where, either for our benefit or for to exercise the thinkifiers of the masses, we ask you a question. Today's question is ...

Who wants to help me go to the Wake Forest game?


It'd be cheerio-sunshine-awesome were I powerful enough to convince you that my motives are totally pure and all I want is to provide all our readers with top-notch on-site reporting. But this is not a Disney movie, and I am not your magic cricket. I am a man who wants to watch football and promises to provide you with the kind of Ole Miss football coverage you will only find at The Cup - the kind that has obscenities. Otherwise, you can enjoy the football equivalent of the hunger strike - Associated Press, Rick Cleveland, and The Daily Mississippian - that menacingly awaits you on Sunday, September 7.

Don't start throwing money at your computer screen just yet (it doesn't work that way, Grandpa). I'm not asking for hand-outs. I'm asking for somebody that knows somebody that knows somebody that's up for the road trip (y'know, old chap, gas prices and all), a tip about your second cousin that lives fifteen minutes Winston-Salem, and/or any other helpful information.

I've got Carolina on my mind, baby!