Check back later tonight

We will have a scrimmage report up later tonight. Please come back then.

P.S. Meet the Rebels Day was a let down.

UPDATED Saturday Scrimmage Report

Today was another beautiful day in Oxford with the rebels practicing in full pads. A lot of fans showed up to the practice giving the day's events a feeling of a small high school game or even a Southern Miss home game.  And for those of you who didn't show up: don't worry.  I know we called you out, but you've probably got a lawn to mow or an adorable neice in town.  We're cool, whatever.  

Be patient.  We have some pictures and maybe even a video to show you later today.

Our Notes:
1. Nathan Stanley continued to be impressive. He has to get used to the speed of the game, but his throws are on the money.  While he did not get nearly as many snaps as Snead or Tapp (and the snaps he did get were mostly runs) he still proved to us that he has SEC potential.

2. All of the running backs had good days. We have some talent there. Brandon Bolden had the best day of them all and Enrique Davis played hard too.  What is really remarkable about those two is they are usually pretty hard to bring down.  They run hard and never, ever shy away from contact.

3. Ashlee Palmer and Allen Walker are awesome.  During sprints, Palmer was yards ahead of every other linebacker and showed why he's on our first team.

4. Snead was alright. He's better than Stanley and Tapp, but he's just not performing the way we had hoped (and no, we weren't the people that were expecting over 3k yards, 25 tds, and 10 INTs).  If he stays healthy and remains consistent, however, he'll win more games for us than Michbert Spurlane or Breth Schadams ever sniffed at winning.

5. The Wild Rebel was run today with both McCluster and Bolden getting shots running the ball.  They didn't run anything spectacularly tricky out of it, but we imagine they're saving that stuff for the closed practices.

6. Kentrell Lockett had two sacks and earned himself a fair amount of reps as a first teamer.  

7. Andrew Harris and Markeith Summers had good days.  Mike Wallace opened the scrimmage by reeling in a deep pass from Snead.  

8. Marr still looks rough.  Powe also looks rough, but not nearly as rough as Marr.  Powe needs to pick up some speed and soon.  During sprints he was disappointing, at best.  Also, during the sprints, a loud, old white lady behind us was screaming "Go Jerrell!  You can do it!"  She even let out a big "YAAAAAAAAAAYYY" when he finished the drill.  Listen, lady; give it a rest.  Most of us didn't wait three years only to cheer on a jiggly third-teamer as if he were our tee-ball playing stepson.  A couple of us nearly stood up to scream "C'MON, DAMMIT!  LOWER YOUR HAUNCHES AND RUN, POWE" just to spite her.

9. The kickers were on the money with their kicks.  We cannot remember a missed field goal for today.  

More to follow later today.

Friday Practice Report

The first week of practice is almost over and today our Rebels returned to the practice field because of the beautiful weather. It was in the high 80's with a light breeze and really just a great day outside in Oxford. Hopefully the weather will remain just as fantastic for tomorrow's scrimmage. Anyway, here are our notes:

1. Among the hundreds of fans in attendance was former Rebel quarterback Romero Miller. It was good to see the guy back in Oxford. He did a great job for us while he was here and I like seeing successful Rebels return. Schaeffer, you're not welcome, but Miller, come on over whenever you'd like.

2. Joshua Shene had a rough day early on today. Man... we have GOT to establish a good kicking game. If we have a good offense and defense but lose because of kicking, I'm going to punch Joshua Shene in the face. Okay, not really (we've seriously got to stop inciting Spirit board virtual riots).

3. We're starting to worry that Demareo Marr was recruited solely based on his height. He got burned by (insert short wide receiver) today. He also completely gave up on 1-on-1 drills and really had the coaches rip into him for it. He's either lazy or extremely out of shape. We're hoping it's the latter and that he'll get more stamina during camp and prove that we didn't waste a scholly on the kid.

4. Brandon Bolden returned punts again today. We were surprised to see him get time with Marshay and Dex who, by our estimates, already completely own the position. It could just be that they're preparing for two years from now, but we doubt it. Don't be shocked to see Bolden return some punts throughout the season. He's a great change of pace from Dex and Marshay. He's fast, but he's not as shifty as those two guys. It will be tough for gunners to bring him down and he really does an excellent job of staying on his feet. He really displayed his knack for not getting knocked around during 11-on-11 drills. We realize that the players were not supposed to hit each other full-force but we don't feel that those circumstances take away from his performance.

5. Kentrell Lockett had a good day today. He was able to get in the backfield several times against the first team O-line and was really working hard in the drills.

6. Michael Oher made Emmanuel Stephens look like an idiot. He pancaked Stephens like we haven't seen him do since his high school highlight tapes. This isn't to say Stephens isn't good, because he certainly is. He worked out a good bit with the first team and caused a disruption or two during 11-on-11 drills.

7. Chris Bowers is not good. We're sorry, but he's not the great white hype many of you (older people) would hope him to be.

8. Jerrell Powe still needs work. Just like yesterday, there were glimpses of good things, but he just doesn't look like he looked a year ago when he was disrupting the backfield on every play. He has lost a step. He destroyed a walk-on guard, but who cares? He's supposed to destroy Maurice Miller, Darryl Harris, and Daverin Geralds. He didn't do that. He continued to work out with the third team.

9. Dexter McCluster reeled in a great pass and juked his defender like he was standing still during 1-on-1 drills. He then then turned around and let his defender know that he "towe (him) up like lunchmeat," whatever the hell that means. We love that little bastard buddy. If he can keep the injury bug off of him, expect him to make some big, big plays. SEC, consider this your fair warning.

10. Lionel Breaux knocked Marshay Green down during the pass skeleton and on the next play Green earned himself a pass interference call. While we've been singing his praises all week, Marshay didn't have such a great practice today.

11. Jevan Snead is a very vocal leader. During the 11-on-11 drills he made sure to give credit where it was due while hounding players who made fundamental mistakes (dropped passes, etc). He especially made sure to pat his new best friends on the back as much as possible. He also had a good practice throughout the evening.

12. Shay Hodge made some great catches, including a one handed snag in the endzone during the pass skeletons. Honestly, this is the one position we should have no concerns with this fall. All of our starting receivers bring something to the table and their backups are more than serviceable.

13. Speaking of backup wideouts, Richie Contartesi, a small walk-on possession receiver (see: white guy), was doing a fair share of shit talkin' today. He really should cut that out. He's more than expendable and Powe is more than hungry. Seriously Richie, cut the noise.

14. These coaches are really interesting to watch. We especially enjoy watching Tracy Rocker and Ron Dickerson (DL and WR respectively) because they do an excellent job of motivating their players while teaching them. They are also both highly respected among their respective position groups. While all of these coaches should prove to be capable, these two have shone a good bit this week.


Ok, that's all we can pull off of the tops of our heads right now. Have a good weekend and hopefully we'll see you at tomorrow's scrimmage. If you've read this, are in Oxford, and don't show up to the scrimmage you're a shitty, shitty Rebel. Hell yeah, we're calling you out. Get your ass to Vaught-Hemingway tomorrow or we'll, ummm, write mean shit about you on a blog, or something.

Thursday Practice Report

This evening's practice was moved into the indoor practice facility due to heavy rains in and around Oxford throughout the afternoon. The practice was a bit different than the previous practices likely due to the fact that the players and coaches had only one field to work with as opposed to three. Despite this, it was still a productive practice. Here are some things we noticed:

1. Jevan had a decent practice today. He showed decent pocket presence and put great zip on his throws, especially in the 11-on-11 drills. During warmups he showed that he is truly the most athletically gifted quarterback on the team by really putting heat on his throws.

2. Nathan Stanley should be pushed into the second spot on the depth chart. We know a lot of us want to redshirt him but he would not disappoint as a backup.

3. In the halfback drills, Cordera Eason consistently showed the best footwork. Enrique Davis showed great speed, especially for his size but he wasn't really on top of things. We saw him running a lap around the inside of the IPF during rushing drills, likely because of poor performance.

4. Demareo Marr has a lot of work to do. He had difficulties in the tackling drills and did not show great coverage skills in the pass skeletons and 11-on-11 drills. At this rate, he could be stuck as a third-teamer for the rest of the fall.

5. Dustin Mouzon really had an excellent practice. He was on top of everything and even had an incredible pass deflection.

6. Patrick Trahan showed incredible defensive presence during this practice. He blitzed well during 11-on-11 drills and had a pass deflection in the pass skeletons. He worked out with the second team as the will linebacker and will add very significant depth to our linebacker corps. We know a lot of people saw linebacker as being a weak spot for our team for this upcoming season but we feel that the potential is there for a few of these kids to emerge as playmakers.

7. The wideouts did not perform as well as one would have hoped. There were some inexcusable dropped passes and a few just did not put forth an incredible effort. Mike Wallace had a few good grabs and Lionel Breaux pulled in a deep touchdown throw from Billy Tapp during the pass skeletons.

8. For a little guy, Marshay Green has some serious pop. He knocked H.R. Greer, a freshman fullback, clear onto his back during the pass skeletons. I'm sure we'd all love to see him to hit like that during an actual game situation.

9. Allen Walker had a sick, sick one-handed interception during the 11-on-11 drills. He was moving to his left and the ball was thrown to his right. He more-or-less flung his right arm at the ball and came down with it. The kid's incredibly athletic and, thanks to Don Decker's strength and conditioning program, has really put on some solid weight. Hopefully he'll make similar plays this fall.

10. There were a few injured players. LaMark Armour is slated to have surgery so he did not dress out. Johnny Brown was nowhere to be seen. Our guess is that he was in some sort of therapy during the practice. Greg Hardy was not in cleats, but rather basketball shoes and had a bit of a limp. Reid Neely was not wearing pads and had a boot on his right foot. Kendrick Lewis was taken out of practice with a rolled ankle but came back shortly thereafter. He's likely okay.

Let us know what you think and enjoy your evenings.

EDIT: We were recently contacted by the remote controlled spy plane pilot and it turns out the fella's a Rebel through and through. He runs a small aerial photography business and was simply testing out his equipment and enjoying himself some Ole Miss football. Below is one of the photographs he took. If you'd like to purchase a larger copy of this photograph or procure the services of a Rebel-owned-and-operated aerial photography business then visit his website here.

I mean, we accused the guy of Hobby-Lobby based clandestine espionage. The least we could do was plug his business.

Wednesday Practice Report

Day three of practice saw the players in shells for the first time. Overall, the practice went quite well. Here are our notes.

1. Houston Nutt's daughters are hot. I mean H-O-T-T hott. Even the one who belted her love for Zac Efron. During special teams drills, Hottie McHotteroo was pacing the sidelines and, we kid you not, more of the practice's onlookers paid attention to her than Joshua Shene and his parade of private school kickers.

2. Andrew Harris is a physical freak. That guy is going to emerge as a top threat very soon. We're not going to be upset if we don't redshirt him. We want him to play a good bit this year. He had some excellent catches and looks really good (wait for it, wait for it) on the hoof.

3. It was encouraging to see a high level of camaraderie among the players. The general air about these practices are much more pleasant than the practices we saw under Hurricane Orgeron. We even saw Jason Jones, a freshman linebacker, voluntary ask Scottie Williams, a sophomore linebacker, for assistance with a particular drill while they were on the sidelines after the drill's completion. We know it may sound corny, but it really was a neat thing to see.

4. Jevan looked much, much better today. He has yet to turn water into wine or give sight to the blind, but our "savior" is getting there. He was on the money in the pass skeleton big time. The only poor throw he made was a throw that no QB, save Micheal Spurlock, would make in an actual game situation (the receivers were locked down and after a few seconds Jevan just lobbed it up into double coverage).

5. Nathan Stanley looks good as well. Seriously, if you get a chance to watch a practice, do and pay extra attention to the kid.

6. Justin Sparks was booting the hell outta the ball today. He was even impressing the onlooking linebackers behind whom we were standing. He wasn't creaming the ball with consistency, but when he was on, he was on. Hopefully he can hone this in and actually show up and punt like a damned SEC punter.

7. Greg Hardy worked out with the first team today and even had a pass deflection in the 11-on-11 drills.

8. The secondary showed up and made some excellent plays in both the pass skeleton and 11-on-11 drills. Dustin Mouzon, Marshay Green, and Jamarca Sanford all showed out.

9. This was odd, but someone was flying a remote controlled spy plane around the practice field. Seriously. We're not hallucinating (at least, we hope we're not). It would ascend, take pictures with a flash (that's how we knew it had a camera) during its descent, and then ascend again. It seriously flew around the practice for at least a half of an hour. If you saw it, let us know.

We're a bit exhausted and hungry, so we apologize for the truncated post. If you have any comments, questions, whatever you know where to leave 'em.

EDIT: We also noticed the increasing number of visitors to the practice. There were probably no less than 150 spectators on hand today. To many, this may seem like chump change, but when compared to Monday's audience of a couple dozen or so, it's significant.

Tuesday Practice Report

As with yesterday, here is our fall practice report. Keep in mind, this is only day two of practice. We're not going to attempt to make any predictions for the season based on what we've seen. We're just gonna call it like we see it. So, without further ado, here are our practice notes:

-I'm sorry Spirit board posters, but Trahan has yet to gain the 15 pounds he needs to catch up with Palmer and Walker. Maybe tomorrow. We'll keep you updated on that. Okay, his size aside, we will say that he is very fundamentally sound. The linebackers ran a tackling drill which require the players to do pushups and then run the drill again if they ran the drill poorly. He was the only linebacker never to have to run the drill again. His tackling is not suspect at all. Nor is his speed. He, Allen Walker, and Ashlee Palmer are by far the fastest linebackers on the team.

-While we're on linebackers, it's important to note that Allen Walker and Ashlee Palmer have very soft hands for linebackers. In a drill where the linebackers were catching laser passes thrown their way, they both showed incredible consistency and pulled in all of the passes thrown their way.

-Markeith Summers showed out today with great positioning and good speed. He had a sick lay out in the pass skeleton. We at the Cup like this kid a lot.

-Nathan Stanley had excellent placement on the deep ball and threw with a consistently excellent spiral. He ran the third team offense and performed admirably

-Jevan was uninspiring again. He threw a pick and had several bad throws. His control was lacking, especially during the 11-on-11 drills. In the pass skeleton he had a few stellar passes, including one to Dexter "da lil' bastid" McCluster.

-Enrique Davis runs really well. He keeps his shoulders low and runs hard through the hole. We're very much looking forward to him running with pads. He was working with the second team.

-Marcus Tillman stayed at defensive tackle. He and Justin Sanders were working back and forth for the other spot at D Tackle alongside Peria Jerry.

-They shuffled the defensive ends around a good bit. Greg Hardy practiced some with the first team, but saw most of his time on the second team.

-McCluster had some great catches in the pass skeleton. He and Marshay showed great quickness in the return drills and both of them really seem to have great football instincts.

-Speaking of Marshay. He was a ball hawk today at his cornerback spot. He's got his first team position more or less locked down.

-Lionel Breaux made a few good catches. We didn't feel they threw to him enough during the pass skeletons.

-Powe looked like there might have been some technique returning to him. He's still pretty slow though and he saw most of his action on the third team.

-Kendrick Lewis made the only pick of the day. He has a knack of getting pick-6's in practices. We have to get that guy on the field. He's a safety with wide receiver skills. If you'll recall, we even recruited the kid to play wideout. Although he's temporarily occupying Johnny Brown's spot, it wouldn't be shocking to see him take the spot over for the Memphis game.


That's all I can think of for now. If you have any questions, comments, criticisms, et cetera please do not hesitate do direct them our way.

Monday Practice Report

So a couple of the writers and I went out to see the first practice live and in person. We just wanted to see for ourselves how some of the newcomers would look and how other players had progressed over the summer. Obviously, there's only so much you can tell from an hour. Especially when that hour is almost all early drills and stretching. Some worthwhile notes:

Returnees:
Jevan Snead - Snead was unimpressive today. He's obviously the best passer on the team (we know, Layton Jones is still there, but trust us) but we don't feel he showed up in full today. It's early and he'll hopefully get the rust shaken off.

Dexter McCluster - McCluster is so damn quick. Good gravy. If you've ever wondered what a ball of fast-twitch muscles with dreads looked like this is it. He was not perfect as he dropped a pass that he really had no business dropping, but he still showed us that he's the Dex we remember. He's quick, agile, and not at all scared to go over the middle. The little bastard's tough, and we love him for it. Before you ask, no, they did not run the WildRebel today.

Markeith Summers - The best wide receiver of the spring really didn't do much today. There were a lot of dumps today, and the wide receivers didn't get a lot of chances to excel. One-on-one, he was locked up by Dustin Mouzon twice but did beat his defender deep on one drill, only to be overthrown by an overzealous Snead.

Marshay Green - We were really looking forward to seeing him at cornerback. I remember during the spring that he quickly took control of the position and got rowdy. Today, he was the fastest corner on the field. He has great hip swivel, and he is already a player in the game. He was lined up as a starter and we expect him to hold onto that spot until the season starts. Also, during tackling drills, he showed incredible ferocity. For a little dude, he's not afraid to mess someone up.

Allen Walker - this guy showed out today. It was great to see a returning linebacker really step it up. I wonder if he's feeling the Trahan pressure. Walker made a sick leap into the air and batted a ball down that was nowhere near where your average linebacker could get to it (very EA Sports of him). The fact that Walker is a converted safety is going to be an enormous asset to us this year. At one moment during the practice, a helmet-less Walker strode past us towards the IPF. We were worried that he was hurt, overheated, or something else along those lines. As it turns out, the poor guy needed to piss. We worry too much, it seems.

Marcus Tillman - In order to fill in the temporary vacancy left by Ted Laurent and his ailing meniscus, Tillman worked at defensive tackle today. Obviously, he excelled in drills and, while he is slated to start as a strongside end, he has the skills necessary for any spot on the line. Ted Laurent was at the practice but, being three days removed from surgery, he wasn't dressed out or doing any work.

Newcomers:
Patrick Trahan - Tubberville called Partick Trahan the best defensive player he has ever coached. That may be the case, but to us, he looked a little small. He's wearing number 7 which may hurt him. The last junior college player we had who went to number 7 wasn't so great. He is in great shape though, and he's also a bit taller than we expected. We hope to see more of him this week. Perhaps we'll pay more attention to the linebacker drills during the upcoming practices.

Demareo Marr - If there's a newcomer that we desperately need help from more than Trahan, it's Marr. Today, he showed great potential but it is obvious that he desperately needs to get accustomed to SEC football. He's got decent size and long arms so we see him as being loaded with potential.

Enrique Davis - The "savior" of Ole Miss football has arms the size of tree trunks. He's lean, but he's really well built. He made a few catches in the pass skeleton drills and showed quickness during halfback drills but we didn't get to see enough of him today to tell you much more.

Jerrell Powe - After waiting on bended knee for three years, Powe looked... well, not a lot like Jerrell Powe. He has visibly lost weight. That's a great sign for the season. I saw him out there in the spring and thought he must have eaten 2.7 Ole Miss girls (the rough equivalent of one Arkansas girl). The guy was HUGE. Today, he's smaller. Obviously, he's not Dexter McCluster smaller, but he's much healthier looking. The coaches got all over him today, since he didn't have much burst in his step. More than anything, it was just great to see the big guy out there with the team. Hopefully he'll begin to impress us more and more as practices wear on.

Justin Smith - while we didn't pay extra close attention to him, he's big, strong, and really fast. He was certainly a surprise out there.

Jeremy Parnell - 6'8"? Really? He actually looked pretty good out there for someone so far removed from football. BTW, he is a DE... not a TE. We don't know how much he'll play or even if he plays at all, but he's certainly got athleticism.

Melvin Harris - Melvin Harris is rail thin. Seriously, teeny-weeny. I weigh 190, and two of him could fit into my shorts. He's 6'7, but he has got to gain weight. I smell a redshirt.

Gerald Harris - Big and cut. Looks to have really crafted his body over the summer. Hopefully he can show up at tight end and give Jevan a solid red zone threat.

Andrew Harris - Harris made one spectacular catch coming out of a wheel route. He got distance from his corner (don't remember who) and came down with a well placed ball. He's tall and has decent size. We know it's been said time and time again, but these wideouts are good.

Nathan Stanley - Mechanics are good, but he had trouble with the speed of the game in the passing skeleton. He really does throw a nice ball and has great height but, as HDN would put it, is a whole tube of biscuits shy of having legitimate SEC quarterback size. Fortunately, his mom is still hot.


Remember, these are all based on one day of practice. Actually one hour of practice. Actually, one hour of drills. Don't get too excited about this one day or too upset about newcomers not living up to expectations. For many, it's their first day to practice in a college atmosphere. There are going to be growing pains. Overall, we were impressed with the team and drills. We have high, yet unsubstantiated, hopes for the season.

Oh, and not to make a mountain out of a mole or anything, but these kids look great on the hoof. Many of them have big feet, to boot. Quite an impressive group of kids. More to come tomorrow, faithful cuppers.