Where Do We Stack Up? Wide Receivers

The SEC East is the passing division of the conference. While there have certainly been prolific quarterbacks (The Mannings sans Peyton, Pat Sullivan, Joe Namath) and wide receivers (Don Hutson, Terry Beasley, Wendell Davis) in the West, the East has most certainly dominated through the air. This season looks to be no different with all of the talent Georgia, Florida, and Tennessee bring to the table at both quarterback and wideout. This does not mean, however, that the SEC West is untalented in the passing game. There are many receiving threats scattered throughout the West and many teams, most notably Auburn and Arkansas, are looking to utilize them more so than last season in order to put together a potent passing attack.

Here's how the West will stack-up this season at wide receiver:

1. LSU - How does LSU always have something like 14 or 15 All-SEC receivers? While Early Doucet has gone to the Arizona Cardinals, Demetrius Byrd and Brandon LaFell can easily fill in his vacancy. Byrd led the team in receiving touchdowns last season (7) and is aiming to win the Biletnikoff award this upcoming fall. Furthermore, the signing of DeAngelo Benton and Chris Tolliver adds depth to an already stellar corps of receivers. The only real issue remains at quarterback. If LSU cannot find a consistent passer to deliver the ball, expect the passing game to be a frustrating one in Baton Rouge.

2. Alabama - As much as it hurts to say, John Parker Wilson is a good quarterback. No, I didn't say great, but he's most certainly more than "serviceable." He will really allow his wideouts to shine this season if he is protected well enough and able to avoid any major injuries. DJ Hall and Matt Caddell are gone but I expect freshmen Melvin Ray, Destin Hood, and über-recruit Julio Jones to contribute well their freshman season. All three have good size and speed and will be called upon early and often. If JPW plays well, Jones and co. shine, and LSU has quarterback issues, expect Alabama's passing offense to be the best in the West.

3. Ole Miss - Mike Wallace and Shay Hodge are both ready to make a lasting impression on the Ole Miss faithful this season. Hodge has as sure a set of hands as anybody and Wallace emerged as one of the conference's premier deep threats with an eye-popping 18 yards per catch last season. Dexter McCluster, if he can avoid injury, could also become a dependable option for Jevan Snead. Prep school star Andrew Harris could also contribute as a freshman if he is able to qualify.

4. Auburn - I feel that Auburn and Ole Miss are rather interchangeable here simply because of their similarities. They both are utilizing new offensive systems designed around highly-touted yet unproven quarterbacks. Statistically speaking, Rod Smith (705 yards, 13 YPC, 5 TD) is the only player from last season who truly sticks out. If Tim Hawthorne and recruits Darvin and Harry Adams become viable receiving options, Kodi Burns should have an easy time working under new OC Troy Franklin's spread offense. If Franklin's offense brings out the best in Burns and his receivers, Auburn could jump ahead in these rankings.

5. Arkansas - Casey Dick has an opportunity to shine under Bobby Petrino but his receivers are the least experienced in the SEC. Arkansas' leading receiver last season, by a long shot, was a fullback. Simply put, the running game was the fulcrum of the offense, for obvious reasons. The team's leading true receiver going into this spring had negligible numbers (157 yards, 13.1 YPC, 3 TD) last season. The position was recruited fairly well and Jarius Wright along with Cruz Williams will likely be used effectively in a Bobby Petrino style offense. If Casey Dick's spring game statistics (404 yards, 2 TD) are indicative of anything, one can expect Arkansas to sport a completely different looking offense this season.

6. Mississippi State - The departure of Tony Burks should hurt Mississippi State dearly this season, as Wesley Carroll will have to rely on Jemayel Smith as his only legitimate, veteran wideout. Co-Eric Riley has the potential for greatness and could have a breakout season. Other than that, Mississippi State could have serious trouble with their passing game this season. The position was not recruited very well (O'Neal Wilder has ideal size, but was not highly touted by scouts) which does little to help with regards to depth. Keep in mind, they averaged an abysmal 160 yards per game through the air last season.


There it is. Comment and criticize. We all know you will.



EDIT: Cruz Williams will not be attending the University of Arkansas this fall. (HT: YellowTailSwine)

UGA VI Passes

While this is not a Georgia blog, we would like to extend our condolences to our friends in Athens. Uga VI passed this weekend. In my opinion, Uga is one of the most iconic figures of the brand of deep South football we all love. Even Florida fans will concede this point. Cecelia Seiler, Uga's caretaker said that "he was a happy dog.”

Looks pretty happy to me. And could you blame him? His Bulldogs are national title contendors! Furthermore, he was the winningest Uga of them all as the Georgia football team had an impressive 97-30 regular season record during his tenure as mascot. He was itchin for the start of football season just like every one of us. Our condolences, Georgia Bulldog faithful.

Why we like Houston Nutt

He isn't this guy:


We get it, alright. You despise Houston Nutt. He's got an ego, pissed off Mitch Mustain, has a predictable offense, wears goofy hats, had an affair with a weather lady, sells snake oil, delivers trite press conferences, has really strong thumb muscles, and has a demeanor characteristic of a well-groomed Yosemite Sam.

Guess what. We don't fucking care. He may exhibit every single one of the qualities you have mentioned but he isn't the nation's biggest college football related punchline after Charlie Weis' girth and Lou Holtz's lisp. 20% of Houston Nutt's 10 seasons at Arkansas were losing seasons; 100% of O's 3 were. Does that make any sort of sense to you? Houston Nutt will win games in Oxford. Despite your wildest fantasies (which I think involve HDN, a meteor-strike, and the bubonic plague), Nutt will do good things for our program.

We're excited about him being here, just as you are excited about Petrino's arrival in Fayetteville. Why is that such a hard pill for you to swallow? We're glad to have a coach that, compared to Orgeron at least, is respected on a national level yet you don't want us to be excited. You want us to be miserable.

Here's a hypothetical: if we were to curse HDN just as you are-I'm talking 100% bat-shit crazy hatred for the guy-would you be behaving with feelings of sympathy towards us Rebel fans? I doubt it.

Give it a rest. We'll see you in October.



PS - Comments redacted. There's nothing you can say that we haven't heard and there's nothing we can say that you haven't heard. You know this, we know this. We're both incredibly proud fanbases and we're not about to let someone at the helm of a laptop change any of that. Some of you will likely snicker, click over to your Myspace, and call us a bunch of "bruised pussy havin' cowards" but, if you are as enlightened and educated as you claim to be, I imagine most of you will let the dust settle until football season.

For Our New Friends

Have a great day!

Worst. Argument. Ever.

Hurtt, a Razorback fan, has asked us to read the following paragraphs from Dixie Fried Sports to see exactly why Bobby Petrino won't be leaving Fayetteville anytime soon:

So what happens to Bobby Petrino now? Jay Phillips of 107.5 the Game in the SEC Market of Columbia, SC has joked numerous times that Petrino is only waiting for the Texas job to open up. Then he's out of Fayetteville and then in Texas. Phillips obviously doesn't have a clue about the Horns-Hog rivalry and the fact that Texas would never look at hiring away an Arkansas head man. For those that say Petrino will leave and take another job, I ask where? It's obvious the NFL isn't going to take a chance on the guy again, so you can rule that out. Arkansas is paying the man near $3 million a year, there is only a handful of schools in the NCAA that could come close to outbidding Tyson, Jerry Jones, and Wal Mart money. Those that can offer more money or a better job aren't going to put up with the media bashing it would take by hiring Petrino?

Petrino will have a good coaching career in Fayetteville. It won't happen right away due to a lack of great players left from the previous staff, but when it comes the media will take notice. It might even have a few guys like Don Banks standing up and yelling Woo Pig Sooie.

So, you're essentially using the "our coach is a money-hungry, prideful, untrustworthy sleaze who is despised by the media" argument to prove your point. Simply stunning, Hurtt.

Arkansas fans, I concede. Your coach is a money-hungry, prideful, untrustworthy sleaze who is despised by the media. I cannot argue the contrary. Point 1, for Arkansas!

Internets Available in Arkansas; Accessed by Hog Fans part Tres

As 150+ of you have demonstrated, there is a poll on our right hand menu which allows you, the reader, to predict our win/loss record for next season. The poll is powered through Vizu, which easily allows us to use all kinds of nifty tools to analyze the results. The dandiest of these tools, by far, would be the vote map which looks a little something like this:

Neat stuff, huh? Anyway, I noticed that 7.9% of our poll's votes were predicting a 3-9 record for the Rebels, the lowest value on the poll. Upon closer inspection, I saw this:

Every marker that is a light yellow color represents a 3-9 vote. It looks like Arkansas fans have resorted to (sorta) skewing bullshit blog poll results just to show us how much of a shitbag Houston Dale Nutt really is. I would like to point out however, that one lone Arkansan from Calico Rock voted for an 11-1 record. He's the green marker north of Little Rock in the above map. Regardless, these votes continue to demonstrate that the denisens of Arkansas are, in fact, delusional. Hell, even our pals down in Starkville put more faith in us.

Despite the aforementioned hog slop, the most perplexing vote in my opinion comes from way up yonder in Nashua, New Hampshire. This vexes me because I cannot fathom what we did to anger even the craziest of Nashuans.

Also, to further demonstrate the affinity our Razorback neighbors have for online polls, I would like to point out this somewhat shocking poll result. Yes, you read correctly. Arkansas fans have placed more importance on our October 25 meeting than they have on their games against former Southwest Conference rival Texas and current Golden Boot rival LSU. When we first hired Houston Nutt, I thought he would make Ole Miss football relevant again. I can already say that this is the case in Fayetteville.

A Friday Query

One of our welcome friends from Fayetteville, floating somewhere between "glad Houston Nutt left" and "super-pissed that Ole Miss hired Houston Nutt" posed an interesting thought (paraphrased below):

Your retarded AD [Pete Boone] will fire Houstone Nutt before Bobby Petrino even thinks about leaving Fayetteville.

Now, let's work through this, together. We are asked to compare the immediacy of two events, uncertain to occur: Houston Nutt's forcible termination as head coach at Ole Miss and Bobby Petrino's inclination (however slight) to voluntarily leave Arkansas.

With regard to that immediacy, do we mean a trifling inclination? Fleeting? As in, say a passing fancy? Are we asking if Petrino has yet laid in his comfy bed and wondered, "Would I take the Florida job and leave Arkansas if it were offered to me?" Or are we asking if Petrino intends, very much, to depart when the first opportunity arises?

Let's assume the latter, since it is very likely that even while performing that really awkward pig sooie dance he was thinking about what might come next. Because let's be honest - Nutt and Petrino have very different faults. Nutt wears funny hats, has the crazies, and is interested in meteorology. Petrino, on the other hand, is the football equivalent of Bathsheba.

So, let's refine and restate the question - Whose tenure is more likely to end first and in the expressed manner? Bobby Petrino voluntarily or Houston Nutt forcibly?

Discuss.

Supposed "real" design of PoweTron

According to sources close to the NAFOOM community, this is actually what the PoweTron will look like:
So, whaddaya think, this one, or this one? Personally, I like this one, but that's probably just me.

EDSBS Visiting Lecture Series: Ole Miss

Yeah, we wrote it.

Go check out Every Day Should Be Saturday (right now, do it) and see the piece we wrote on our upcoming season. Comments, criticisms, and the like are, as always, much appreciated.

Powe-tron RENDERED!

The long wait is over. THE POWE-TRON IS HERE! Well, sort of... computer renderings have been released. That's better than nothing though, right... actually, I think that's the same as nothing.

I love it how people go ga-ga over renderings of construction. Generally, the renderings aren't too accurate. While, unlike most renderings, there isn't a smiling, happy conglomerate of racially unintelligible people walking around in the stadium ("Is that guy orange?"), I have to say that I'm still impressed with this image. If this thing looks like the image they released, it's going to be great. The screen itself is larger than the entire "jumbo"tron. Sure, it's not as good as our suggestion, but it'll do.

Kudos to you Ole Miss administration. Even though you didn't get us SOME DAMNED PERSONALIZED SPRING GAME CUPS, you did get us a state of the art video board. I guess that makes up for it, but next year... I want to see a spring game cup with some third-grade reading level innovative phrase like, "Getcha some!" or "COLOSSAL!" or or "GOIN' NUTTS!" or "Blood... everywhere, I don't... I don't know what happe- OH NO! I FEEL THE RAGE COMING AGAIN!!1!eleven"

All-SEC Thug Team

The Southeastern Conference has a Bo and Luke Duke-like history with the law. RSC is here to honor those young men who have performed admirably oustandingly newsworthily off the field. Today, we'll release the All-SEC Thug Team Defensive Backs, which, this year, has been the thug gold standard.

ALL-SEC Thug Team - DB's (that's defensive backs not douche bags, but, I suppose it can be both).

Rashad Johnson, University of Alabama
Johnson's arrest earlier this month outside The Legacy, a Tuscaloosa night club, is perhaps the least noteworthy, as he was simply involved in a heated verbal altercation with local police. However, as defensive captain for the Tide, a team which is loaded at Thug, Johnson, the leader of the group, is like the Augusto Pinochet of the college football world - perhaps not the most evil man in the organization, but the leader of some pretty notable thugs. Also, in notably Tide fashion, the charges for disorderly conduct against Johnson were dropped. Nothing says "thug" like a good old-fashioned T-Town cover-up.

Jamar Hornsby, University of Florida
Hornsby has done something few SEC athletes have been able to accomplish - white collar crime (more specifically, credit card fraud). Hornsby was subsequently kicked off the team. He is now a senior vice president at Bear Stearns.

Jamarca Sanford, University of Mississippi
You don't get in fight at Night Town and get off that easy. Have you ever seen fights at Night Town? If you've walked away from them, then only at a distance.

Derek Pegues, Mississippi State University
Though his arrest and conviction happened over a year ago, it's hard not to include a player who was convicted for assaulting a police officer and never missed playing time. What's more hood-rich than a T-Town cover-up? A Starkghanistan beat-down that, though so blatant it could not afford dismissal, still does not, it seems, merit any substantial disciplinary action from Sylvester Croom, Mr. Discipline.

At Least We're not...

UAB. This school is pathetic even by Conference USA standards, whether it is their lack of attendance for nearly all its sports, being more classless than Memphis fans, or taking advantage of 15 year old prodigies UAB fails at nearly all aspects.

The newest addition to a list of UAB embarrassments is the addition of what appears to be a miniature golf course in front of their basketball arena.

Blaze (seen in the link because I'm too retarded to correctly post a picture) looks like something straight out of a Gatlinburg, Tennessee goofy golf course. The worst part of it is that their fans seem to be ok with this monstrosity in front of their arena and the proof can be found in this thread.

So, next time you want to complain about David Wells trying to sabotage the football program (if you honestly believe that you're a moron) or that Pete Boone is the most incompetent/moronic AD in college athletics take solace in the fact that the worst thing we have done is a daytime fire works show and not some dragon statue made by some Boy Scout troop in Birmingham.

Recruiting Spotlight

He may not be as entertaining as Rod "GPA don't matter to me" Woodson, but Eddie Lacy is another Ed Orgeron dream recruit being a four-star RB from LA, offers from plenty of big time schools, interested in Ole Miss, and having little to no chance of ever qualifying.

Lacy claims to be a little short of the NCAA minimum 2.5 GPA with a reported 2.0, which means you can take it to the bank he has at least a 1.8.  To Lacy's credit he did score a 17 on the ACT.

While I do wish him the best in regards to qualifying, I really do, the quote that really got me was this one.  "I don't watch college football.  I guess I need to start watching this year.  I'd rather be playing basketball." (Where he averages a less than impressive 8 points a game)  How can you be rated one of the best backs in the nation and never watch college football?  Anyways, that's our recruiting spotlight on a high rated player who we won't get excited over because we do not have a shot at him.

Jimmy "Pitbull" Johns

So, as we all know, Jimmy Johns was kicked off the Alabama Crimson Tide team this week. What you may not have known is how our favorite person to ever choose Bama over us provided the income for his drug habit (other than selling drugs). Please... take the time to visit that link. It's glorious.

Maybe this is old news, but I've never heard it until today. Seriously, pitbulls? I wonder what he sells those for.

What really upsets me about this whole thing is what this allows. Jimmy Johns can say, "Hey. I play football at Alabama. I'll charge a ludicrous amount for pitbulls, and Alabama fans will buy them just to give me money." The NCAA has got to figure out a way to stop that.

And you know, he may not even have been getting the money. He obviously didn't design the site. That's even worse to me though. If someone approaches an athlete asking them to use pictures of them playing football, etc. that is against NCAA regulation.

I never say this about anyone, but... even if there were a regulation violation, Alabama wouldn't get penalized for it because... it's Alabama.

HT: EDSBS and BHamReb

A Hearty Round of Applause for ...

... Lance Lynn and Justin Cryer.

Cryer is expected to sign (if he has not already) with the Toronto Blue Jays, who selected him the 29th Round.

Meanwhile, Lance Lynn made his first pro start on Saturday for the Batavia Muckdogs. The 'Dogs got the 7-5 win over Mahoning Valley, the Scrappers. Lynn pitched 2 innings, allowing no hits and no runs, struck out one, and walked one.

Grayshirt?

It's amazing that we cann afford to grayshirt a guy like Andre Sterling. Don't let the stars and lack of offers fool you. This guy is a phenomenal running back. No one recruited him because no one thought he would qualify. He had 345 carries for 2,717 yards and 30 TD's in his senior year alone (according to Rivals). Sterling is a workhorse back that we don't have at Ole Miss right now. Apparently though, he's not quite big enough yet. Weighing in at only 190 pounds, it makes sense. Since he has a bruising running style, he needs more weight and muscle in order to compete in the SEC. While his stats are different on the a preps website, they could be discounting the playoffs. Anyway, they're still really impressive.


Check out the run at the 3:10 mark.

After signing with Ole Miss, Sterling defied all odds and earned a qualifying score on the ACT and got his core GPA up to where he needed it. Still, the coaches want him to go to Hargrave so that he can "get bigger and stronger." This is obviously a situation where we are thanking Hargrave and Coach Prunty for the 45 guys we signed from hargrave this year. That's fine. They get a dominant running back since we oversigned. We didn't need him this year anyway. Plus, it's very likely that Sterling will honor his commitment since Prunty loves Nutt and encourages people to honor their commitments anyway.

Because of our depth at halfback, we don't really have to get him on campus right now. That means that we'll have this guy redshirting in 2009-2010 and ready to play for four years afterwards. Also, he'll get done at Hargrave in December, so he'll be here this spring with 5 1/2 to play 4.

I think that our runningback situation is going to continue to improve as long as our head coach is a NUTT. Please note the new tag. Nutty jokes are awesome!

Ouch

I hate March Madness.
HT: AngryReb

Clayton Moore Commits

Great news for Rebels fans and faithful message board readers, Clayton Moore has committed to the Rebels. The 6'2" signal caller from Louisville, MS has been a fan favorite among OM fans since he first voiced interest in the Rebels.

Moore is a key piece to the recruiting class as he is one of the top recruits in MS and has developed some close relationships with high profile guys in the states. The biggest name being Dennis Thames. This will also hopefully quell some critics of Nutt who do not believe he can recruit the state of Mississippi and also open up some more inroads for Nutt as he develops relationships in the state.

And the best thing to come out of this commitment is the fact we will no longer have to listen to people complain all day about Moore and his recruitment on the message boards.

Internets Available in Arkansas: Accessed by Hog Fans Part Deux

With regards to Houston Nutt, Arkansas fans have the demeanor of a jilted ex-lover. They absolutely despise him and want everyone out there to know it. Yet, despite the animosity, they secretly love and miss him. As I am certain many of you have noticed, Arkansas fans of all shapes and (cerebellum) sizes continuously bash Houston Dale Nutt all over the World Wide Web in an effort to let us Rebels know just how foolish we are for hiring coach Nutt after firing Ed Orgeron. "Nevermind the winning seasons, the defeats of #1 ranked LSU and #2 ranked Auburn, the Heisman-worthy performance of Darren McFadden, and the continuous national TV coverage," they cry. HDN may or may not like weather ladies and has an affinity for scaring off whiny little shitstains primadonnas, making him an abominable bastard of legendary proportions, lest ye forget.

This of course is right in line with our constant bombardment of Tennessee and Duke boards to bash Cutcliffe and our online assault of Saints fans over Coach O...

Oh, wait. I forgot, we've got better things to do.

Frankly, I'm fed up with all of this hog slop. I've seen far too much of it and a great deal of it is poorly written, asinine, and lacking real creativity (much like this blog). Through a very brief period of web perusing, I have come up with prime examples of the kind of garbage that has caused me to lose whatever respect I may have had for Arkansas and its fans. I assure you this isn't the best stuff out there. Finding that would take hours of wading through this muck. Rather, I have just assembled a few snippets of Ozark rambling which typify this nonsense. All spelling, grammar, and punctuation is 100% the result of the original author and has not been edited.

Rivals.com and OMSpirit.com periodically clear their cache so shit talkin' from the period just after Nutt's hiring is not available. However, if you just search for these kinds of posts, you can find them.

"McKinneyHog(akathedonkey)" on Rivals writes:

Hey tulsa have you moved to Oxford yet to follow your man love yet? People on hogville really miss you. Not!!!!!!!! I have a degree in Physics not in English.

"Tulsa" is another user (TulsaHawg or something along those lines) who previously called out "The Donkey" on his poor spelling and grammar. Tulsa, wishing The Donkey to cease his poor usage of English in order to better the image of his alma mater, did not mention Houston Nutt or Ole Miss. "Nevermind that," McKinneyHog(akathedonkey) said, as he accused his fellow Hog fan of having "man love" for Houston Nutt so strong that he would move to Oxford to express it. The best/worst part about this post is the "Not!!!!!!!" he places after referencing what I am assuming are similar pissing fights on Hogville.
McKinneyHog(akathedonkey) doesn't understand...
If that's not bad enough, the poor bastard then begins to defend himself against the criticisms of his linguistic "skills" by proclaiming that he was a physics major, as opposed to an English major. I doubt it, McKinney. Y'see, physicists still read and write. Maybe you are a freshman soon-to-be-former physics major, but I doubt you've got a four year degree in anything, let alone physics.


RebelFaithful.com is different in that much of the original HDN bashing is still intact. If you would like to see prime examples of this stuff, you could spend hours reading the threads in their trash talk forum.

MusicCityHog writes:

Pig slop???? Nothing and I mean NOTHING is any slopier than an 0-8 SEC record....I hear that Nutt has brought in some 1 star recruits...I guess you Reb fans, coaches, and 1 star recruits are just so much smarter than the rest of us.

He objected to the notion that his writing was "pig slop" on the grounds of our Rebels poor season being "slopy." I'm not sure what he means by that. Steep maybe? Anyway, this is a textbook example of a red herring fallacy so not only can this asshole not spell, but he is unable to form a logical argument. Also, he criticizes Coach Nutt's supposed inability to recruit. He'll be unpleasantly surprised to see Coach Nutt's recruits, namely Enrique Davis, dance all over their endzone and fuck their women, come October (maybe not, but seriously that would be fucking great).

PiggySmalls writes:

We SUCKED BALLS under nutt unless it was for matt jones dmac or felix

I'm just going to leave the poor capitalization and word usage out of this and simply point out the fallacies of his argument. PiggySmalls asserts that Arkansas would have "sucked balls" without the three biggest stars and offensive weapons on the team over the last seven years. While that is a valid assertion, I doubt one could reasonably fault a coach who counts on his players to win games for him because, get this, that's what they all do. This is akin to people that want to discout Cutcliffe as a head coach because of the Mannings. While I'm not a Cutcliffe apologist, I do feel it absurd to say something like "well, without Eli he would have been shit."

Guitarguy writes:

Blank should keep his idiot mouth shut after sucking Vick off the way he did and then trading Shauve. WHat a dumba$$! HE needs to just get out of football all together and keep his trat shut. I doubt even Cuttcliff would want to coach the Atlanta thugans

So it's Arthur Blank's fault that Bobby Petrino is an Asshole? This nonsense drives me up the wall. I understand how one must be supportive of your head coach, especially your new head coach, but a lot of these Arkansas fans think that Bobby Petrino is justified in his unabashed douchedom. Oh, and by the way, it's Matt Schaub, you tool.


Then, of course, there's YouTube, the globe's largest bastion of idiocy. The comments here are usually quite brief (a phrase or two) yet somehow contain multiple baffling mistakes.

yuipas15975, a commentor on this video, writes:

nutt sucked and he will be worce at ol miss

"Worce?" Seriously?!

kyNtiff, a commentor on the same video, writes:

houston you suck you trader
die!

kyNtiff is actually not misspelling "traitor." She is, believe it or not, an anti-capitalist and hates monetary systems and the exchange or possession of commodities. She hates Coach Nutt for his trade affinity to the extent that she wants him dead! As you can see, this greatly bewilders Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman. After reviewing her YouTube profile, she has an interesting affinity for Star Wars and MoTown. Rather hypocritical for an anti-capitalist, don't you think? In all seriousness though, where does she get off calling Couch Nutt a "traitor?" He loved Arkansas! They ran him outta town like some kind of heretic despite him bringing the national spotlight on Arkansas to an extent last seen when Arkansas was a part of the now-defunct Southwestern Conference! Yet he's the traitor? It's not as if I had to search for hours or even minutes to find this drivel. Arkansas YouTubers are quite upfront with their feelings and completely unashamed (or perhaps unaware) of their tendency to butcher their native language.


I'm certain you've all seen this a few dozen times over the last couple of months. My advice to you, don't even worry about their "argument" or "points." Just point out their horrible spelling, grammar, and formatting. Really, you can't lose with this approach. Let 'em have it. You're better than they are and you fucking know it.

"Not now, Ma! Some asshole's talkin' shit 'bout Bobby on the intrawebs!"

Got Coke?

Jimmy Johns does.

I think I've referenced before how much I enjoy the eventual downfall of Magnolia State players who choose the University of Alabama. See Grant, Terry. Jimmy Johns was Mississippi's Mr. Football in 2004. Now, of course, he's graduated from "Mr. Football" to "Dr. Feelgood."

TUSCALOOSA - University of Alabama linebacker Jimmy Johns has been arrested and charged with several counts of selling cocaine, according to Tuscaloosa Police Department spokesman Capt. Greg Kosloff.

Is Jimmy Johns evil because he went to the University of Alabama, or did he simply choose the University of Alabama because he is evil. Tough to say. The Alabama football program is a textbook moral downward spiral, but only he with the blackest of hearts would ever consider it in the first place.

Anyway, here's to Jimmy Johns - part-time Alabama football player; full-time coke-dealer - against whom the charges will almost certainly be dropped. Roll Tide!

Where Do We Stack Up? Quarterbacks

Again, summertime isn't the best time for a Southern sportswriter (can we call ourselves that now? I just did, I guess); anything football related seems a little rushed. However, having almost conquered GTA IV, there won't be much left other than premature football predictions to help me avoid schoolwork and/or my job. That being said, I'd like to continue our line of preseason stack-ups with quarterbacks and hopefully provide you, the readers, with an idea of what to expect come August.

1. Ryan Perrilloux, Jacksonville State University: What's that you say? JSU isn't a member of the SEC West? Well hot damn, I guess Perrilloux should've thought about that before becoming the biggest fuckup in college football in the last 20 years.

2. John Parker Wilson, Alabama: Obviously, you hate to make this pick. JPW is a bitch, pure and simple. Look at the link: this image is likely similar to the one ingrained in JPW's retinas as we speak. He might not sleep at night because of Greg Hardy. However, in what may very well be a 4-way tie for the best QB in the West, his experience can't be ignored.

3. Jevan Snead, Ole Miss: Damn, what a goofy-ass picture. I am a little less confident in Jevan for having laid eyes on it. In picking Jevan as the 2nd best QB in the West, I'm hedging my bets that we might actually win a few football games this year. Think about it though: how many more games would we have won over the past four years with only average QB play? Jevan can almost certainly keep his completion percentage at over 55, and keep the TD/INT ratio at greater than 1. I'd like to think that he could be much better than that, but those numbers still might make him 2nd in the West. Just one request, Jevan: please, please grow an awesome-ass, small town Texas mullet. We at the RSC would be appreciative, and you'll get laid like carpet anyways.

4. Kodi Burns, Auburn: During the 2007 season, Burns enjoyed a surprising emergence as an offensive dual-threat for the Tigers, while aparently sporting a pretty wicked tan that has since worn off... Anyways, Burns has a lot left to prove as a passer in AU's revamped spread offense, but he has the potential to move drastically up or down this list.

5. Casey Dick, Arkansas: Please, sports gods, please. Don't let Casey Dick/Arkansas be decent next year. It just isn't right. One has to be a bit wary of Dick's hidden potential (that'swhatshesaid!!!!@) after a lights-out performance in Arkansas' spring game. Dick might be most limited by whom he's throwing to.

6. Whoever starts for LSU: Again, fate has been on LSU's side for too long. This guy needs to be miserable. I wish we played LSU on opening day, when the new QB is at his greenest.

7. Wesley Carroll, MSU: MSU's offense can't even score on MSU's defense, as evidenced by the 0-0 snoozefest that was State's spring game. The Maroon-White game probably wasn't even the most interesting thing going on in Starkville that day... Chew on that. Carroll isn't awful, but he is a youthful gunslinger type with no major receiving weapons, a depleted line, or an offensive scheme that plays to his abilities.


So there it is: question marks all around for the quarterbacks of the SEC West. Although this group doesn't have a Tebow or a Stafford, top to bottom, this appears to be a pretty good set of signal callers. And maybe, just maybe, Ole Miss will feature the best of the bunch under center.

That's all for this installment of RSC Stack-ups. More to come later, unless something more interesting is going on.

T-SHIRTS!

It's at least possible that some or all of these already exist. As previously referenced, there is literally no limit to the shenanigans possible when college football fans release their creative juices on innocent casual wear.

Now, the most common name-pun tee is the one that takes an otherwise common colloquialism that includes some element of the head coach's name and implies success on the gridiron. See Exhibit A:


The less common type is the sexual innuendo tee. These are not as marketable because grandparents are especially susceptible to name/pun/tee predators. These tees are funny, but you would feel uncomfortable if you saw Mrs. Paterno wearing one. See Exhibit B:


This final type is the antagonistic tee. The example below is not a traditional name-pun tee, but it accurately represents a distasteful sentiment toward a certain team and/or coach. See Exhibit C:

Anything You Can Do, We Can Do ... Maybe.

Now that Ole Miss has announced Yates Construction as the winning bid for our basketball practice facility (tenatively named the Kennedy-Corleone Center), A & M has decided that it might like to build a toy of its own.

This seems to me to be like a situation where your greasy cousin who was the assistant drum major at his public high school decides that he wants to join your fraternity.

[T]he need for such an amenity wasn't really brought to the forefront until Ben Hansbrough publicly stated last April the main reason he decided to transfer was due to the lack of a practice facility.

Oh, well, sweet Jesus, you better get right on that Stansbury. What's next? I can hear Nate Banks' ultimatum now - bowl in the North End Zone or I'm gone!

New athletics director Greg Byrne said the construction of a facility, which will feature separate courts for men and women, is a high priority and that high-dollar donors are being sought.

The exact location of where it will be built is still being discussed, while costs will range from $6-12 million, depending on how much money is raised.

Cue the Dickie Scruggs joke. Best of luck putting that donor package together, Greg. If you get strapped for you cash, maybe you can just sell some extra cheese. Seriously, though, once that fundraising phase is behind you, I've got some pretty attractive architectural and design suggestions.

Rebel of the Week: Possession Receiver Edition

It's June. I just graduated and my job does not start until August. I am hung over a lot (such as right now) and have gotten exceptionally good at slacking off. I know I haven't been keeping up with regular R.o.t.W. postings but, seriously, it's June. There is not much going on at all in terms of Ole Miss sports right now so dealing out weekly accolades momentarily requires me to dig into the ever fleeting lump of brain cells which hold my dearest Rebel memories.

This week, after reminiscing on Egg Bowls past and seeing the 1997 game on Turner South's "College Flashback Classics" or whatever that silly shit is called, I knew right away who to dedicate this week to. Cory Peterson, the "deceptively fast possession receiver" of the Tuberville era was known for his sure hands and abilities as a kick returner. The greatest memory of Peterson, of course, comes from his performance in the aforementioned Battle for the Golden Egg. Down by a touchdown in the waning final minutes of the game, the Rebels, led by Stewart Patridge, scored a touchdown. Tommy Tuberville, in one of his wiliest moments, told his players that "overtime is for complete pussies" and decided to go for two.

The play was simple. Patridge's first look would be the slot reciever who would be running a five-step/in route. That slot reciever was Peterson. The catch was made and Mississippi State was defeated, 15-14.

Also, there was this badass fight beforehand.


Congratulations, Cory Peterson! You're our Rebel of the Week!



PS- I know that I shamelessly lifted that image from Rivals. Don't waste your time telling me about it.

A Poll

I installed a poll on the sidebar concerning the hopes you may or may not have for this upcoming football season. The poll will last until noon of August 30, exactly five hours before the last kickoff ever against the Memphis Tigers.

New poll: DO IT!

Thanks for ruining my day, Pete Boone/Doyle Jackson

I woke up today to this shit in my inbox.  I go check NAFOOM, and it's there too.  I even got a smart-assed Facebook message (yeah, I'm 16) about it.  Of course I'm crazy (dare I say, nuts) about Ole Miss football and I'm very excited about the arrival of Coach Nutt but, as all of you know, I'm about ready to hang myself over these puns.

And, if that's not bad enough, CSS was showing this last season's Alabama game on replay. I know it's rather masochistic of me to have sat there and watched it, but I did.  Seeing us work our way down field by converting multiple 4th downs just to have Nick Saban and that asshole referee snatch it away from us made me sick to my stomach.  

One final note: I love the Lexington brothers. They're right, it is OK to hate Doyle Jackson.

Malcolm White

So, I know that as an Ole Miss fan I'm only allowed to get excited about football, and that makes a lot of sense considering how dominant we've been in football for the past 40 years...

But I can't stop thinking that we might just be very good in basketball this season. But how can that be? Didn't we just lose the "Master of Angles" Dwayne Curtis? Whatever will we do without a player who can't take advantage of the position of the hoop in order to avoid being blocked?

Enter Malcolm White. I know, I know. Malcolm was a letdown last year. He didn't contribute the way that some of our freshmen contributed, but I still think Malcolm contributed to the team last season (that's photographic evidence). So here's my Malcolm White / Dwayne Curtis comparison.

Dwayne Curtis: 6'7" 270 lbs. - Great scorer; Solid rebounder; Liability on defense; Defensive strategy was to try to draw charges.

Malcolm White: 6'9" 230 lbs. - Wicked nasty hook shot; Had more dunks than DC in limited action; Ability to leave the ground; Aggressive defensive presence who will block a lot of shots

So here's my deal. Dwayne Curtis played like a fifth-year senior who had some skill. He was a leader, and he was consistent. He was never going to be that dominant player who totally changed the game though. Malcolm White can be that player, and with Malcolm down low, our only question is the 4. If Cranston, Henry, or Holloway emerges as being decent, we're going to win a lot of games. We've got guard play for days.

So anyway, my prediction is that we make the big dance and lose in the first round.

Houston Nutt Remix

HOU - STON - NUTT

This is, by far, one of the greatest videos I have ever laid eyes upon.  Whoever made this deserves Oscars upon Oscars.

A Red [REDACTED] Cup History Lesson

According to many folks on the outside looking in, we're a bunch of bigots. Oftentimes, folks in Starkville, Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, and other places make said argument. But, are they justified in doing so? Let's look at the facts.

FACT: Ole Miss was integrated before Mississippi State.

FACT: Ole Miss was integrated before LSU.

FACT: Ole Miss was integrated in the same year as Alabama. Granted, Alabama was integrated a whopping two-and-a-half months before Ole Miss in a much less violent (albeit still controversial) fashion.

FACT: According to statistics available through the Princeton Review, only Mississippi State (19%) can boast a ratio of black students higher than ours (13%) among the aforementioned (Alabama has an 11% ratio while LSU stands at 9%). Maybe this statistic is misleading because Mississippi, as a state, has a higher ratio of blacks than both Alabama and Louisiana but it still somewhat demonstrates a point.

This raises a question: why are we the bigots? Oh yeah, the Rebels team name, Confederate flag, Dixie, and Colonel Reb. We wacky Mississippians just can't seem to get that whole "Civil War" thing out of our damn minds! Faulkner was right in that, down here "the past isn't dead. It isn't even past." It is true that Colonel Reb is no longer an official symbol of the university, Confederate flags are not flown in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, and the playing of Dixie is quite limited, but we Rebels are still unashamedly proud of our Southern history and heritage. Really though, how hard are we clinging to our past, relatively speaking? Are we the only ones with vestiges from the Civil War lingering in the back of our collective mind?

The short answer is, of course, no.

While we may be more "direct" with our approach to Southern history, for many of the schools and fan-bases in the former Confederate States to fault us is quite hypocritical. Let's take a few examples I more-or-less thought up off of the top of my head and verified (sorta) with Wikipedia.

First, the North Carolina Tar Heels. The University of North Carolina General Alumni Association provides a nice etymology of the term and reveals that, while the term is quite old, it first gained popularity during the Civil War. The legend has it that a regiment of North Carolina's troops taunted a recently defeated group of Virginians by telling them that they needed to put tar in their heels so they would "stick better in the next fight." The term then became used to describe North Carolinians as a whole, alluding to the idea that the soldiers and people of North Carolina weren't exactly the type to back down in a fight. During the war and thereafter, the term was essentially a badge of honor for North Carolinians. Yet, no one is clamoring for the removal of the Tar Heels moniker.

Next up, Auburn. "War Eagles" were used by forces on both sides of the Civil War as scouts and mascots. While the true origin of Auburn's mascot and battle cry is shrouded in uncertainty, legend has it that the first eagle mascot was a former confederate bird who had been rescued from the battlefield and nursed back to health. When he began flying over the stadium during a defeat of the rival Georgia Bulldogs, he was viewed as symbol of good luck (a much cooler version of Mississippi State's cow story). The War Eagle is obviously reminiscent of the Confederacy, yet is not at all viewed as offensive.

Then there's LSU. These assholes have no room to talk. While I may have been stretching a bit with the aforementioned Civil War references, the history of the Louisiana Fightin' Tigers is well documented. Just check this out. The Louisiana Infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia were called, by Lee himself, the "Tigers" for their ferocity in combat and their ultra neat striped pants. The LSU Tiger mascot is an obvious homage to these bygone times. Toss in Louisiana's racial history (even recent events such as Jena Six or the aftermath of Katrina) and you've got quite a confusing situation. Most of these elements of LSU are hardly ever mentioned whereas one would be hard pressed to find a lot of media coverage about Ole Miss which doesn't mention our tumultuous past. While some people are indeed crying race (eh, not really) on this one, LSU has come nowhere close to the crucifixion upon a cross of political correctness that Ole Miss has had to endure.

Have these schools done anything wrong? Not at all. So why are we so evil? We've really cleaned up our act in the last 10 years or so but yet, many still insist that tailgating in the Grove is akin to Klan rallies. Some may wonder as to what the solution to all of this is. Well, short of hopping the the nearest Delorean and removing all Civil War references from the get-go or, better yet, using a more subtle reference than "Rebels," there's nothing we can do.

That is, of course, excluding the option of telling our would be finger-pointers to fuck themselves, but I'll leave that one up to you.

Post Scriptum: as you can tell, we've got a lot of time on our hands. 75 days until kickoff, bitches.

SMQ Raises the Age Old Question.

Sunday Morning Quarterback, sort of the blogosphere's own Ross Perot-style chart maker but without the crazies (though, I do picture the purveyor of SMQ looking a bit like Jeff Goldblum in Independence Day), has again raised that question Ole Miss fans never seem to resolve.

No, not the one about Jerrell Powe's eligibility. The other one about how we fired David BUTTCutcliffe. And, like the rest of the known world, SMQ concludes that, especially with a view of the wreckage left by Hurricane Orgeron, we never should have fired Cutcliffe. Really, never heard that one before.

The objective observer looks at the numbers during Cutcliffe and thereafter. If Ole Miss knows anything, we know, with our miserly banker of an Athletic Director, about numbers. Especially if Cutcliffe gives Duke even one winning season (a reasonable hypothetical if he is operating at or near his 1999 aptitude rather than his leisurely Rascal ride through 2004), folks are going to talk for years about what a bum decision Ole Miss made, but the numbers don't tell the story of a man with health problems who had obviously slowed down. And I think Cutcliffe recognizes that we made the move we needed to make. I can tell you for sure that Cutcliffe has the Chancellor's personal cell phone number, which bespeaks a relationship more cordial, I think, than between the Chancellor and Orgeron or Tuberville (or maybe even Billy Brewer).

SMQ alludes to a prediction that when/if Houston Nutt falls on lean years, Ole Miss fans will be traitorous once again. I doubt that is true, but we shall see. What I do know is that Coach Nutt is spending a fair chunk of that skrilla to move his horse farm out east on Highway 6, assumedly anticipating an at least moderately lengthy term in Oxford.

Basketball Practice Facility

Word around the campfire is that a bid for the Basketball Practice Facility might be announced today. David Brandt is away from his computer and the official Athletics site has nothing yet.

I'm sure the exterior of the building will be in Greek revival style with columns and all, but I am personally hoping for something along the lines of Michael Corleone's house out in Nevada. Only a home built for the Don will do for this guy.

Now, close your eyes and imagine Al Pacino uttering those famous three words...

"JUSTIFY YOUR EXISTENCE!"

I gots da chillz!

Wine Analogies on EDSBS Live

Last night I was able to call in and give my spill on EDSBS Live, an online radio show put together by (wait for it, wait for it) EDSBS.  I, as was with all of the callers, was asked to answer four questions and, as an Ole Miss fan, I answered them thusly:

1. What Type of wine is your football team?  "Ole Miss is a mediocre merlot with a really fancy label.  Seemingly classy and expensive but is, in all actuality, rather affordable."  This not only covers the view much of the SEC has towards the Ole Miss fanbase but also covers the view much of the Ole Miss fanbase has towards our athletics.  Long story short, we're never as good as we say we are.
2. Your best vintage year, describe in wine-y terms.  "1969: The vintage year of this wine's greatest fame.  This wine begins slowly but it's flavor develops around it's lively, central, "Manning-style" flavor.  Has a victoriously sugary finish."  I crafted this answer to incorporate Archie Manning's national come to being (1969 against Alabama) and the 1970 Sugar Bowl victory over Arkansas.
3. Robert Parker reviews your arch enemy. Go. "Mississippi State is reminiscent of diet peach soda, steel wool, and velveeta.  This 'wine' is snappy, somewhat caustic, and undeservedly demanding of your attention.  While a part of the 12-member family of great Southern wines, this sin-water often escapes mention or is listed 12th."  If anyone has a good answer for LSU or would like to submit their own for "dear ol' State" please feel free.
4. Describe yourself in wine terms. "Subtly brilliant in small doses, unbearably pungent and incredibly vexatious in larger quantities.  Only truly appreciated by the insane and drug addicted."  If you knew me, it'd make sense.

Only the finest wines will cut it in Starkville

A Query... Actually Two

As Fans and NAF's of Ole Miss alike are well aware, the first presidential debate between Sens. McCain and Obama will take place Friday, September 26, on the campus of the University of Mississippi. The following day, the Rebels will be battling the the fightin' TEBOOOOOW's in Gainesville.

Now, mind you, I am a political animal who aspires to high office (so long as Ghost never gets a) greedy and b) in contact with the tabloid media) and has recently become purveyor of a weblog for true, red-blooded Magnolia State right-wing nut jobs. There's my shameless plug. Get over it. The links don't click themselves.

My queries are thus:

First, if I could procure tickets to the game (optimistic, cautiously) and the debate (pessimistic with reckless abandon), which should I pick?

Second, is it more likely
A) that John McCain will wipe the floor with Barack Obama in Oxford en route to a surprising (for some), devastating (for Democrats) win in November that will win the War in Iraq and, ultimately, produce the savior of Ole Miss football, or

B) that the Rebels will pick apart the Florida secondary in Gainesville en route to a surprising (to all), devastating (to Orson Swindle) win at the Swamp that will catapult the Rebels to an (actual) SEC West Championship and, ultimately, produce the savior of Ole Miss football?

A question for the readers

Some of us are thinking about putting advertisements on the blog. This would hopefully enable us to earn just enough money to purchase and maintain Red[REDACTED]Cup.com. If we were to do this they would look somewhat like the ads on these sports blogs.

So, dedicated Cup fan, whaddaya think?

We stalk you through the intrawebs

If you'll look at the bottom of our right-hand side menu you'll see that we've installed a small hit counter. For every IP address that views our page in a certain time period it registers one hit and adds it to the total visitor count (12,500 as of this morning). Furthermore it enables us to, in shockingly incredible depth, view all sorts of information about our visitors. For example, we can see which posts are the most popular, which websites have been linking to us, and what operating systems our visitors are using among many, many other things.

The best feature of all of this, in my opinion, is the ability to see what Google search terms were used to locate our site. While a few dozen "red[REDACTED]cup" and "red [REDACTED] cup blog" searches a day (just bookmark our site, seriously) constitute the majority of these search terms, we'll get a few really bizarre searches every now and then.

For example:

• [REDACTED] Cup Related searches- Understandably, we get a lot of searches which are related more to plastic drinking containers than to Ole Miss sports. Many of these Googlers are curious as to the nature of the [REDACTED] cup ("how big are [REDACTED] cups" and "how wide is the top of a [REDACTED] cup") whereas others are curious as to the fortunes raked in by the barons of the picnic supplies industry ("[REDACTED] cup heir").
• "orange county choppers"- This Google search yields approximately 3.3 million results. After looking through the first few pages of the results of this search I've seen the official Orange County Choppers website (more than once), Wikipedia articles, YouTube videos, and a myriad of other things which shine favorable light on these douche rockets. How many pages this user had to sift through to stumble upon our blog which only mockingly mentions these bikes in passing is beyond me. Furthermore, if those were his search terms, what was this person looking for? All of the information you could want on these motorcycles are on the first few pages of this search. This one simply baffles me.
  
• "[REDACTED] say it ain't so" - Initially, I was going to put this in the first listing. "How does this have anything to do with cups," I asked myself. To see the link between this search and our site, I plugged it into Google and realized that this inquisitor was not curious about plastic cups as I had previously assumed but, rather, he was looking for tablature related to Weezer's "Say it Ain't So." Honestly, I'm rather ashamed that I initially made such a false assumption. I've drunkenly played enough Rock Band to know this song back and forth...on plastic-button guitar, that is.
• "patrick willis virginia marijuana" - When I first saw this, I had a reaction similar to "what the fuck is P Willie doing in Virginia?" It turns out, a fella named Patrick from Willis, Virginia recently plead guilty to felony Marijuana possession charges. While I have nothing against even the stickiest of the icky, I don't see Patrick Willis as much of a weed smoker so this one threw me for quite a loop.
• "top tier sororities at ole miss" - Look's like someone's getting their pre-rush research done! Here's my advice: be a complete whore. Sure, you may not get into Chi Omega acting like that but the boys will fucking love you. That's for damn sure.
• " 'John Cohen' 'Ron Polk' baseball Jewish" - Believe it or not, we're on the first page of results garnered by this Google search. Fortunately, we're on there for making fun of the city of Miami as opposed to anti-Semitic rhetoric. Still, this search is incredibly interesting. Cohen is, believe it or not, the single most common Jewish surname which leads one to rationally conclude that John Cohen is either Jewish himself or of Jewish descent. Why is all of this important? Well, I'm certain you're all aware of Ron Polk's epic hatefest on the hire of John Cohen, but not a lot of us are certain as to the motives of coach Polk for doing so. Cohen is a former player of Polk's at Mississippi State and had a successful coaching career himself in the Southeastern Conference. How could Ron Polk object to that? The only conclusion I can come up with is that Ron Polk is incredibly anti-Semitic. There, you (may or may not have) heard it here first!
• "nathan stanley's mom" - We are literally the first page on the list with these search terms. Honestly, I'm surprised this isn't searched for more often by creepy Rivals.com subscribers and jealous high school classmates of Stanley. Pick it up creepsters, you're letting me down.

Where Do We Stack Up? Running Backs

Though the SEC West is losing its top 4 runners from 2007 (Darren McFadden, Felix Jones, Jacob Hester, and Benjarvus Green-Ellis in that order), it still has some monsters returning. Almost every team has real reason for optimism at running back. There's no Knowshon, but there's about a baker's dozen of folks that would start over this clown. So, in alphabetical order, here's how the West looks ball-toter:

Alabama
When Magnolia State prospects choose Mississippi State, I understand. When Coast Trash prospects choose LSU, I get by. But, when they choose Alabama, I am both angered and confused. Meanwhile, the Crimson Tide's leading rusher is Lumberton, MS product Terry Grant. I really hope this guy fails in football (and, at least until he learns his lesson about Alabama, in life), but he had 180 carries for 891 yards with 5.0 per carry average and 8 TD's in 2007. Additionally, Nick claims Terry Grant now comes with the ability to catch the ball, so now we have to call him versatile, which just make me hate you even more, Nick. Terry Grant's clunker (1.9 yards per carry, I think) against LSU in 2007 showcases God's sense of humor.

Arkansas
Is in so much trouble. Bobby Petrino, the Norse God of Mischief, has one (count 'em) half-way notable back returning: future Ryan Perrilloux business partner Michael Smith, who went to jail last September for stealing credit cards. Ironically, Smith is a native of Tallahassee. Here's the thing, Bobby, if you gotta have a criminal (and sometimes you just gotta have a criminal), you need to make sure he's a criminal that, y'know, plays football well. This is not an accurate description of Michael Smith. He is a scant 5-7, 173 lbs, and his stats are deceptive. Smith's average per carry last year was a promising 6.6, however if you remove an 81 yard scamper against powerhouse FIU and a 48 yard run against Sun Belt Conference champ runner-up Troy, his average falls to a more pedestrian 3.9 yards per carry. Plus, I want to see this guy either run through Peria Jerry or around Greg Hardy. So much trouble.

Auburn
Is in practically no trouble. Auburn's top three rushers from 2007 all return. The only solace Rebel fans find is in their penchant for injury. Top returner Ben Tate is a power runner who piled up 202 carries for 903 yards. Look for him to be an every-down back (even though he won't have to be with Brad Lester and Mario Fannin behind him). Fannin was, actually, probably the highest-touted of the three coming out of high school, and Lester showed signs of brilliance during his 2005 freshman campaign.

LSU
Jacob Hester is gone. He should have gone to Cincinnati or Chicago or somewhere else in Big 10 country where he belongs. Now, LSU is left with only almost-Rebel Keiland Williams (no silver medal in recruiting, Ed) and Trindon Holliday, who is only the fastest football player ever at LSU. Williams didn't have to run every down last year, but he can, and I hope you all remember what he did to Notre Dame in the 2007 Sugar Bowl. Whoof. And because they are LSU, we just have to assume that someone we've never heard of will end up being the MVP of the SEC Championship Game (Richard Murphy, who you know you've only read about, at best, averaged 6.6 yards per carry in 2007, and El Sombrero thinks he's the best all-around back on the team). The notes on Keiland Williams are his 6.8 yards per carry in 2007.

Mississippi State
Anthony Dixon caught my ire last year when he was invited to the Conerly Trophy presentation last year and Benjarvus was not. I never thought BJGE had a chance at being named the state's best college football player. I thought Titus Brown had it locked up, until this previously referenced clown walked home with it. Needless to say, Anthony Dixon and Terry Grant are kinda interchangeable on my hate list going into 2008. The only difference is that Anthony Dixon is really overrated. He is a big back (6-1, 240) that can stumble forward for a few yards, but against Ole Miss in 2007 he had quite a clunker. Christian Ducre is, in my opinion, more exciting and might be the starter by the end of the season. What I can't make sense of yet, is why Ducre was Croomed at the end of the season (getting only 18 carries in the final three games against Arkansas, Ole Miss, and Central Florida). Ducre was the hero of State's biggest win, going 19 for 119 against Kentucky. Mississippi State is solid at running back, but with this totally different clown behind center, it might be easy to load up the box and bring Mississippi State's offense to an even more grinding halt than we witnessed in 2007.

Meanwhile, the Rebs have nothing but question marks - is Cordera Eason for real? Will Enrique Davis be ready to play? Can Dexter McCluster slap the Chucky Mullins bust without breaking his hand? I think Eason will be a middle-of-the pack kind of back, no record-writer, but a solid option (something akin to Benjarvus' junior year). Dexter will be a dangerous weapon until he gets injured. Those two make Ole Miss competitive in the running game. Potentially throw in Davis, and we might be note-worthy.

So, how do we stack up? Auburn looks the best from top to bottom. Their backs are consistent, talented, and unpredictable, which is the key difference between them and the superstars at LSU. Terry Grant will have an All-SEC year for Alabama, but Cordera Eason will prove that the Rebs still have a better crop of runners than Mississippi State. And, over in Fayetteville, it will be a long season for Arkansas.

An unabashedly non-sports related post

So I picked up Bill McKibben's book 'Deep Economy' the other day. McKibben, a former staff writer for The New Yorker, is essentially a writer on social commentary. 'Deep Economy' is an appeal of sorts to transition the economies of the world into more sustainable, localized entities that can exist in spite of peak oil and all that garbage. Without trying to sound like too much of a hippie liberal guido communist, the cause is something I really believe in. But, to bring us to the point of this post, I believe in that very cause most fervently of all when it presents itself in the form of a good-ass piece of bacon.

I'm talking here about Oxford's newest restaurant, Big Bad Breakfast, operated by John Currence (of City Grocery) and located on North Lamar near Panini and Volta. Big Bad Breakfast (BBB is the logo, and also much easier to type) is the latest local eatery to take advantage of the various quality foodstuffs available right here in north Mississippi. What sort of foodstuffs? Read this damn article, because as evidenced by my lack of an article in a month or so, I’m too lazy to tell you.

Anyways, the Ghost of Jay Cutler and I went to BBB a few days ago to nurse away a light hangover, and we were quite pleased with what we found. Ghost (I don't really call him that, we're not in a damn fighter jet squadron) got the Big Bad Breakfast Platter, from which I shamelessly stole some bacon and hash browns. The bacon is probably the best I've ever had, and has a really nice spicy tobasco flavor to it. I ordered the brandy-spiked French toast for myself, and it was pretty excellent, very light and fluffy compared to most French toast. The coffee was Cafe du Monde chicory, and it, too was stellar.

Anyways, I dig places like L&M's Kitchen, The Ravine, and now BBB for making use of great local produce to serve up some of the best damn food that you can get anywhere. This is my shameless plug: go to BBB. The location isn't one that makes it easy for them, but the food kicks ass, the service was good, and the atmosphere was awesomely corny and southern. Can't recommend it enough.

Post scriptum: I have been kicking around ideas with a couple other RSC guys for posts to pass the time between now and football season. If you want restaurant reviews, local music write-ups, videos of LSU fans injuring themselves, or whatever, let us know. If you don't, we'll just do whatever the fuck we want. Until next time...

The Red [REDACTED] Cup is not in line with Maoist ideals

DuNing, a regular NAFOOM poster and a pretty kickass guy (he doesn't realize that I actually know him personally), is in everyone's favorite/least favorite east Asian country and claims that the Red [REDACTED] Cup isn't so much appreciated by the People's Republic!

What's the damn deal, China? Whatever did we do to you?

As you can tell, the Great Wall was not built for large, European statures.

How did we miss this one?

On Wednesday, Scott Bittle was named a 1st team All-American.  I doubt that any of us would question this selection as Scott proved to us all season long that he could get the job done with incredible consistency.  I'm extremely proud of the kid and I expect to see good things from him in his pro career.

Congratulations, Scott.

Recruit Quote of the Week

Since it is summer I figured we should start a new tradition hear on RSC for awhile, that being the recruiting quote of the week.  This can either come from a fan, analyst, or from a recruit himself.  This week's is brought to us from Horn Lake CB Tremayne McKinley.

"I'd probably lean that way a lot. The coaches are the main thing I like about Ole Miss. They're all kind of crunk. They all keep you hyped. Those are the kinds of coaches I like to play for." (Thank you Rivals for the quote)

I can only assume McKinley has not spent too much time around HDN, who if his daughter is any indication, is severely lacking in the "crunk" department.  

One good thing that will come of this is the continuation of the fence around Memphis.  With Andy Kennedy's wardrobe apparently provided to him buy Ecko and the new football staff, the Rebs should have the 901 on lock down.