Ole Miss to play West Virginia

According to CBS, Ole Miss and West Virginia will play basketball the next two seasons. The first game will be in Oxford and the second in Morgantown. Kennedy coached under Huggins at Cincinnati and the two are close friends.

We play Saturday?

It's Northwestern St. week. I have to be honest, it's hard to get motivated about this week. I even thought this was the bye week. Most Rebel fans have written off football and is now focusing on Basketball, others are mired in self pity (ole miss self pity) and calling "off with their heads". Coach O will be here another year and I think Boone will be as well so we should all focus on how we can support this team.
The next two weeks will be difficult in football but with LSU & State up and coming things will improve. Also, there is a basketball game on Friday.

Loss #7

Ole Miss v. Auburn = boring game.
I was glad to see the Rebels stay in the game until the end. But, as usual, we lost. And let's face it, Auburn isn't so hot this year. So it's official, even though it was pretty much assumed, another losing season. Four in a row. I am tired of losing. Our next home game against Northwestern State will probably be our smallest crowd at Ole Miss in 10 years of so. But it's hard not to blame folks.
So where do we go from here. Basketball? Baseball? With LSU & State still to go on our schedule, we could prove spoiler and make ourselves feel a bit better. LSU will probably play for the NC, unless they lose again. Either Ohio State or BC will lose and that will open the door for a one loss team. We could keep LSU from playing in the NC. State is sitting at 5 wins. They will likely have to beat us to become bowl eligible. What a better way to end the season than to keep the dogs out of a bowl game? So it's time to circle the wagons and beat out two biggest rivals if for nothing else, pride.

Baseball Stadium expansion approved

For more information visit the Ole Miss Rebel Website.

10 Things to Feel Good About

Yes, Football is king in the south but fortunately for us there are other sports at Ole Miss. And in almost every other sport we are succeeding. Let's take a look at 10 things we as Rebel fans have to feel good about.

Baseball--

• This year's class is the #25 class in the nation. (Collegiate Baseball).
• One of only two schools in the country to host a regional in each of the last 4 season
• Advanced to the Super Regionals in the last three seasons
• Most SEC wins in the past 5 years in the conference
• Only school to post wining record in league since 2002
• Upgrading stadium to one of the best in the country

Basketball--

• Andy Kennedy in his first season won the West.
• Season ticket sales are up and the excitement is in the air for the first time in several years.
• A new Basketball practice facility is in the works.

Volleyball--

• First NCAA appearance in school history last year.
• Poised to make a second appearance in the NCAA with a current record of 18-5, 8-4 SEC.

Women's Basketball--

• Elite 8 appearance last season.
• Renee Ladner Era begins.
• OOC schedule includes teams from each major conference.

Tennis--

• Ole Miss returns 7 of our 8 top players from last year.
• Six straight SEC West titles
• Sweet 16 last year and ended the season with a #7 ranking.

Soccer--

• Three SEC West titles
• Three NCAA appearances in the past 5 years

Track & Field--

• Both Men's and Women's teams finished the 2007 NCAA Outdoor Championship with their highest rankings in school history. (Men finished 12th, Women 27th)
• Kirui won the national championship in the Men's 3,000 meter Steeplechase.

Golf--

• Ole Miss men have won back to back tournaments for the first time since 1985.

Campus--

• Our campus is one of the most beautiful in the country. The beauty, safety and host city all make Ole Miss an easy sell to recruits.

Alumni-- We Alumni who are currently playing in professional sports that focus the national sportlight on Ole Miss.

• Eli Manning
• Seth Smith
• Patrick Willis
• Deuce McAllister

Blow out

Saturday was not fun. It started out well because we got the ball first and mounted a decent drive. Then Arkansas got the ball and it was downhill from there.
This is the first ball game in which I can't think of any positives. In the smoldering ashes of the blow out, rumors are now rising up on the message boards. The biggest one: Pete Boone will retire this year. It will be another one of those weeks.

For your viewing pleasure

The Lexington Brothers on Mr. Jackson:

Q&A with Razorbackexpats.com

The guys at Razorbackexpats.com took the time to answer a few questions about Arkansas and this weekend's game.

(1) How do you think the Arkansas players will react to the close loss to Auburn? Will they come out flat or motivated?

It's hard to say. I'd imagine that they're feeling pretty bad after three straight last minute SEC losses, plus all the controversy swirling around the program. It's certainly possible that Houston Nutt will use this as a "circle the wagons" opportunity and get them properly fired up...it's happened before. My guess, though, is that they'll come out flat but will play better as the game goes on.

(2) What is the morale of the team and the fan base at this point in the season?

Hard to say about the team....like I said above it could go either way, but I certainly wouldn't blame them for feeling pretty low by now. The string of tough losses plus fan uprisings like the banner and booing have to hurt (even if things like the banner are claimed to be only about the coaching staff). As for the fan base, things are bad and getting worse. There's a huge amount of unrest about the program and its future right now - just check out the comments and articles on our blog or any of the other Razorback blogs to get a first hand taste. There's a lot of bitterness left over from the end of last season and the whole Malzahn/Mustain controversy, and the disappointing results this year have only added to that. I think Nutt has lost all but his most die-hard supporters by now.

(3) Is Nutt in trouble?

Oh yeah. I really can't imagine a scenario where he's the coach next year. Best case for him is that he gets to resign with some dignity still intact and then goes on to another decent job in another conference. Worst case is that he needs a police escort to safely get him past the angry mob surrounding his house, I suppose.

(4) What are the keys to an Arkansas victory?

Well, for starters if we have a lead in the 4th quarter it would be really nice if we didn't blow it. Beyond that obvious statement, the key to every game so far as been to establish at least a tiny semblance of a down field passing game so McFadden and Jones aren't battling all 11 guys on defense. Aside from a few stretches that hasn't really happened much this year.It would be great if McFadden and Jones could pop a couple of their trademark long runs, of course. The Auburn game was the first one in quite awhile where they were both contained, so I'm hoping they'll get back on track. Also, I know you guys have a good passing game so we need to keep the big plays there under control, of course - we had some problems with that against Alabama and Kentucky, but did a much better job against Auburn.

(5) It seems Arkansas has a one dimensional offense right now. Is this because of your QB play or does this have to do with play calling?

Probably a little of both. Casey Dick isn't going to be on Mel Kiper's short list of 1st round NFL picks any time soon, but you certainly can't put all the blame on him. He's had moments where he's hit some really nice passes, so I know the potential is there. He's certainly not being helped by the rather lackluster play calling, that's for sure. Perhaps most importantly, he hasn't really had a whole lot of people to pass to this year...our two top returning receivers, Marcus Monk and Ben Cleveland have been injured all year (Monk may play on Saturday; Cleveland is out for the year) and no one else has stepped up as a consistent playmaker.

(6) Is this win a must for Arkansas to make it to a bowl game this year?

It's crazy that I'm saying this, but I guess it is. I mean, technically we could still beat South Carolina, Tennessee or LSU instead, but no one is feeling great about that happening at this point. Right now our best chance to get to that six-win mark would be against you guys and Mississippi State (although neither of those games are gimmes by any means) plus our four incredibly weak non-conference opponents. Thank God for North Texas State, at least.

(7) How is your defense this year?

Not as good as last year - we lost a few stars to the NFL - but it's getting better. Our secondary in particular was torched by both Bama and Kentucky (who both scored more than 40 on us), but we looked a million times better against Auburn. Reggie Herring's defenses tend to start slow and improve over the course of the season, so hopefully that trend will continue this year.

(8) What did you think of the controversial call at the end of our Bama game?

To be honest, it seems like it comes down to a lot of judgement calls about various rules and regulations that I'm not intimately familiar with. I'm sure if I were an Ole Miss fan I'd be incredibly outraged...I can certainly understand that sentiment. And if I were a Bama fan, I'd probably think the call was correct!

(9) Will McFadden win the Heisman this year?

No way. It's too bad, because I really think he's the best player in the country and definitely deserves it. But the Heisman typically goes to the QB or RB on a top 5 team, and with our three losses (and counting) we're certainly not going to be in that conversation. Unfortunately, he's being hurt by a lot of things largely beyond his control.

(10) What are your predictions for the game?

Maybe someday I'll learn my lesson, but I'll stick with the optimistic route for now. Hogs win, 24-14.

Battle for the Bottom

One team will finally have an SEC win this year. One will be the only team without an SEC victory. Who will it be? Even the winning team will probably be thinking ahead to basketball season this year.

I like Ole Miss chances in this game. I think we can move the ball on Arkansas and put up some points. The obvious key will be to stop the run. If Arkansas continues to have a poor passing game perhaps we can load the box and slow them down. Another concern for me is our special team coverage. We much keep them backed up and make them go the distance of the entire field to score. Also, Arkansas probably doesn't have the refs on their side so that always helps.

Regardless, I expect a full house of Rebels Saturday to cheer the Rebs to victory. (Our first SEC victory of 2007)

Faulkner for a mascot, the play and more

A few stories floating around:

ESPN discusses "the play". This was a pretty fair assessment of the situation.

CBS throws out the suggestion that Ole Miss should have Faulkner as our new mascot. -- Let me think about this idea for awhile and get back to you.

College Hoops says Ole Miss is the 143rd best basketball team in the country this year. -- What are these guys Smoking?