Well, that sucked.

Update: More thoughts from BigJim. Is it a “gots-to-go situation” for Coach O? Probably not immediately, but with disgruntled players continuing to bolt and ineptitude that goes well beyond the parts of the game under the control of the allegedly-already-fired OC Noel Mazzone, the Orgeron honeymoon is going to be shortlived. That may be bad for Orgeron’s career prospects in Oxford, since it’s likely his legendary recruiting prowess won’t even yield substantial dividends on the field until the 2007 season due to redshirting.

And the $64,000 “what-if” questions surrounding the firing of ex-coach David Cutcliffe probably aren’t going away either. Would QB “guru” Cut have gotten more out of Spurlock, Flatt, and Lane? I don’t know, but if things turn around in Knoxville next year (and, realistically, they probably will; a team with UT’s talent almost never goes under .500 in college, no matter how poorly they are coached) a lot of the credit will go to Cutcliffe.

One final thought: a lot of the Rebel’s woes can be traced to two positions on the field: place kicker and punter. Thirty-yard punts and regularly missed field goals don’t add up to scoring or good field position. Kicking may be the Rebels’ most glaring deficiency, even if it seems to be lost in the discussions over the revolving door at QB.

The Noel Mazzone era at Ole Miss is apparently over, although no official announcement has appeared as of yet. Mazzone, who previously served as offensive coordinator on Tommy Tuberville’s staff before the latter’s departure for Auburn, apparently never was a good fit with Ed Orgeron’s plans to implement a USC-style offense in Oxford.

Something to bring a tear to any Ole Miss fan’s eye: Orson Swindle says Coach O would be the #1 college football coach to go drinking with. I can’t disagree, even if the man does frighten me.

Don’t believe Coach O is a scary man? Watch the Ole Miss coach’s show—“Voice of the Rebels” David Kellum looks scared to death all the time, and this is with Coach O sitting there saying nice (albeit pithy) things despite having every reason to go on a Hulk rage.

Blue chip quarterback Robert Lane will move to fullback this week in addition to continuing as the backup QB, apparently solidifying Micheal Spurlock’s role as starting QB and Ethan Flatt’s role as clipboard-holder. Coach O’s other position changes seem to have worked out well thus far (most notably, moving Jamal Pittman from HB to FB, and making Mico McSwain the #1 HB), so maybe Lane as a fullback will work well too.

As I predicted, it was one lousy day for Chris in the college football world: Ole Miss does its impression of being a good team, but doesn’t stop the key drive at the end; Duke leads at the half against Georgia Tech, then completely implodes, and the one day of my life I root for Notre Dame fricking USC wins for the bazillionth consecutive game. At least Joe Pa’s Lazarus impersonation is coming to an end, as the Nittany Lions lose to a not-particularly-great Michigan team.

My Wallace Wade observations for today (on a great afternoon for football, at least weather-wise):

• Song college bands should not perform under any circumstances: Kelly Clarkson’s “Since You’ve Been Gone.”
• Song college bands should perform on a regular basis: Jimmy Buffett’s “Cheeseburger in Paradise.” If you can get enthusiasm out of a Duke football crowd with this song, imagine what you could do with it in a real football stadium.
• Things you should not do before a Duke football game: get fall-down drunk. Although I have to say watching inebriated sorority pledges stumble around the stadium was somewhat amusing.
• Things that need to visit a tanning bed: the Georgia Tech cheerleaders. I’m not saying they were pale, just that I’ve seen albinos with darker skin tones.

Next week: Kentucky comes to Vaught-Hemingway in an untelevised game—finally, I can pencil in an SEC win for the Rebels—while the Seminoles cruise into Wallace Wade, where the real wagering action is on whether FSU fans will outnumber Duke fans.

Ole Miss (2–3) finally got off the schnide today, winning 27–7 against I-AA Citadel after a pretty lackluster first half. Mind you, the Rebels face an undefeated Alabama squad next weekend in Oxford (possibly to be televised on CBS), so I don’t expect us to have a winning record any time soon.

By popular demand: Ed Orgeron wants to sell you a Hummer, in H.264 format suitable for your iPod or Apple TV, and viewable on pretty much any modern PC or Mac.

Also available in DivX format, but you’ll need the XviD codec if you don't already have it installed.

Greetings to our visitors from EDSBS. Updated to add the H.264 version, which is smaller and the same quality as the original.

If I were (a) stupid enough to bet on sports and (b) stupid enough to bet on any game the Rebels were involved with, I’d take Ole Miss (+3) over Vandy and the under (44). Reasons:

• Ole Miss can defend the pass. The pass is, well, Vandy’s entire offense (except that whole option thing).
• Vandy isn’t as good as Memphis. Ole Miss, er, beat Memphis. Ergo, Ole Miss should beat Vandy.
• Vandy’s home field advantage is nonexistent.
• Vandy loses to Ole Miss, even in years the Rebels suck (see: 2001, 2002, 2004). So, even if Ole Miss does suck this year (something yet to be determined—we’ll see in mid-October), they should still beat Vandy.
• Intangible 1: I’m quite certain that Vandy being 3–0 is a sign of the apocalypse. I don’t think universal armageddon is quite here yet.
• Intangible 2: Coach O will probably call the entire team a “bunch of pussies” if they lose to Vandy. The team doesn’t want a tanned shirtless guy calling them pussies. So they will win. And not wear any earrings.

Disclaimer: taking my betting advice is probably a bad idea under any and all circumstances. I am not responsible for any monetary losses incurred as a result of this pick.

Joey of Straight Bangin’ continues the “Ed Orgeron is batshit crazy” meme and hilarity ensues.

þ: EDSBS; more here.

Well, it was fugly to the max (although not quite as bad as the FSU-Miami game), but the Rebels eked out a 10–6 win over the University of Memphis on Labor Day in Memphis’ Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. Defensively, the Rebels looked like they were in pretty sound form, effectively shutting down outside Heisman hopeful DeAngelo Williams and racking up the game-saving pick.

On the other hand, the offense remains something of a question mark, although Micheal Spurlock looked surprisingly competent under center; Mario Hill looked to be the class of the receiving corps, while Mike Espy and Taye Biddle remained somewhat spotty performers. I think the Rebels will be able to handle Vanderbilt on the 17th, but the rest of the SEC schedule (particularly at Tennessee and Auburn) could be highly problematic unless the offense is able to get in gear soon.

Ivan Maisel has a feature up at ESPN.com on Ed Orgeron’s unorthodox approach to head coaching in Oxford, which is coming as something of a culture shock to the team and observers alike. Incidentally, Orgeron’s shirt-off challenge, which has become something of an Internet meme, is neither confirmed nor denied by the coach.

Via EDSBS: New Ole Miss head coach Ed Orgeron calling out the whole team in his first team meeting using language that might even make a sailor blush—and, to top it off, challenging the whole team to a fight. The more amusing anecdote:

Lane was out passing with another player, and Coach O apparently ran up to him, tackled him, stripped the ball, and took off running down the field.

Meanwhile, Rick Cleveland reports that the SEC may need to hire some Cajun interpreters if they want to produce accurate transcripts of Coach O at media days. And, the once and future quarterback Micheal Spurlock goes all Xtina and Lil Kim on his critics.

Today’s Clarion-Ledger does some hard-hitting reporting on the responses of the state’s 3 I-A schools to an NCAA mandate requiring them to trim their football media guides down to a measly 208 pages.

The Texas Longhorns won the College World Series yesterday; I have to say that I was disappointed when Texas beat the Ole Miss Rebels in the best-of-3 a couple of weeks ago in Oxford, but losing to the eventual champs (especially given that the Rebels were on the verge of winning both games 2 and 3 in the 9th) takes a little bit of the sting out of it.

þ: Steven Taylor.

I just uploaded a bunch of photos from my hooding ceremony last year and a family picnic to Flickr; most of the pictures were taken by my dad on his 35mm film camera. Hope you enjoy them…

Vashon Pearson, the Rebels’ leading rusher last year (not that that’s saying much) didn’t make the grades last year and has been declared academically ineligible for what would have been his senior season. (þ: EDSBS) ‘Twas nice knowing you, Vashon.

It looks like the bulk of the running game will be in the hands of junior Jamal Pittman, who has had his own share of off-field troubles, but emerged from the spring as tied on the depth chart with Pearson after Coach O decided to give him a clean slate. So, if Pittman can keep himself out of trouble, the Rebels may still be in decent shape at RB; mind you, I’m not sure anyone expected anything much beyond another “rebuilding” year and a possible EV1.com Bowl bid out of the team to begin with.

I noticed yesterday, while engaged in an ultimately futile effort to switch the hard drive on which Windows XP is installed on my Athlon XP box, that I had a bunch of photos on the hard drive from spring 2001, from just after I bought my now-aging Olympus C-2100UZ.

So now they’re on Flickr: vacation (well, actually, Western Political Science Association conference) photos from Hoover Dam in March 2001, and a few Ole Miss photos from April 2001 that I took for some website work. Hope you enjoy them!

Former Rebel head coach David Cutcliffe’s stint at Notre Dame didn’t last very long: he resigned Tuesday from his position as quarterbacks coach for the Fighting Irish after deciding that he couldn’t come back to coaching this year. Cut, known to Ole Miss fans as the master of the “prevent offense,” recently underwent triple-bypass surgery after suffering a heart attack in March. (þ: Jeff Quinton @ FanBlogs)

The SEC FanBlog passes on speculation that Ole Miss may favor ending the annual series with the University of Memphis, which (at least the Tigers believe) is contractually required to continue until 2011. While the matchup has been quite compelling in recent years, it’s clearly more of a benefit to the Tigers, who benefit from the national exposure and $45 ticket prices (a three-fold increase over regular pricing for Tiger home games) a home date at the Liberty Bowl with the Rebels brings, than a rebuilding Rebel squad that will need all the help it can get to be bowl eligible in 2005.

About 18 months ago, I wrote:

If the Rebel coaches want students to be interested in coming to practice and supporting the team, they should have a regularly-scheduled, free “open practice” session at the stadium, open up the concessions, and maybe even let manageable groups come down to the sidelines or end zone so they can take a look at that fancy new artificial turf we have. They could learn something here from the basketball program, which goes to much greater lengths to drum up fan support.

Let’s read today’s Clarion-Ledger:

Ole Miss fans curious about what changes new football coach Ed Orgeron has in store for the program experienced a significant one Monday when they showed up to get a peek at practice.

They were actually welcomed to stick around.

Orgeron told a room full of fans when he was hired on Dec. 16 that Ole Miss football was going to be a family affair with him at the helm. Helen Carraway said Orgeron took a huge step toward fulfilling that promise.

Carraway was one of an estimated 250 fans who lined up around the track inside Ole Miss’ indoor practice facility to watch the Rebels kick off spring practice.

Now if we could just understand a word Coach O said, we’d be set.

Continuing my roundabout theme, today’s Clarion-Ledger reports on construction of a roundabout on the Ole Miss campus in Oxford as part of the North-South Parkway (a.k.a. Gertrude Ford Boulevard) project.

Fail to win reelection? Well, if you’re well-connected enough, you may get to stay on the state’s payroll.

Laura points out that better-qualified adjuncts are probably quite annoyed that lovable losers like Jim Florio, Al Gore, David Dinkins, and Ronnie Musgrove are pulling in real money to teach 1–2 classes a semester at various private and public institutions.

As previously noted, it’s been announced that the September 3 season-opener between Ole Miss and the University of Memphis will be moved to Labor Day afternoon and televised on ESPN, according to today’s Clarion-Ledger.

ESPN.com reports that former Indiana running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who just transferred to Ole Miss, may now be heading back to Indiana. Bizarre.

Today’s CL reports that BenJarvus Green-Ellis, who left Indiana University a couple of weeks ago, will be joining the Rebel football team in 2006, with two years of eligibility after sitting out the 2005 season due to NCAA transfer rules. Green-Ellis’ arrival will hopefully help shore up an Ole Miss rushing attack that has been anemic at best ever since the departure of Deuce McAllister. (þ: SEC FanBlog)

In other Ole Miss news (reported in the same article), the Rebels and the University of Memphis are considering rescheduling the 2005 opener at Memphis’ Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium for Labor Day (Monday, September 5th) from Saturday, September 3rd, presumably in the hopes of attracting regional or national television coverage for the matchup.