Northern Arizona? Really?!

I'm a lumberjack and I'm okay...

Ole Miss hosts the FCS Northern Arizona Lumberjacks in Oxford on Saturday. Not even going to waste time on this one.

Rebels win big and hopefully someone besides Jevan Snead gets playing time at the QB position...

Rebel Offense Shows Up in Big Win

Jevan Snead and the Ole Miss offense decided to show up for most of the game against UAB and hopefully gained some confidence heading into the game against Arkansas. Obviously, no one is deluded enough to think a win against UAB means all the Rebels problems are solved. But, this game was needed for Ole Miss' offense to feel at least competent heading into a must win against a Razorback team that ALMOST upset Florida in the Swamp. (And might have won if not for the corrupt SEC referees who protect the SEC's cash cows - Alabama and Florida - at all costs.)

The game was never in any doubt. All that was in doubt was whether or not Jevan would complete more passes to his receivers than the new FieldTurf at Vaught-Hemingway. He did and the Rebel offense showed glimpses of the 2008 team -albeit against a pitiful C-USA team.

Defensively, Ole Miss continued to shine and was able to get through Homecoming without many injuries. Marshay Green is still questionable for this Saturday, but was cleared to practice today.

Preview of the game versus UPIG later in the week. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming...

UAB at Ole Miss

UAB has always had an excellent program and I expect that they will come in to Oxford Saturday night giving Ole Miss their best shot.

The Blazers are a perennial contender in their conference and have always played the underdog role well.

Under Coach Andy Kennedy, the Rebels have improved significantly and are looking forward to another banner season. It's interesting that he would schedule his alma mater for an exhibition game in mid-October, but it should be a good game for both teams to prepare for the season. My dad worked at UAB for 26 years and I have such fond memories of going to basketball games with him. So this will be a particularly hard game for me as I pull for the Rebels against the Blazers.

What's that, you say? These two schools are playing in FOOTBALL? And Gene Bartow is no longer the head basketball coach?

Oh.

Sorry about that.

Apparently, Ole Miss is playing UAB in a homecoming game that features one of the worst defenses in Division 1 and one of the worst offenses in the SEC. Should be a good day to go out and spend some time with the family and catch the score Sunday morning on http://www.al.com/.

The Rebels do feature one of the SEC's best defense and enter this matchup as a 22 point favorite. From what I've read, UAB has an outstanding QB in Joe Webb but if you stop him, you stop the Blazer offense. This game comes at a good time for Ole Miss and their coaching staff and I look for them to rebound nicely and hopefully gain some momentum before entering the final stretch of the season.
Ole Miss can still finish strong and after stewing about the loss and contemplating giving up Rebel athletics (again), I do think the Rebels will look much better this Saturday.

Ole Miss 31, UAB 13.

Lions, Rebels and Gamecocks - Oh My!

Okay, so the good news is the Rebels won 52-6 and escaped without any major injuries. The bad news is they looked sluggish and uninspired. I know, I know. Swine flu ran amok throughout the team and Jevan Snead's grandfather died last week so it has been an unusual season so far. The good guys were also playing an FCS team that is only slightly better than the Hoover High Bucs. Actually, come to think of it Hoover might give the Lions a run for their money...

SELA Lions vs. Ole Miss Rebels

The Rebels had a VERY early bye week and thankfully were able to get all of their key players infected with the swine flu. Thank God! Okay, obviously I don't wish anyone to get infected with swine flu - except Jackie Sherrill and Ed Orgeron. But if the Rebels were going to be exposed to H1N1, better during their bye week than in 3 weeks when Alabama rolls into Oxford.

2010 Southern Regional at the Georgia Dome

They've hooked up for some compelling post-season basketball and baseball games, so why not get the tackle football teams into the act?

Six months after Ty Lawson came off the bench in the closing minutes of the second round of the NCAA tournament to bring UNC back from elimination at the hands of LSU, the Tar Heels and Bayou Bengals have mercifully ended weeks of speculation by agreeing to open the 2010 season in Atlanta in the Chick-fil-A kickoff game in the Georgia Dome. Apparently, Big Chicken has decided to continue its twice-annual SEC-ACC snuff film -- only this time, the Fighting Sabans get to stay home. Butch Davis' resurgent(?) Tar Heels follow in the footsteps of Clemson and Virginia Tech, trying to do that which the ACC (and Ohio State) has thus far been unable.

It stands to be an uncharacteristically robust out-of-conference challenge for the Heels (who don't stand to gain all that much with respect to recruitment because they play biennially at Georgia Tech). LSU, meanwhile, adds the likely (possibly... hopefully...?) nationally-ranked Tar Heels to an out-of-conference schedule that already includes West Virginia. It seems like Les Miles and Joe Alleva already remember how playing (and beating, unmercifully) Virginia Tech in 2007 (as opposed to adding a creampuff to an out-of-conference slate that typically includes Tulane, North Texas and one or more "directional-Louisiana" schools) pushed them above the end-of-season morass and into the title game in the Superdome.

It's a good start. Every little bit helps the SEC shed its reputation as the Mark Mangino* of out-of-conference schedulers. Every Tiger fan also knows it's just window dressing until a rematch with the Trojans takes place.

*Cupcakes. I'm talking about cupcakes. Until our audience expands beyond spouses and each other, I feel like analogies need to be trampled with explanation.