Question: Is Ole Miss bad enough to lose 3 games this year?

Hugh Freeze is a good coach but he has the Auburn mentality in that beating Alabama is the main goal. If you beat Bama you are somebody. You are a good team/program.
Winning the rest of the games is just icing on the cake.

In interviews before and after the Fla game he talked about beating Alabama and how good they were because they beat Alabama.
I mean they just got beat by Fla and are getting ready to play NM St and he talks about beating Bama.

Rush said:

I didn't see their game against Florida, but can't help but wonder what the Gators did to control Nkemdiche...

Put him in restraints?

The guy was a one man wrecking crew against us...

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Their O-Line (complete with 3 FR starters) handled him all night. He was never a factor in the game.

Mississippi's starting 22 could compete just fine with any team on their schedule. But the injury/suspension bug has bitten them this year. In particular, the offensive line is getting very thin and was not what you would have thought it would be in August (i.e. Tunsil). As they grind through the meat of the schedule after NMSU, I think they will become more and more vulnerable. Not to beat a dead horse, but we went away from the run game at the very point it likely would have been deadly to them in Tuscaloosa. LSU isn't going to do that, because they don't have any choices. Having to rely on LF as practically the entire offense is eventually going to bite LSU, but it won't be against Mississippi.

I can see them easily dropping 3-4 games this season. Florida, and frankly Alabama, has given everyone else the blueprint. Teams that they face that can execute that blueprint are LSU, A&M and to a slightly lesser extent MSU (though if Dak gets dinged up they are done). I would not want to have to pick a favorite in their game with Arkansas.

Finally, russtang has nailed it. They might lose 4 games and go to something like the Music City Bowl and in the pregame press conference Freeze will be still be talking about Alabama.

B1GTide said:

If memory serves me correctly, Nkemdiche was down to Alabama and Ole Miss when he made his choice. I would say that he is probably more motivated when playing against Alabama for that reason. Plus, you're Alabama.

Sure, Florida has a solid program, but did you really believe that they were going to beat Ole Miss? Apparently Ole Miss didn't.

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I picked UF. Wasn't as confident as I should have been.

derek4tide said:

Their O-Line (complete with 3 FR starters) handled him all night. He was never a factor in the game.

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They really did a good job on him. However he (and others) were a factor. There were a few times (including the touchdown to Robinson) where Grier had them right in his grill.

ALA2262 said:

I picked UF. Wasn't as confident as I should have been.

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You missed my point - almost no one picked Florida. Players read their own press clippings. Ole Miss almost certainly read all of that and came into the game over-confident. They had just beaten Alabama and Florida was a team trying to find itself with a first year head coach. It impacted their performance.

That is what Saban was talking about in his presser rant. The media puts stuff into the heads of players, and it effects their play. He doesn't want his players listening to the press tell them how great they are after the GA win, just like he didn't want them to give up on themselves after the OM loss.

This is a very good analysis, and I think exactly what happened to ole miss

B1GTide said:

You missed my point - almost no one picked Florida. Players read their own press clippings. Ole Miss almost certainly read all of that and came into the game over-confident. They had just beaten Alabama and Florida was a team trying to find itself with a first year head coach. It impacted their performance.

That is what Saban was talking about in his presser rant. The media puts stuff into the heads of players, and it effects their play. He doesn't want his players listening to the press tell them how great they are after the GA win, just like he didn't want them to give up on themselves after the OM loss.

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russtang said:

Hugh Freeze is a good coach but he has the Auburn mentality in that beating Alabama is the main goal. If you beat Bama you are somebody. You are a good team/program.
Winning the rest of the games is just icing on the cake.

In interviews before and after the Fla game he talked about beating Alabama and how good they were because they beat Alabama.
I mean they just got beat by Fla and are getting ready to play NM St and he talks about beating Bama.

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He knows beating Bama will get him raises and extensions. Hey, who wouldn't want to keep a three million per year gig for about ten years?

I'm not sure bad enough is the right way to put it, but as has been noted they only need to lose one more to allow Alabama to control their own destiny.

If I was a betting man, I'd say between Miss. State, LSU, and Texas A&M they'll have another SEC loss. They can beat those teams if they play a good game though, but so much of their talent lies at just a few positions. If the opponent can deal with them, they become very beatable.

The Rebs could lose three games - maybe more - but it wouldn't make them bad. The SEC is a very tough league; especially the western division.

teamplayer said:

He knows beating Bama will get him raises and extensions. Hey, who wouldn't want to keep a three million per year gig for about ten years?

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hell, richt doesn't even have to beat bama for his 3 mil/year gig

I may be wrong but I look for their QB to implode sometime in the season. He seems to be wound a little tight.

BAMAVILLE said:

^^^
I agree and it starts with focusing on doing what it takes to beat Arky this Saturday.

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Anyone on TideFans playing on Saturday?

B1GTide said:

Anyone on TideFans playing on Saturday?

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We pretty much all do, vicariously...

I expect Ole Miss to be stretched to the limit at Memphis. They may not lose but if they beat New Mexico State as bad as expected, then the spread will be such that Memphis will be the Underdog Lock of the Week. Memphis has two weeks to prepare. Ole Miss could be looking ahead to aTm.

B1GTide said:

Anyone on TideFans playing on Saturday?

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We used to have a Tidefans team way back in the day. Or was that when it was called BamaNation (or whatever, memory is fading)?

I think it may have been Earle who picked the team.

92tide said:

hell, richt doesn't even have to beat bama for his 3 mil/year gig

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Yeah, and Richt has been there long enough now that his family should never be forced to work again. Freeze was coaching girls basketball just a few years ago, so he probably wants to secure a few more years.

Ok.

1) ole miss isn't a bad team, maybe the question should be is ole miss a pretender or contender based on the talent they do have

2) what people are not saying about ole miss's game against Florida and alabama is more of the truth than what they are. What people are saying is what stats reflect rather than what actually happened in both of those games. Ole miss is great against teams that can't pass and teams that can't pass. In our game, we started out very conservative and allowed ole miss to stack the box while also giving them loads of points off turnovers. That plays into ole miss's strengths on defense because their strength is their defensive line and Henry isn't a mark Ingram type back that is going to pulverize teams by physical hits when they do that. While I will agree that Lane kiffin totally abandoning the run was mind boggling, it wasn't til Coker started throwing the ball that those line backers and DBS backed off. What Florida did was showed ole miss that they were capable of passing and ran mostly away from the des. They forced ole miss to spread out their defense in order to try to stop them and ole miss never adjusted. They also dared ole miss to try to pass against their DBS since they basically knew that ole miss didn't have a running game

3) I think out of all the teams left on ole miss's schedule, ATM is probably the one that will give them the most trouble since chavis's defense is the most equipped to stop a skill heavy offensive attack, and sumlin will more than likely play fun and gun to neutralize their defensive strengths. Lsu will probably beat them but I'm still not convinced that they can beat a team when a better than average defense loads the box on them. Still lsu's one trick pony is pretty devastating if he gets loose so I will go with a 9-3 season for freeze

4) none of this matters for us if we don't do our part. I'm very confidant at us beating LSU at home if we go 4-0 I'm October, but I'm not über confident about ATM just yet. While Arkansas gashing them with the run has made me more confident, atm's offense against our defense is probably going to be our biggest test all year on defense. ATM has a qb that won't be a statue out there and has better than average wrs that will most likely be a bigger test for our bds than what UGA and ole miss were. While tread well is arguably the best wr we will ever see all year, I think atm's recieving core as a whole is a bigger threat. I'm predicting a win but I'm not all warm and fuzzy about it. But first we need to take care of Arkansas

If ole miss drops another sec game and bama wins out bama wins the west. Or if a three way tie happens and bama is ranked higher, bama wins the west