Ole Miss wrap-up: Saturday's victory anything but routine

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Ole Miss wrap-up: Saturday's victory anything but routine
By Jess Nicholas
TideFans.com Editor-in-Chief
Oct. 14, 2007

They have a word for these decided-in-the-last-second Alabama games this season: Next.

Beginning with the Arkansas game in Week 3, every Alabama game has either been decided in the last minute, or when the game had run out of minutes. Alabama beat Arkansas on a late touchdown drive, lost to Georgia in overtime, lost to Florida State (but had a chance to tie the game late), and held on for dear life against Houston.

And then came Ole Miss, a team that has been the walking, talking, running, passing and tackling personification of dysfunctional ever since the Rebels inexplicably fired David Cutcliffe nearly three years ago. In the time since, first-time head coach Ed Orgeron has tried to implement the winning-via-recruiting strategy that countless other coaches (including, many would argue, Alabama’s Nick Saban) have employed over the years.

But Ole Miss, in this same time frame, has been nearly inscrutable from an analyst’s perspective. The Rebels, for instance, came in ranked either dead last or close enough to count in every SEC defensive category, yet defensive end Greg Hardy – only a sophomore, unfortunately for Alabama – put on a clinic the likes Alabama hasn’t seen since the 2005 Auburn game that made NFL prospects out of every defensive lineman in a Tiger uniform.

Offensively, Ole Miss has never been good under Orgeron. Only in 2007 did the passing game start to right itself, and only then making it to 53rd in the NCAA in passing offense prior to the Alabama game, and in the hands of a walk-on quarterback, no less.

But against Alabama, Ole Miss displayed the kind of offensive balance that Georgia used to beat the Crimson Tide, and were it not for a pair of crucial drops and a favorably deflected pass that ended up in the hands of linebacker Ezekial Knight, Alabama might be singing an entirely different tune today.

And then, of course, was “The Play,” which found retired referee Doyle Jackson, now a SEC replay official, correctly ruling that Ole Miss receiver Shay Hodge went out of bounds – thus making himself an ineligible receiver – before catching a pass that threatened to set Ole Miss up at the 4-yard line with seven seconds left.

For Alabama, the two best things to come out of Oxford were the win and the injury report. Aside from those things, Alabama certainly didn’t improve from its game against Houston, which also didn’t show any particular improvement over the previous week’s loss to Florida State. It would be unfair to say the defense won the Ole Miss game the way it technically won the Houston game, because were it not for the replay rule, Alabama might not have won a thing.

Alabama now hits the real meat of its schedule, a three-game run of Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State. Each team has improved from the last time Alabama saw it, and in all three cases, Alabama came away with losses.

It’s difficult to say what Alabama needs most right now. A killer instinct was absent against Houston, but Alabama never got far enough ahead against Ole Miss for a killer instinct to come into play against the Rebels. Instead, what Alabama seemed to need was a refresher course on blocking a defensive end, as well as a can of spray glue for running back Glen Coffee’s hands.

However, after seven games, Alabama now finds itself tied for the lead in the SEC West, something that many did not believe they would see at this point in the Nick Saban era. One thing Alabama is doing that people expected is winning close games. Alabama is 3-2 over the last five weeks, not championship-level football yet but far better than anything Alabama has seen in many years. Only the 2005 season, which proved to be an anomaly, gave Alabama a break from the negativity that had shrouded the program for the better part of a decade.

Tennessee will be Alabama’s first game against a true rival under Nick Saban. It might not end in victory for Alabama, but there won’t be any quit in the Crimson Tide. Saturday’s fourth-quarter comeback against Ole Miss proved attitudes are changing.