Not overlooking LSU...but looking ahead to Ole Miss

[18IsTheMan]

Just took a gander at the AP poll and saw the SEC with 6 of the top 7 spots in the poll, which will obviously change as conference play kicks in. I noted Ole Miss' #5 and took a look at their schedule to see who they played this past week (MTSU). I noted, they have quite the cream puff schedule leading up to our game. I really don't know if we'll be able to hang with them or not, but they open with Furman, MTSU, Wake, Ga Southern and UK (at home) and then play us at WB. That means they'll come into WB undefeated for sure and largely untested. I don't know if/how that works in our favor or not. They will have had essentially 5 tune-up games essentially to work out kinks. On the other hand, they will have gone largely unchallenged, probably with 5 blowout wins. If we're able to challenge them some defensively, it will surely be first adversity they've faced all season. Also, they'll only have played on road game at Wake, which has a capacity of about 32,000. Win or lose, if we look respectable against LSU and can handle Akron as we ought to, WB will be packed and hopping. How will they respond to adversity in front of a hostile crowd of 80,000+? That's a variable they won't have had up to that point in the season.

 

[gamecock stock]

I think Missouri is number 6. Neither Ole Miss nor Missouri have recruited Top 10 classes. What they get is great coaching. That tells me we can become nationally relevant, like we were during part of the Spurrier era. Saturday's game with LSU will tell me a lot about Shane's coaching ability.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I think Missouri is number 6. Neither Ole Miss nor Missouri have recruited Top 10 classes. What they get is great coaching. That tells me we can become nationally relevant, like we were during part of the Spurrier era. Saturday's game with LSU will tell me a lot about Shane's coaching ability.

I'm assuming an LSU loss. (i.e LSU will win)

College football is very reactionary. UK thumped a very bad Southern Miss team and suddenly jumped to fringes of the top 25. On Saturday we found out they probably aren't a very good team.

We thumped a bad UK team (who largely self-destructed) and now we get Game Day coming to town.

Even though we likely lose this one, we just can't embarrass ourselves. It needs to look like 2 SEC teams squaring off. Aside from the losing, the worst thing that can happen is for us to look outclassed and overmatched.

 

[gamecock stock]

I'm assuming an LSU loss.

College football is very reactionary. UK thumped a very bad Southern Miss team and suddenly jumped to fringes of the top 25. On Saturday we found out they probably aren't a very good team.

We thumped a bad UK team (who largely self-destructed) and now we get Game Day coming to town.

Even though we likely lose this one, we just can't embarrass ourselves. It needs to look like 2 SEC teams squaring off. Aside from the losing, the worst thing that can happen is for us to look outclassed and overmatched.

You could be right. I don't bet. If I did, I would not bet on us. I said this yesterday and I believe it: Ole Miss proved last year that LSU is beatable. Kiffin is a helluva coach. That's what I hope Beamer is.

 

[Lurker123]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

But some super smart poster who plays Madden told me that their offense "won't work" against our defense. So there's hope.

 

[gamecock stock]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

But some super smart poster who plays Madden told me that their offense "won't work" against our defense. So there's hope.

I think you are closer to being right on that than not.

 

[gamecock stock]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

But some super smart poster who plays Madden told me that their offense "won't work" against our defense. So there's hope.

We will probably come out of that game with me being jealous of Ole Miss fans for the coach they have.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

Probably a safe assumption. I certainly didn't mean to imply in my OP that we would win or anything along those lines. Only that Ole Miss' schedule has them going largely untested up to our game. They might be untested in our game as well, but maybe we rattle them early, get the crowd going and who knows? Or they come out on the first drive of the game, go 80 yards in 75 seconds and score a TD, with a 2 point conversion because Lane is Lane.

 

[gamecock stock]

Probably a safe assumption. I certainly didn't mean to imply in my OP that we would win or anything along those lines. Only that Ole Miss' schedule has them going largely untested up to our game. They might be untested in our game as well, but maybe we rattle them early, get the crowd going and who knows? Or they come out on the first drive of the game, go 80 yards in 75 seconds and score a TD, with a 2 point conversion because Lane is Lane.

Lane is mid-1990s "Steve Spurrier".

 

[Piscis]

Unless Carolina can come out and either score early or shut down Ole Miss on their opening possession and then score to get a lead, I'm not sure how big a factor the crowd will be. If Ole Miss comes out and moves the ball early and gets a lead the wind may go out of the crowds sails pretty quickly. I've seen quite a few games where the crowd was insane to open the game and the opponent came out and either shut down the Carolina offense or scored quickly and all of a sudden the crowd is mostly watching quietly.

Ole Miss is good this season. I don't think a hostile crowd is going to rattle them.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Lane is mid-1990s "Steve Spurrier".

I guess if we're looking for other glimmers of hope it's that good defenses have been able to contain their offense. Bama held them 10 last year, UGA and Miss St held them to 17.

I said "glimmers" haha.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Unless Carolina can come out and either score early or shut down Ole Miss on their opening possession and then score to get a lead, I'm not sure how big a factor the crowd will be. If Ole Miss comes out and moves the ball early and gets a lead the wind may go out of the crowds sails pretty quickly. I've seen quite a few games where the crowd was insane to open the game and the opponent came out and either shut down the Carolina offense or scored quickly and all of a sudden the crowd is mostly watching quietly.

Ole Miss is good this season. I don't think a hostile crowd is going to rattle them.

No, not likely. But, yeah, it all goes to how the game starts. They likely will not have faced adversity this season when they enter our game. IF, as you mention, and it's a BIG if we can force them to punt and get a score to take the lead and get the crowd fired up? How will they handle that? Most likely they handle it just fine. But, who knows? It's certainly a game where we would need a lot of things to go our way, probably hoping for a number of unforced errors by Ole Miss.

This is all based on the massive assumption that we don't totally regress and look thoroughly outclassed against LSU and underwhelming against Akron.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

A lot of people said the same about Kentucky. It's been a strange college football season so far.

 

[Evilchicken]

Ole Miss beats us 35-14

 

[Cluster Cock]

There's a "Juice" factor that can't be overlooked. I think/hope we'll be focused and ready.

 

[Piscis]

There's a "Juice" factor that can't be overlooked. I think/hope we'll be focused and ready.

That is probably a bigger factor for fans than the players. College players are paid now and they all know some players are going to move for more money and they don't really have a problem with that. I saw an interview with some Georgia players about playing against Vanagriff and they all said they look forward to seeing him again. There was no ill will at all.

 

[18IsTheMan]

That is probably a bigger factor for fans than the players. College players are paid now and they all know some players are going to move for more money and they don't really have a problem with that. I saw an interview with some Georgia players about playing against Vanagriff and they all said they look forward to seeing him again. There was no ill will at all.

I agree with your overall point, but see Vandagriff a bit different than Antwane. It seemed UGA made it apparent to Vandagriff that he was likely not going to see the field in a meaningful way. He'd been riding the pine at UGA for a while and it was apparent if he wanted to be a starter, it was going to have to be somewhere else. Not the case with Antwane here.

But, yeah, college is trending to guys just jumping teams for more money, like the pros where nobody even bats an eyelash at it.

 

[Cluster Cock]

That is probably a bigger factor for fans than the players. College players are paid now and they all know some players are going to move for more money and they don't really have a problem with that. I saw an interview with some Georgia players about playing against Vanagriff and they all said they look forward to seeing him again. There was no ill will at all.

Nick Emmanwori posted a picture on Instagram of Juice under the caption "Judas Wells". It means more than you think.

 

[Gamecock Jacque]

There was no ill will at all.

Not publicly.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Nick Emmanwori posted a picture on Instagram of Juice under the caption "Judas Wells". It means more than you think.

In Antwane's case, I think so. If he had played last year, we are probably a 6 win team, at least. Maybe 7. As it is, we won 5 games with a 2-man offense. Beamer and Loggains both made strong comments towards the end of the season to indicate that Antwane was healthy enough to play but was choosing not to. As a player going out on the field, knowing you have a player who could help the team just sitting on the sideline collecting an NIL check, had to be infuriating.

UGA players don't harbor any ill will towards Vandagriff b/c why should they? He waited his turn and rode the pine at UGA, was seemingly liked by everyone, but he was just never gonna see the field there in a meaningful way.

 

[Thunderstick]

I don't think we stay within 2 TD's of Ole Miss.

But some super smart poster who plays Madden told me that their offense "won't work" against our defense. So there's hope.

"...plays Madden?"

He is surely a college coaching savant!

 

[KingWard]

I think Missouri is number 6. Neither Ole Miss nor Missouri have recruited Top 10 classes. What they get is great coaching...

How have they done in the portal? They aren't doing this with mirrors.

 

[USCEE82]

Dude. Now what are we gonna discuss the week of the Old Miss game? Politics?

 

[Maccmaine12]

Lane teams doesn’t do well on the road. I don’t believe Ole Miss team this year is better than that UT team from 2022. I also don’t trust Pete Golding[Their DC]. Letting a player score 4 TDs on your defense and you coach at Bama is unacceptable, he should’ve been fired before the game ended.

 

[gamecock stock]

How have they done in the portal? They aren't doing this with mirrors.

That's a good point and I previously thought about that as well. Ole Miss has done real well, ranked 4th,4th and 1st. But Missouri not quite as well as they have had only one highly ranked Portal class at 7th. South Carolina had one class ranked 3rd and another 11th. I don't know whether teams are getting malcontents or rinky-dink players overall. But based on the Portal rankings, we should be giving Ole Miss and Missouri a run for their money.

 

[18IsTheMan]

That's a good point and I previously thought about that as well. Ole Miss has done real well, ranked 4th,4th and 1st. But Missouri not quite as well as they have had only one highly ranked Portal class at 7th. South Carolina had one class ranked 3rd and another 11th. I don't know whether teams are getting malcontents or rinky-dink players overall. But based on the Portal rankings, we should be giving Ole Miss and Missouri a run for their money.

We'll see how things for Missouri this year, but Drinkwitz has done an excellent job of player evaluations/development for both recruiting and the portal. A huge part of their success is signing Luther Burden III, who was a 5* WR. Brady Cook was a lightly recruited 3* QB, but he's become a very good college QB and the Cook/Burden combo is a nightmare for opposing defenses. On top of that, the brought in Cody Schrader as a transfer walk-on from Truman State. He was, as far as I can tell, a 0* recruit (can't find any rating for him on any of the recruiting sites). But he turned into the best back in the SEC. Then Missouri goes out to the portal this year and picks up a dynamic duo on Marcus Carrol and Nate Noel, which some think gives them the best backfield in college football, or close to it.

Recruiting classes under Drinkwitz have ranked 51, 26, 15, 34 and 20. Pretty good. Not great. Not vastly different from us. But he's managed to pick up the key pieces (like a true #1 WR in Burden) and develop talent, like Schrader and Cook. They are overall just a solid team all-around.

Saying all that, we'll see about the long-term. His first 3 years at Mizzou were non-descript before they blew up last year. If he has another year like last year, he'll probably be off to bigger and better things. If he can produce those results with the overall talent level they have,

 

[gamecock stock]

We'll see how things for Missouri this year, but Drinkwitz has done an excellent job of player evaluations/development for both recruiting and the portal. A huge part of their success is signing Luther Burden III, who was a 5* WR. Brady Cook was a lightly recruited 3* QB, but he's become a very good college QB and the Cook/Burden combo is a nightmare for opposing defenses. On top of that, the brought in Cody Schrader as a transfer walk-on from Truman State. He was, as far as I can tell, a 0* recruit (can't find any rating for him on any of the recruiting sites). But he turned into the best back in the SEC. Then Missouri goes out to the portal this year and picks up a dynamic duo on Marcus Carrol and Nate Noel, which some think gives them the best backfield in college football, or close to it.

Recruiting classes under Drinkwitz have ranked 51, 26, 15, 34 and 20. Pretty good. Not great. Not vastly different from us. But he's managed to pick up the key pieces (like a true #1 WR in Burden) and develop talent, like Schrader and Cook. They are overall just a solid team all-around.

Saying all that, we'll see about the long-term. His first 3 years at Mizzou were non-descript before they blew up last year. If he has another year like last year, he'll probably be off to bigger and better things. If he can produce those results with the overall talent level they have,

Agree, time will tell on him. Because he did so well in that one year at App. State, gut feeling is that last season was not a fluke. But, we'll see.

The thing about recruiting is that you better evaluate good. Nick Saban made that point when he talked about Ohio State's big NIL budget. He said. "If you don't pay the right guys, you'll be sh_* * out of luck" . He is right. It looks like Drinkwitz is "pay(ing) the right guys". What that tells me regardless of our NIL budget (I am clueless as to what that is), that will be no excuse for Beamer not to produce. If Beamer is doing good evaluations (at both the high school and college ranks filling needs) and using his NIL money efficiently, we should see positive results on the playing field. What do you think of that logic, 18?

 

[Piscis]

Agree, time will tell on him. Because he did so well in that one year at App. State, gut feeling is that last season was not a fluke. But, we'll see.

The thing about recruiting is that you better evaluate good. Nick Saban made that point when he talked about Ohio State's big NIL budget. He said. "If you don't pay the right guys, you'll be sh_* * out of luck" . He is right. It looks like Drinkwitz is "pay(ing) the right guys". What that tells me regardless of our NIL budget (I am clueless as to what that is), that will be no excuse for Beamer not to produce. If Beamer is doing good evaluations (at both the high school and college ranks filling needs) and using his NIL money efficiently, we should see positive results on the playing field. What do you think of that logic, 18?

I agree 100% about evaluation. From what I've read, Georgia isn't throwing huge NIL money at HS kids to get them to Athens. Kirby is selling development and the future NFL money. The portal guys Georgia has gotten have been contributors because Kirby and staff evaluate very well before offering portal players. Saban and the Bama staff were the same way. They put more focus on evaluation than throwing big NIL money around.

 

[gamecock stock]

I agree 100% about evaluation. From what I've read, Georgia isn't throwing huge NIL money at HS kids to get them to Athens. Kirby is selling development and the future NFL money. The portal guys Georgia has gotten have been contributors because Kirby and staff evaluate very well before offering portal players. Saban and the Bama staff were the same way. They put more focus on evaluation than throwing big NIL money around.

I would just add "recruiting to fill needs". Recruiting a couple of 4 and 5 star QBs in a class will juice up your recruiting ranking, but maybe at the expense of shoring up other positions on the team. You can only play one QB at a time.

 

[18IsTheMan]

I'm afraid the Akron game will actually hurt us. What we see as a good thing, that we won 50-7 without QB1 or RB1, may actually be the cause of our demise against Ole Miss.

After starting to look smooth against LSU, Sellers is going to have 3 weeks of rust to knock off as we play Ole Miss. Given where we stood the Akron game was a massive opportunity for us to smooth out the offense with all of our starters. Sellers play has been a bit herky-jerky so far, looking downright dynamic on one play, then a bit lost on the next, which is what you expect from a redshirt freshman. I think it's optimistic think he'll just step right back in after 3 weeks against Ole Miss and look smooth.

The result of the Ole Miss/UK game this weekend will be interesting to see.

 

[PrestonyteParrot]

I'm afraid the Akron game will actually hurt us. What we see as a good thing, that we won 50-7 without QB1 or RB1, may actually be the cause of our demise against Ole Miss.

After starting to look smooth against LSU, Sellers is going to have 3 weeks of rust to knock off as we play Ole Miss. Given where we stood the Akron game was a massive opportunity for us to smooth out the offense with all of our starters. Sellers play has been a bit herky-jerky so far, looking downright dynamic on one play, then a bit lost on the next, which is what you expect from a redshirt freshman. I think it's optimistic think he'll just step right back in after 3 weeks against Ole Miss and look smooth.

The result of the Ole Miss/UK game this weekend will be interesting to see.

Hopefully KY will give them a tough, physical game if nothing else.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Hopefully KY will give them a tough, physical game if nothing else.

It is a noon game, which probably works in Ole Miss' favor.

Also, back to the OP, assuming our game with them is a night game, it will be the first truly hostile environment they have faced this year. Strange things can happen in WB at night.

 

[Uscg1984]

Hopefully KY will give them a tough, physical game if nothing else.

That goes to an 8th overtime.

 

[18IsTheMan]

Ole Miss sports a 4-0 record, but the teams they have faced have a combined 5-10 record, with those 5 wins coming against Tennessee Tech, NC A&T, Stetson, Nevada and SC State. UK will be the first semi-legit team they have played.

 

[Piscis]

Ole Miss sports a 4-0 record, but the teams they have faced have a combined 5-10 record, with those 5 wins coming against Tennessee Tech, NC A&T, Stetson, Nevada and SC State. UK will be the first semi-legit team they have played.

True, but they have scored 76, 52, 40, and 52 points in each of their wins while giving up a total of 22 points.

 

[18IsTheMan]

True, but they have scored 76, 52, 40, and 52 points in each of their wins while giving up a total of 22 points.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not expecting us to shut them down or anything. I don't have very high hopes for the game...at all...but if you're looking for a glimmer of hope, it's that they have been 100% untested as of yet. We would be 4-0 with their schedule. They scored 52 against MTSU, but Duke and WKU each scored 49. They scored 52 on Ga Southern but Boise State scored 56.

In 2009, Ole Miss rolled in to WB ranked #4, having blown out Memphis and SE Louisiana State in their first 2 games. We won that game 16-10 with sensational defense and just enough offense. If we stand a chance this year, it will likely follow the same formula.

Ole Miss will be a heavy, heavy favorite, no doubt, and for good reason.