#3 - 2009 Jevan Sneed Loss to South Carolina

     Number 3 on my "worst of the worst" list involves the highly anticipated 2009 Rebel football squad.  Before the season even started the whole country had its eyes on Oxford and everyone expected big things out of returning quarterback Jevan Snead.  When the preseason rankings came out in June, the 2009 football team was ranked number 10 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll and number 8 in the Associated Press New Media Poll.
     Everything started off great.  The Rebs outscored their first two opponents, Memphis and Southeastern Louisiana, by 77 points.  All of the Rebel Faithful knew that one of the team's biggest tests of the season would be our 3rd game against an underrated South Carolina team that was set to be a Thursday night ESPN game on national television.  By the time the game was played, the Rebels were ranked number 4 in the country and I could barely sleep at night.
     Unfortunately the week of the game also happened to be the week of fraternity and sorority rush at Ole Miss, so instead of making the trip to Columbia, SC to be in attendance I had to sit around the Sigma Nu house and shake hands with about a thousand freshman dudes.  Luckily, our advisors let us keep the TV going during the rounds.
     Basically, the Rebels choked.  We couldn't get much going on offense and Jevan Snead destroyed any chance he had of being in Heisman contention with his lackluster performance.  The season wasn't completely ruined by any means, but I knew that this loss meant that the Rebs weren't as good a team as I (and everyone in America) thought they were.  The Rebels went on to finish the season 9-4 and win the Cotton Bowl for the second year in a row which is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, however, the lofty preseason expectations were far from met, and Rebel football fans were left unsatisfied once again.  This is why the 2009 South Carolina game is #3 on my "worst of the worst" list.

Here's a video narrated by some random South Carolina guy of the highlights of that game:

Haley Barbour Pardons Houston Nutt

Click for a funny story by Friends of the Program

It's Almost Time For Rebel Baseball

     Writing that last post reminded me of a great YouTube video that captures some of the excitement surrounding the 2009 Oxford Super Regional.  On a cold, dreary day in Oxford like today, it's a great reminder that we are getting closer and closer to baseball season.

#4 - 2009 Baseball Heartbreak

     Number 4 on my "worst of the worst" list involves the Rebel Baseball team.  Anybody who's anybody knows that sitting in the outfield of Oxford-University Stadium is an excellent way to spend a Spring afternoon or evening here in Oxford, MS.  One can drink cheap beer legally (if it's in a cup of course), talk to pretty girls, and watch the Rebels play a sport we have been consistently good at for a long period of time.  It's a win, win, win situation usually.
     In 2009, the Rebels were on a roll.  We won a share of the SEC regular season title and were selected to host a regional tournament in Oxford.  Luckily, I had made the wise decision to enroll in an Summer School class so I was able to witness all of the excitement first-hand.
     The Rebels rolled through their regional opponents Missouri and Western Kentucky which meant that The Super Regional Tournament would be hosted in Oxford also.  The excitement level and hysteria for the baseball team were at an all time high.  The Rebs were up against a very good University of Virginia team, but everybody and their Momma seemed to think we were destined to finally escape the Super Regional round with a victory and earn a trip to the College World Series in Omaha (a feat that the Rebels had never accomplished).
     Things started off exceptionally well.  Matt Smith hit a walk-off home run to beat the Cavaliers in Game 1 of the 3 game series.  (Here is a very blurry video of the home run and the celebration)

Full cups were thrown in the air, people were hugging strangers, and everyone was yelling the words to Hotty Toddy as loud as humanly possible.  It was honestly the greatest sporting event I've ever been to in my life.  As the celebratory suds rained down on all in attendance, the reality set in that all we had to do was beat Virginia one more time in the next 2 days and we were headed to the World Series.  Easy right?
     Well it didn't turn out to be so easy.  We lost...  Both games 2 and 3...  Both of them...  I won't get into the details here because, although its been almost 3 years, the wounds are just too fresh.  To go from winning game 1 on a walk-off to choking two days in a row was an emotional roller coaster that I wouldn't wish on anyone, and to make matters worse, to this day we still have not earned a trip to the College World Series.  That my friends is how the 2009 baseball season earned the #4 spot on my "worst of the worst" list.

Anyone Want to See a Great Looking Billboard?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is what a well designed, classy marketing campaign looks like.  It is not deregatory towards another group of people and it highlights a tangible, measurable achievement of the alumni of The University of Mississippi.  Trivia question of the day:  How many former Mississippi State Bulldogs have EVER made it to the NFL Pro Bowl? (Hint:  Its fewer than the number of people on this billboard)

#5 - 2007 Ole Miss v. Alabama Shoe Throwing Incident

     Over the next few days I will be counting down the Rebel athletic low points of my lifetime.  I was born in 1988 so there will certainly be many instances of Hotty Toddy heartbreak left off of this list, but I simply want to chronicle the five times where I questioned my faith in the Rebels the most.  Some readers may see this series as a worthless, pessimistic endeavor.  I respectfully disagree.  I think that all good Rebels must experience and even celebrate these moments that test our faith in order to fully appreciate the sweetness of a big time win.  Just imagine how incredibly marvelous the moment will be when when you witness a Rebel National Championship (in any major sport), knowing that you were there when Eli tripped against LSU, you sweat through your gameday polo in the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium every other September for 10 years, or you drove 8 hours to Knoxville one time only to see us lose by 40.  These, my friends, are the moments that truly bring us together.

     Number 5 on my personal "worst of the worst" list is the Ole Miss v. Alabama football game from the 2007 season (My freshman year).  For those of you who don't know, the 2007 Rebel Football season was absolutely miserable. It was Coach Orgeron's final season before he was fired and the Rebels went winless in the SEC for the first time in 25 years.  Despite all of this negativity, the Rebels had a legitimate chance to beat the Alabama Crimson Tide (something the Rebs have only done 8 times since the rivalry began in 1894).  As the 4th quarter began, the Rebels were up 24-17 and Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was rocking.  Even in the midst of such a dismal season, beating Alabama would have meant the world to the Rebel Nation.  Unfortunately, Alabama was able to score 10 in the final quarter to put them up 27-24.  The Rebs got the ball back and had one final chance to win the game or at the very least tie it up and send it into overtime.  The tension in Oxford was palpable, but quarterback Seth Adams was able to complete a 41-yard pass to Shay Hodge to give the Rebels possession at the Alabama 4-yard line with 7 seconds left on the clock.  The stadium erupted in cheers, but that joy was quickly extinguished when the referees decided that the play needed to be reviewed.  After a five-minute review, the refs overturned their decision and decided that Shay had stepped out of bounds and was therefore ineligible to make the catch.  The Ole Miss Rebels were defeated.
     As many of you already know, the reason this moment in Rebel history received a spot on my list is that the replay booth official (Doyle Jackson, a resident of the state of Alabama) was WRONG.  Mr. Jackson claimed that since Shay step out of bounds while running down the field he was no longer eligible to make the catch.  However, the NCAA rules state that if a receiver is PUSHED out of bounds (which Shay was) he is still an eligible receiver.  Furthermore, even if the receiver was not pushed, if the ball was touched first by a defensive player (which it was) then all players automatically become eligible receivers.  Watch this video and decide for yourself whether or not Jackson got the call correct:

     Doyle Jackson single handedly snatched victory out of our hands by making this clearly incorrect call.  It still makes me mad just thinking about it.  At the time, the student section was so angry about the call that cups, trash, and high-heeled shoes were thrown onto the field in disgust, leading Alabama Coach Nick Saban to call Ole Miss fans "classless" in an interview after the game.  I personally didn't throw anything onto the field, but I would have if my date would have given me her shoes.

Seriously State?... Seriously?

     Its a rainy Sunday afternoon in Oxford, Mississippi. Just yesterday, the Dundrecous Nelson-less Basket Bears were embarrassed by LSU 81-55 down in Baton Rouge, but the loss is a little easier to swallow considering that I just watched former Rebel Eli Manning absolutely manhandle the Atlanta Falcons in the NFL Playoffs.  As I ride down Jackson Avenue, however, something ugly and maroon in the sky catches my eye.  Wait a second... surely this can't be... What in the hell?...

     That my friends is an actual billboard erected by "The School Beneath Us" in our lovely town a mere half-mile from the most beautiful campus in the country.  It's shocking that they would have the gall to do this, right?  Actually, the more and more that I've thought about it, this heinous act really isn't as shocking as much as it is just plain sad and pathetic.  So instead of grabbing a can of gasoline and setting fire to this billboard, I have decided to expound upon the two reasons why I feel that it so sad and pathetic: (feel free to list your own personal grievances in the comment section)

• Mississippi State University (an accredited institution of higher education) PAID to put this billboard up - My first thought upon seeing this sign was that it was probably put up by some maniacal state fan who happened to have made a little extra money this year selling chewing tobacco and NASCAR license plates in the junction, but if you look closely, that is an actual Mississippi State logo.  AN ACTUAL LOGO!  This means that at some point the marketing team at State sat around a board room in Starkville and decided that it was a good idea to spend money on a billboard for the sole purpose of pissing a large group of people off.  While it did piss me off, the fact of the matter is that it was an absolutely pathetic move, and I can promise you that THE University of Mississippi will never waste its money on such a petty display.
• The Billboard Was Probably Dan Mullen's Idea: I've honestly never really hated Mississippi State that much.  I just haven't.  In my life, I've reserved most of my hatred for teams that have given me a reason to hate them like LSU and Alabama, and I've chosen to simply ignore the Rebel's irrelevant little brother, MSU.  In fact, I have chosen to never even set foot on the campus of Mississippi State (but I've heard horror stories).  In the past few years, however, Dan Mullen has somehow managed to ignite a fiery hatred deep within my soul for MSU that seems to grow daily.  Yes, it angers me that he has beaten us 3 years in a row, but lets be honest, Houston Nutt isn't exactly a coaching genius so thats not what pisses me off.  What angers me about Mullen is that for three years he has acted like a complete douche bag and he has convinced a large group of people, who I probably have more similarities with than differences, to act like douche bags.  He insists on not referring to Ole Miss by its name, he has littered Mississippi highways with signs proclaiming that he and his beloved Bulldawgs "own the state", and he has somehow brainwashed MSU's fan base to believe that they are "champions"even though they have only won three SEC West games during his tenure (all three wins are against Ole Miss).  Dan Mullen is a delusional, pathetic man who prefers to generate buzz for his team through redneck propaganda rather than actually winning.

Recent Rebel Issues

     One might think that the beginning of the first week of January would be an uneventful time for Ole Miss athletics besides our last basketball game before SEC play begins.  However, two Rebels have decided to go and get themselves into trouble and start the new year off with negative news stories.
     The first incident involves #2 on the football time, true freshman wide receiver Nickolas (a.k.a. Snoop) Brassell.  Brassell, one of the few bright spots in our dismal offense this season, is apparently getting a "birthday bash" thrown for him by The Locker Room Sports Bar & Grill here in Oxford this Friday night.

Whether this birthday bash was Snoop's idea or not, it is a blatant NCAA violation.  NCAA by-laws prohibit the use of a student-athlete's likeness to promote a business or for-profit enterprise.  Luckily, I heard yesterday that Coach Freeze found out about the party and made Snoopy cancel it.  Let's hope this is true.  The last thing we need is crap like this when we are literally the worst team in the SEC.  If I were Coach Freeze I would make sure there is a mandatory weight lifting session Friday night to make sure no one is out partying with DJ A-Mac on the damn 1s and 2s.
     The second incident this week happened early yesterday morning.  Dundrecous (The Don) Nelson was arrested on drug paraphernalia charges according to OxfordCrimeReport.com.  (Ok, I admit that nobody calls him "The Don" except for me)  For those of you who don't know me very well, I (unlike most Rebel fans) love Ole Miss Basketball for some strange reason, so this story is particularly upsetting to me.  For someone to be 3 days away from the start of SEC play and even be in the room with people smoking the ganja, to me, is inexcusable.  Word isn't out on what Coach Kennedy is going to do about this situation, but Kennedy claims to have a zero tolerance policy with drug use on the team.  I personally think Kennedy needs to give him the boot to send a message to the team that this kind of selfish, dumb-assery isn't going to fly.

The Art of Being an Ole Miss Football Fan

Below is an essay I wrote for an English class a few years back.  I think reading it will give you a better understanding of my upbringing as a Rebel Fan.  Enjoy

The Art of Being an Ole Miss Football Fan

            My roommate Tripp spent his childhood in Houston, Texas, 612 miles away from the sacred Grove in Oxford and just outside of Southeastern Conference territory.  His parents graduated from Ole Miss, but they lived so far away that Tripp didn’t get many opportunities to see the Rebel football team in person.  Consequently, he was only a casual fan.  In addition to lectures about remembering to go to class and tips on how to stay out of too much trouble in college, Tripp’s father Ron gave his son one serious bit of relationship advice the day he moved into his dorm room at the University of Mississippi:  “If you fall head over heels in love with this football team, like I did… just know that the Rebels are probably going to break your heart.”

            Unlike my friend Tripp, I had the privilege of essentially growing up in the Grove.  I made my first appearance there only months after my birth and spent countless Saturdays in the following years walking from Grove tent to Grove tent in search of Abner’s chicken.  Ultimately, I decided to attend Ole Miss.  Needless to say, I was born a Rebel.

            It took a few years, however, for me to comprehend what being an Ole Miss football fan really meant.  One of my earliest football memories is from the Ole Miss vs. Alabama game on October 23, 1993, in Oxford.  The Rebels won 19-14 and people all around me, including my father and grandfather, started jumping around and screaming for joy like I had never seen before.  I didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.  Up to that point in my life I had been brainwashed to believe that the Rebels never lost a game, so beating Alabama didn’t seem like such a big deal.  Later that day, my Dad sat me down, and we had a serious talk much like Tripp and his father.  He explained to me that the Rebs had only beaten the Crimson Tide four other times in his lifetime and only two other times before that.  I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.  “So you’re telling me the Rebels aren’t the best football team in the world?”

            That bittersweet day was a turning point in my life.  It was the day I became a true Ole Miss football fan, accepting of the team’s shortcomings but determined to do everything in my power to will the Rebels to victory every time they took the field.  I was 5 years old at the time.

            As the years went by I became more and more engrossed in Rebel fandom.  I’ve experienced the triumphant joys of watching a big SEC win from the student section and felt the searing pain that comes with watching time expire as my Rebels are defeated.  My roommate, Tripp, is now a diehard like me, so together we keep tabs on recruits and spend countless hours talking about how next year is the year we could win The National Title, or at the very least an SEC Championship.

            At Ole Miss, football wasn’t always a sport that so many people like me cared so much about.  In fact, in the early days of the program there was a head coach who is on record saying, “I’ve got an idea what hell is like; I coached at Ole Miss for a few years.”

            Twenty-seven frustrated coaches came and went during the first fifty-three years of the program’s existence, but that all changed when Coach John Howard Vaught came along in 1947.  Vaught shattered the opinions of those that thought a bunch of farm boys from Mississippi would never be able to compete with the other premiere programs of the Southeastern Conference by winning the SEC championship in his first year.  His no nonsense attitude and his approach to winning put Ole Miss Football on the map and set the bar for all future Rebel squads.  In a 1956 edition of the Saturday Evening Post, Vaught explained, “I never go into a game without thinking we can win it.”

            Even though his twenty-four year tenure brought an unbelievable amount of success to the Ole Miss program, Vaught was not perfect.  He went on a two season stretch where the Rebs only won three conference games and he failed to win an outright National Championship at any point during his career.  (The three National Title banners currently hanging in the Ole Miss Stadium all refer to shares of disputed National Championships).  Vaught’s legendary career did, however, create generations of Ole Miss football fans all over the state with an insatiable desire for winning.

            Since Vaught’s retirement in 1973, those fans have been left, more often than not, wanting more out of their Rebel squads.  Sure there have been times for celebration, big wins over rival schools, great season records, and bowl wins over the years, but every true Ole Miss fan can remember the seasons where well warranted championship hopes seemed to dissolve into thick, humid air beneath bright stadium lights when the pressure was on.  Our most recent season in 2009 was exactly the kind of tragic, heartbreaking saga I am referring to.

            Before the 2009 season even started hopes for glory were the highest they had been since the days of Johnny Vaught.  The Rebels were riding a wave of momentum created by the previous year’s midseason victory over the eventual national champion Florida Gators, a five game win streak, and a miraculous Cotton Bowl win over the 8^th ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders.  Most of the preseason excitement was centered on returning quarterback Jevan Snead.  Snead showed fans glimpses of greatness in his final games of the 2008 year and was projected to be in the running for the 2009 Heisman Trophy. Countless newspapers, magazines, and television shows couldn’t stop talking about the Ole Miss Rebels, and Rebel fans everywhere loved every minute of it.

When the 2009 preseason rankings came out in June, the Rebels were listed as number 10 in the USA Today Coaches' Poll and number 8 in the Associated Press News Media Poll.  “Everyone wants to see if this is hype or if we're actually good," defensive end Kentrell Lockett said in a preseason interview with USA Today. "We have to make sure we're not a fluke. We're ranked high and want to stay there, get a better ranking, and shoot for a national championship, an SEC championship, something that hasn't happened here in a long time."

            The season started off as planned.  The Rebs outscored their first two opponents, Memphis and Southeastern Louisiana, by 77 points.  My inner mixture of nervousness, excitement, and apprehension seemed to rise in direct correlation to our national ranking, so by the time we reached number 4 in the country I could barely sleep at night.  I knew deep in my soul that there was a possibility that all of the hype was too good to be true.  I knew (from much experience) that I shouldn’t get my hopes up so early in the season, but number 4 in the country was just too damn exciting to ignore.

            Sadly, in the third game of the season, the Ole Miss Rebels were defeated by unranked South Carolina.  Words cannot express the disappointment I felt that night.  The season wasn’t completely ruined by any means, but I knew that this loss verified my suspicions that we might not have a shot to win the national championship after all.  The Rebels went on to finish the season 9-4 which is absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, however, the lofty preseason expectations were far from met, and Rebel football fans were left unsatisfied once again.  I eventually got over my personal disappointment in the team and moved on to worry about the upcoming 2010 season.

            A lot of the time that is what being an Ole Miss football fan is all about:  moving on.  A true Ole Miss fan understands that he will experience his fair share of heartbreak and frustration, but he knows there is always next season.  With that new season comes an opportunity to capitalize on the talent of new recruits, pretty girls to take to football games, and plenty of bourbon to drink in the Grove while patiently waiting on the Rebels to win the big one.  Upcoming senior tight end Reggie Hicks is optimistic about the future.  “We’re just ready to get out there and show everybody that we’ve still got a ton of talent,” he says.  “The Rebels are going to surprise a lot of people this season.”  Hotty Toddy!  I sure hope that he’s right.

My History as a Rebel

     I am not an expert on sports.  I have neither the time nor the knowledge to accuractly analyze sports, and frankly, I have never been a very good athlete.  What I am, however, is an avid supporter of all things having to do with the athletic endeavors of the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss).  The word fan is a derivative of the term fanatic which implies, according to a definition developed by Princeton University, a person motivated by irrational enthusiasm.  Indeed, in the words of Winston Churchill, "a fanatic is someone who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."  I have been a fan of Ole Miss my entire life.
     The unfortunate thing about being a fan of the Ole Miss Rebels is that the joys of victory all to often seem to elude us.  Don't get me wrong, there have been many high points in my career as a Rebel fan, but it seems that we are always one step, point, field goal, run, basket, or win away from winning the big one.  The purpose of the blog will be to chronicle the highs and lows both past and present of the Rebel Nation from my point of view as a fan.