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.
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