Bulldogs4

1982 State Championship game was in Ray Stadium in Meridian. One of my buds and myself went out to watch it. West Point vs Gulfport. Gulfport jumped out 14-0 early and appeared to be poised for a blowout. But WP settled in and came back for a 21-14 win. After that they settled in on playing the games in Clinton and later Jackson. I think the game drew about 7K (stadium was about half full). The week prior Gulfport played Meridian at USM in Hattiesburg. Meridian kicked an apparent FG to win 10-9 at the end but there was some fishy refereeing that called the FG no good.

Bama is probably still in but let’s not kid ourselves. If Vanderbilt had the same resume as Bama they would most likely be out.

Derrick Nix at USM would make good sense.

Hopefully we will see Meridian become relevant again with Vance as the coach. There is still talent here and the youth & Jr. high programs are doing a good job. Now we just need to get those kids to continue playing when they reach high school. Lot of work ahead but I am more optimistic now than I was at the end of this season.

Not too surprised by that. With all these openings it was inevitable that he was going to be scooped up by somebody.

Interesting to say the least. But he was put into an impossible situation after Leach died. Admittedly he handled it terribly. We know can coach defense so I am good with it. Kind of excited actually.

I would presume they will try to avoid rematches, at least in the first round. Tulane will be no gimme. I know OM handled them easily early in the season but that was a long time ago.

Franklin was the coach there 11+ years. Expectations are high there but DeBoer will never last 11 years at Bama. He is in an impossible position at Bama. If they lose to Georgia and in the first round of the playoffs I can see him leaving. Being the coach after the legend is the worst coaching gig period.

Could Penn State hire DeBoer after Alabama is eliminated from the playoff? Originally it was far fetched but now I would not be surprised. At Bama he is in a no win situation. At Penn State, he could probably have a good gig going for a while.

Much needed road win tonight for State at Georgia Tech. Still have a long way to go but maybe the SMU game was our low point. We will see.

My hope is that with a QB like Taylor in the fold, we will be an attractive place for players to come to as the future looks bright. We will see how it develops.

Can’t help but believe The NY Times were back door poking fun at Kiffin with today’s Wordle word. It was LEACH. I can say with confidence that the Pirate would have never pulled an idiotic stunt that Kiffin just did. Though obviously it is not really surprising. Even the Ole Miss guys on this site said as much back in 2020 when he was hired. Great hire but they were going to have to deal with all his idiosyncrasies. And that has come to fruition.

Shades of Croom getting fired after losing to OM 45-0 in 2008. Losing to your rival 41-0 when said rival was not really that good will get you fired. And this was a KY team that was playing its best football at the end of season. Totally dumbfounded on how they could get beat so badly.

Karma will come full circle when Kiffin is fired at LSU after 3-4 seasons of winning 8-9 games a year. Kiffin’s loyalty is to Kiffin and only himself. Me, Myself and I.

Welp KY and SC have laid eggs today.

Very disappointing to blow nine point lead in the second half at home. Again it was missed FT’s at crucial times and inopportune turnovers that cost us the game. Plus only 11 assists for the game. Way too much one on one basketball. That will get you beat every time out.

Yep. I miss our days when our defense was legit good. Hopefully we can get back to that again.

I was not saying that keeping Hutzler would be the right decision. Making a change there would certainly be appropriate as I think our Defense needs a complete overhaul and starting with a new coordinator would be hopefully get us going in the right direction. At the end of the day the DC is responsible but we just did not have the horses to be a dominant defense this year.

Arnett and Lebby are two different universes as far as State is concerned. Leaving emotions aside after getting beat by your rival, this is my take on this year. The 4-0 start including the big win over Arizona State gave the team confidence and we were clearly better than last year (albeit with some weaknesses). The Tennessee game let us know that we could compete with the better SEC teams even though we lost it in OT. But it was small chip in the armor. The Florida game was a big crack in the armor of our confidence though I put that more on the HC for a poor play call at the end. The Texas game finished us off. Here we play our best three quarters of the season only to see it unravel in the fourth quarter. One costly penalty (late hit on Arch) cost us that game and the season for all practical purposes. Our mental confidence was gone. All the good vibes from September had evaporated. Yes we beat Arkansas but that was more about them self destructing than anything else. Then these last three games, we got whipped across the board. In summation I give this season a C. Three more wins than last year. A big win over Arizona State. Three very competitive losses against quality SEC teams. But there is a lot of work ahead to move the needle upward. OL & DL need serious overhauls. With Taylor at QB, we have a chance to build a great offense around him. The defense had some bright spots this year but in these recent games our run defense has been porous. I don’t think the coaching has necessarily been bad but you have to have quality players to execute any defense. One last word on yesterday. Ole Miss was the team that had the perfect balance between confidence and execution. They made the big plays at the right time. We played hard but our confidence was not in sync with our execution. They were the better team. KT did some good things and the future is bright there. But we have got to build around him to make it happen. And if Kiffin leaves, karma is going to bite him in the butt. He has a good thing and he is going to leave to go to a cess pool?

No it used to be the only game on Thanksgiving. Now since the NFL has taken over the day, it is better to be on Friday or Saturday. I am glad it is not on Thanksgiving anymore.

Game day is here. Ole Miss should win this game comfortably. But having attended 20+ of these games in person and watching another 20+ on TV, I know very well anything can happen. 1964-State having not beaten OM in 17 years pulls out a 20-17 win in Oxford. That was the first ever televised game (Nationally on NBC). 1981-OM heavy underdogs wins on the last play of the game 21-17 after a very bogus PI call on State in the end zone (flag was thrown well after the State DB intercepted the pass and he had inside position on the play). But the game should have never been that close in the first place. 1983-Immaculate Deflection. I was there. Still can’t believe it today. OM 24, State 23. 1991-Game returned to campus. Sleepy Robinson show as State beat OM in Starkvegas for the first time since 1942, 24-9. 1992-The Stand. OM stopped State at goal line multiple times to win 17-10. 1998-State wins 28-6 in Oxford to win the West and a trip to ATL. 1999-Tip, Kick and Pick leads to improbable comeback as State wins 23-20 after being down 14 in the fourth quarter. 2007-The infamous 4th and 1. thanks Ed game. OM up 14-0 and dominating the game. Instead of punting at midfield, decides to go for it and then rest is history. 17-14 State. 2012-State with a chance to win 4 straight completely lays an egg and OM crushes State 41-24. 2014-OM knocks State out of the playoff with a 31-17 win. 2016-Fitzgerald goes wild and State crushes OM 55-20. 2017- A somewhat parallel to this year. Mullen has his team flat, Fitzgerald suffers a gruesome injury and OM wins 31-28. 2019-Piss & Miss game. Neither team wins. OM loses the game and State does not lose the game. 2025-Story to be told later today. We will see what happens.

Actually, theoretically it is possible but realistically doubtful. One other thing I did not realize is that Army & Navy are now both members of the AAC. Obviously not this year but if they were to finish 1-2 in the conference, they could play for the conference championship and then play each other again the following week for their regular season game. That rivalry game is an out of conference game so it has no impact on the AAC season.

Navy beat Memphis tonight. Could they sneak in the playoff? Does playing Army December 13th affect their chance? Since that is so late? They would be 10-2 with a win.

FT Shooting was horrific. Right at 50% for the night and Hubbard was especially bad at the charity stripe. But a win is a win is a win. UNO basically gave the game away in the last 5 minutes by playing not to lose instead of winning. Once you get stagnant on offense you are in trouble late.

On paper ND’s schedule was not bad. @Arkansas, SC, NC State, Boise would normally be solid opponents. None of those teams have been good this year. Navy has a decent team but they were overmatched. Pitt on the road was a good win. Stanford used to be a quality team but they have fallen off badly recently. You can only play the schedule in front of you. They lost two close games at the beginning of the year and have won every game since. So yes, they will be a problem for whoever gets them in the playoff.