Bulldogs4

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.

Ole Miss @ State. Agree with you here. As I said last week, one team has won games by making plays and avoiding crucial mistakes/penalties and one team has lost games by committing crucial penalties/mistakes. While State may play inspired football, Ole Miss wins 35-28. Bama @ Auburn. Not sold on Alabama being able to win this game. Auburn’s defense is good enough to slow Bama down. I will agree here, Auburn wins an ugly game. 23-21. Jawja by a bunch over Tech. Agree it was a stupid decision to move this game off campus. Georgia 52, Tech 24. Vandy @ Tennessee. Gotta keep riding the Dore train. Vandy out toughs Tenner for the win. 35-24. A&M @ Texas. Texas has lucked its way to more than a couple wins this year. Luck runs out this week. A&M throttles the horns. A&M 27, TX 13. Oklahoma 28, LSU 3. Red Stick tigers have mailed it in for the season. Florida 22, Free Shoes 21 USC 30, Clemson 24 KY 35, Louieville 16 Ohio State exorcises the Michigan demon this year convincingly. Michigan may be 9-2 but they are a mediocre 9-2. Ohio State 34, Michigan 10. Ohio State may have played a crappy schedule but they are still very good and a better team than Michigan. USM and Troy. If Braxton Braylon plays, Eagles win a shootout 38-31. If he does not play, Eagles lose big. 45-17.

I will restate my picks here. Not sure how the above happened: Missouri-Oklahoma. Sooners win a close low scoring game. 17-13 Kentucky-Vandy-KY playing better but I like Vandy to win a relatively close game. 27-20 Florida shot their wad last week in Oxford and even though they have dominated this series I look for Tenner to win this game going away. 34-16. Arkansas is going to give TX all they want but most likely fall short. Lucky TX 38, hard luck Arkansas 36. Regarding Kiffin & Ole Miss, it reminds of that Neil Young song “The Needle & Damage Done” ”I have seen the needle and the damage done. A part of it in everyone Every junkie’s like a setting sun” Obviously, I am not saying he is a drug user but fall out from this charade is very parallel to the above. His credibility among a lot of alums and supporters is shot. What’s to say these folks later on say you were sticking a knife in our back while at the same time asking/demanding our support. I am not giving anymore. Period. At least as long as you are our Coach.

Which is odd because when he took the job, he said he was not here to build a program but to build a team each year (as that was when all this started). His track record of coaching winning teams is solid. We are five games in but right now this team looks lost on the court. Guys out of position, no movement without the ball and way too much dribbling on the offensive end. We got killed on the boards last night. No mental toughness. Turnovers did improve last night but in the last 4 minutes we missed a front end of a 1&1 free throw, had two turnovers. If you are going to win a close game, those are the plays you have to make. Obviously we are not going to be perfect. But when plays are to be made you have to make them to win a game.

Yep. Simply put we are not good and we have not looked good. Period. Painful to watch actually.

Hubbard played well but then had two turnovers late. Illegal pick and a poor pass. Very costly.

No ball movement No movement with out the ball Just a poor effort All the way around Defense is porous I spoke too soon Just as ugly as the Iowa State game

We are painful to watch. Game against KSTATE is fugly. I mean I guess we are less fugly than we were against Iowa State but things are just rough. Period.

Well this certainly aged well. But at least SP made the playoffs. We (Meridian) are but a shell of our former selves so I can’t say too much.

I have an Ole Miss friend who went off the deep end this afternoon about Kiffin and I kept saying just ignore social media and don’t pay any attention to it. She was so mad that she said I am ready for him to just go. I am tired of it. And that seems to be the attitude of many of the Ole Miss faithful. As 83 alluded we went through at State with Mullen. And it is aggravating to no end. I really did not think he was going anywhere but if he does go it will be to LSU. Florida is a total joke these days.

Nobody is moving on. I offered my opinion as to why we have not looked good early but offered an olive branch that patience is needed and that we will be better as the season progresses. And yes we are only three games in to the season with about 30 more to go.