Bulldogs4

I think Ole Miss wins comfortably but they will not cover for a couple of reasons. 1. I do think they will be looking ahead. 2. This is obviously not a Mike Leach Wazzou team but you know they will play above their heads. Ole Miss wins but doesn’t cover 42-17. 2. Bama-Missouri is an interesting game. Historically it is difficult to play three straight great games. Can Bama do that? I agree with you 83. Missouri gets the big win. 24-21. 3. All the metrics point to TX but I think OK wins an ugly (agree with 83 there) game. 12-10. 4. Arky-TN- Did Petrino ride a motorcycle to Knoxville? Most likely a lot of points will be scored. Tennessee wins bigly. 56-28. 5. A&M hosting FL. A&M’s defense is legit good and I think they will clean up some of their issues from last Saturday. FL plays hard but comes up short. 24-17 A&M with the win. 6. While Auburn maybe due, it is hard to trust Freeze & Co. Georgia finds a way to win again but the cracks are getting bigger. 24-20 Jawja. 7. SC @ Louisiana State. LSU’s offense has been stuck between neutral and first gear all year. That continues but they do eke out a win. 23-21. Halftime-USF 21, 21 UNT Can you spell U*G*L*Y. Both with three turnovers in the first half. Neither team is playoff caliber. Period.

Doubtful Meridian wins another game. Again there is talent but Gandy is just not HC worthy. Sadly I don’t even seeing us being competitive with any of the Division teams at this point.

Long story there. Partially goes all the way back to desegregation days in the late 1960’s when almost cities starting see white people move out of the city. But in Meridian about 15 years ago, the Meridian High white enrollment was still about 25-30%. It was still a good solid number. Here goes: 1. Around 2009-10, The School Board hired a black superintendent from Chicago. Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with having a black superintendent. But this guy came in and immediately and deliberately alienated all of the white teachers at the high school. These were veteran teachers who were excellent instructors. Guess what, they either retired or went to the county schools. 2. When RD Harris retired the second time as Principal, they promoted the wrong person to be Principal. I will not mention a name but discipline started slacking combined with now inexperienced teachers and school started sliding down the slope. 3. The SPLC goaded the Justice Department into filing a suit against the school district accusing them of a school to prison pipeline with juvenile offenders. That dragged on for several years until it was finally settled. Now discipline was totally destroyed and the High School was dealt a mortal blow as far as the white community was concerned. The white % is now maybe 5%. 4. There are now a lot of good kids at the high school but having a balanced enrollment of white/black/hispanic etc. kids makes a school better IMHO. In the present day, you have a relatively few students who can be problematic and then the perception of the school becomes worse than the reality. In a nutshell, that is it. It would be my hope that one day there will be more white students back at Meridian High. Up until about 15 years ago, it was one of the best high schools in Mississippi. And there is potential to get back to that academically and on the football field. For now it is only a hope. And a distance hope at that

I am very much a fair weather Saints fan (really a bandwagon fan). I liked Brees but since he retired I have not followed the Saints much. But I was watching in the 4th quarter when the above play happened. Left me SMH. I have no favorite NFL team but I do follow our Mississippi kids in the NFL. From all of our colleges. I understand Ole Miss fans being Giants fans today and LSU fans being Burroughs/Daniels fans when they faced off against the Saints. Just like I had mixed feelings when the Saints played Brett Favre in the NFC championship game years ago. Unless someone was born with a fleur-de-les in their hand I can understand split loyalties on the NFL level. College fan loyalty goes much deeper than the shallow NFL.

Not college football but when did a simple QB tackle for a sack become ruffing the passer? They just need to put a red jersey on the QB and flags on both hips. Just let it be flag football for the QB. This is NFL related and if you are a Saints fan. TYK what I am referring to.

Certainly agree that A&M is good but not great. Their D is good but they certainly took advantage of our makeshift OL. More undisciplined than us. Reed is okay but inconsistent. Not that we would have won the game but that motion penalty at the half yard line really hurt. We needed to score a TD there. We had their D on their heels. That one play flipped the momentum with our offense and their defense. Off week much needed. Definitely need to get several guys healthy and just reset everything. Florida is a bit of crapshoot. They did beat TX but how good is TX? They are on the road against A&M this week. That will be an interesting game to watch. Don’t want to anyone to be injured but if they get banged up some it would not hurt my feelings any. That game may be similar to last night. Kind of an ugly physical game where the offenses each struggle some.

Nightmare finish. Just hope it is not a season ending injury.

Penn State lost. What else is shocking today?

State-A&M. I really want to take State here but while I think we will be competitive I just don’t think we will prevail. A&M 28, State 24. Texas-Florida-ugly game of the week. TX leads 3-0 at the half. FL scores late but misses the XP to lead 6-3. TX kicks FG to tie it 6-6 at the end and then wins in OT 9-6. Vandy-Bama. Every one thinks Bama is going to smoke Vandy in a revenge win. And that may happen. Bama wins but not by much. 30-28. Georgia by a bunch over KY. Which Florida State will show up? I think they eek out a win and blow up Miami’s NC hope.

Quote “State downgraded majorly in uniforms for this week. The Croom era W-W-M look has never worked for me.” Please don’t tell me we are wearing the god awful maroon pants. They are almost as bad as the black uniforms. Road uniforms need to be all white with possibly a maroon helmet. Makes me not even want to watch the game. Sigh…uggghhh.

Dub, There is a new police chief and they are making some progress on the crime issue in the present day. City actually has some forward momentum going right now on several fronts. Slick, you are correct. The football program can be good again. A good young coach who can engage with the kids can make us a good again. CC is correct that sadly most of the white community has moved out in the county or their kids go to Lamar/Russell Christian. Not sure if that can ever be reversed, unfortunately. But the football program with the right coach can be good again. Hopefully it will happen at the conclusion of this season. And Vott you are correct that Norman has done a good job with the basketball team. We will see.

Meridian is not a dying city but sadly the football program is but a shell of its former glory. There is talent on the team but the coaching is abysmal. Boyles had a good thing going in just one year but we have regressed badly ever he left. Cheyenne is a good AD and I think he has done an overall excellent job. But he totally whiffed on this hire IMO. You hate to pull the plug on any coach but at the end of this year, I don’t think he has any choice but to do so.

Memphis will choke away a win or two against an inferior team and lose its playoff opportunity.

Also, I am not sure if this was covered by Lebby. But did he mention what we would have done had we scored a TD in OT? I feel like it was obvious we would have gone for two and try to win it there. Our defense was gassed. Anyone else know or have any thoughts about that? Most of the time at home you play for the tie and OT but in this particular case, going for two would have seemed to be the right decision.

State is still overcoming the doldrums of 2023-2024. Win and will be ranked. Rankings are not just about the current season or even the current week for that matter. There are more of a cumulative view of a team over the recent years. Then with each game during a given season, they will slowly correct themselves.

Agree about State. Injuries and a tough emotional loss plus a difficult road game are going to be a lot to overcome. The bye week will come at a great time after this game. A&M is good but again they (like most of the upper echelon SEC teams this year) are not unbeatable. How we play will be most telling. If we lay an egg, that will be most disappointing. I don’t see that happening though. A win , though unlikely, would be huge.

State game went about like I thought it would. We played well but I was afraid we would either not have the horses to win it or that we might run out of gas at the end. Unfortunately for us that is what happened. But we are so much better this year overall. I think we have good things coming ahead for us. Though this will be a tough one to bounce back from. Our players are 110% committed and that is the biggest positive. You never want to lose. I am disappointed but not disappointed in our players. They left it all on the field. At the end of the day that is all you can ask of your players. Ole Miss with a heck of a good win today. Actually felt like a bigger win than 5 points. They were clearly the better team. I called the Bama game. I just knew they were going to win it. I predicted 28-27 so I was close. And I knew they were going to stop Georgia before the play was even run. I could sense it. Oregon beat Penn State. Same there. Just knew it was going to happen. Lot of great games today.

Arizona State came from 17 down (sound familiar?), actually 17-0 but this time they won the game 27-24 in the last seconds over TCU. That win is looking even better now. Virginia took down Free Shoes in OT. Must be some branch water in the whiskey on Friday nights.

I am kind of on the fence here. LSU@Ole Miss gives off the vibes of an old fashioned SEC in the trenches dirty gritty game. Nothing pleasant about it. I am going to take Ole Miss since they are at home with a nail biting 24-23 win. Tennessee @ State. This would be a huge win for Lebby & Company. I am just not sure we have enough horses to win this game. We have closed the gap talent wise, the crowd will help. Some how we have got to keep their OL & DL from bullying us. If we can hold our own in the trenches we have a chance. Alas, I think we will hang in there with them but fall short. Tennessee 35, State 31 (but I hope I am wrong). Bama continues their hex over Georgia 28-27. ND pummels a discouraged Arkansas team 27-18. SC bounces back to come up with a big win over KY 30-14. A&M edges past Auburn who is still down in the dumps. 31-20. USM gets back in the win column over Jax State. 28-17. Oregon busts Penn State’s bubble as usual. 42-24.

After all the voodoo and calls Auburn has gotten over the years, it’s not hard to not feel sorry for them. I still remember the State game in 2011 when suspect officiating helped to gift them the game.

We have only played Vanderbilt 24 times in the history of the SEC. So it makes sense that we would be annual rivals with them in this new set up. Plus we are playing the other teams two times every four years which is much better than the old rotation.

Yep. Meridian should be 0-4 but don’t let the 2-2 record fool you. There is talent on the team but the coaching is “well if you can’t say something nice, then don’t say anything at all” The above phrase is was abused Friday night. Hattiesburg will name the score come Friday night. Painful to write that but the truth does hurt sometimes.

State pulls away late from a pesky NIL team. This is one of the games that you are glad to win and go to the house. Kind of went like I expected. You knew they were going to play hard and well. A bit similar to the USM game. Close for a half. Then all Dawgs in the second half. And yes Ole Miss, you gotta ride with Trinidad and Tobago going forward. He looks like he just fits perfectly. Impressive win against a good Tulane team. Arkansas just failed to complete the game. You are winning 28-10 but you have to keep on piling it on. Memphis has a good team but they had no business winning that game. And yes they beat State a few years back but that game had some voodoo attached to it along with some suspect officiating.

Duh? Or multiple other options besides getting tackled at the one yard line with one second left. Bone head coaching at its finest.

Worse than bad. Had a fourth down with 5 seconds left. Snapped the ball to the QB who was promptly tackled at the one yard line with one second left. Gave Columbus a play from the one yard line. But they failed to score. Cheyenne needs to ream out Gandy and then give him a remedial class on how to handle the end of a game. Just pathetic coaching. Period. Or just hire a new coach.