Bulldogs4

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.

Lebby is our 5th HC in 8 years. I agree that we have made a lot of progress this year despite the last two weeks. Stability at the Head is crucial. A win would do wonders but it is hard to see that right now. Going forward I think we can have some success in the Portal and on the recruiting front with the excitement of building an offense around Taylor, including getting better at the OL. Defensively it all starts up front and we must get better with the interior DL. We will see how it goes.

At this juncture, I see Ole Miss winning by 2-3 touchdowns. I know it’s a rivalry game and anything can happen but this year one team is winning games bigly and closely. One team has won some games , lost a few close games and has lost three games bigly. One team makes plays that leads to wins. One team commits crucial penalties, turnovers that lead to losses. No reason that I see that changing in one game. Does that about sum it up?

Team seems to be a complete mess. I do think there is plenty of talent. But that is what to be expected in this current era of throwing together a team every year. Most often it will take time to gel. Some times it is faster. But in this case you have only TWO regulars back, maybe three with Warren but he did not really play much last year. We are going to take our lumps over the next month. You hope that the team does not get discouraged because it is a long season. But in our microwave society fans have very little patience anymore. They expect results yesterday. We know Jans is a proven coach and he will have this team playing better as the season progresses. Patience will be required and it will eventually be rewarded.

I would agree that adding the 9th conference game along with having 16 teams in the conference makes the conference championship game meaningless (for the most part). But if people still attend it will continue. If attendance starts dwindling and TV ratings craters it will go away.

Kind of reminds me of State not recruiting Jerry Rice who grew up wanting to play at State only. a few miles away from where he grew up. Leaves me SMH.

Sad that this Hardy kid played at Lawrence County and State did not recruit him.

Plus throw in an additional 21 points on turnovers so the offense/special teams get some credit as well.

Not sure why Taylor is not playing now. Give the kid some experience.