Bulldogs4

Just a really bad night for State & Ole Miss. State is getting crushed 34-10 at the half and Ole Miss is on the verge of getting blown out at Georgia. 35-14 in the third quarter. No surprise that Ole Miss is losing but I just did not see it being this bad. Especially after I picked Ole Miss to win.

State down 20-10 in the second quarter. Looked a bit better on that last drive. Turnovers, Field position and penalties have killed us so far. Will see how it goes from here. Need a stop here desperately. Ole Miss needs to get their game back to a one score game to put some pressure on Georgia.

Rough start for Parson. Two straight INT’s although neither pass was terribly bad. Fortunate to be down only 17-7. It could easily be 28-7 right now.

Ocean Springs was definitely a very good team. Just caught a tough draw in Meridian who was better than your usual 4 seed. We played both Biloxi and Harrison Central earlier in the year. Beat Biloxi handily and squeaked by HC. Those were both back in September when Meridian was very much a work in progress. They had some uncharacteristic turnovers last night that Meridian was able to take advantage of and our kids played with great effort. I don’t think the teams are necessarily bad, it is just that D3 teams are generally tough every year. Even though we beat Biloxi 42-14, I thought they had some talent on the team and would be a solid squad throughout the year. But it did not materialize for whatever reason.

The game definitely hung in the balance when it was 21-17. Ocean Springs had a first and goal at the two yard line. The Wildcat defense held the Greyhound’s out of the end zone twice from inside the one yard line. Then as CC mentioned, Hill had that great run on 3rd down that we eventually turned into a 99 yard drive to go up 28-17. Just so proud of these kids who have improved immensely from the beginning of the season. That is a testament to not only Coach Boyles, his staff but also the buy-in from the kids on the team. Playing OG again in the playoffs is awesome!!! Finally like old times. Yes Daniel Hill is a great player but a bunch of other youngsters have grown up as it takes a team to win a playoff game. Easily the biggest win for Meridian in over ten years and possibly the biggest since the SP game 15 years ago. Especially given how far we had fallen over the last six years.

We play Nicholls November 24th. I think this ensures that our guys will not overlook them. I know LSU maybe bad but that is a heck of a good win for the Colonels.

Oak Grove will be a heavy favorite next week but we played poorly in the regular season game and still only lost 45-35. So we will see what happens.

Meridian 35 Ocean Springs 23 Final Coach Boyles 300th win as a HC. Great win for our Cats!!!

Meridian 28 Ocean Springs 17 Meridian with a huge goal line stand and then went on a 99 yard drive for a TD. 8 minutes left in the 4th quarter.

Meridian 21 Ocean Springs 17 4th Quarter

Great win for USM!!! Anything is possible but Southern beating State would be somewhat similar to App. State beating Michigan in 2007 or Maine beating State in 2004.

I was looking at that rivalry. ULL won the first 7 games but since 1932, USM is 40-4-1 against the Ragin Cajuns. That is total domination. Of course they have only played twice over the last fifteen years, three times counting tonight. But still it makes you wonder if they have a mental block where Southern Miss is concerned.

Interesting end to the first half of the USM-LA game. It appeared LA scored on two different plays but neither time was a TD given by the officials. So it is 14-14 at the half and the Golden Eagles are very much in the game.

Ole Miss beats Georgia 30-21. It is just time for Georgia to lose. And Ole Miss is capable of being the team to do it. I have no idea about State & A&M. Both teams are not good. A&M is much less worse than State and as such should play much less worse than State. I will say A&M wins a very ugly defensive game 16-13. Bama wins solidly over Kentucky. 21-6. KY will play with emotion and hang in there for a while but Bama will be in no danger of losing this game. Florida comes off the mat to surprisingly beat LSU who just might let Alabama beat them twice. Florida 28, LSU 26. Tennessee beats Missouri who will be deflated after great effort at Georgia and won’t be able to sustain the same effort two weeks in a row. Arkansas keeps the momentum going and beats Auburn. 30-20. The only game that might be worse than the State/A&M game might be Vandy-SCAR. Again two teams that are at the bottom of the conference. SCAR is flat and Vandy pulls off the upset. 24-23. Michigan beats Penn State who has a good team but is not on the same level as Ohio State or Michigan. Washington beats Utah and again Utah is solid but Washington appears to be on another level this year. And I have been riding the AZ wave this year as that is going to be State’s best win this year barring something extreme happening over the next two weeks. AZ plays Colorado and they will continue Deon’s spiral. AZ 28, Colorado 20. I know they are about kick off but Lafayette beats Southern Miss in a tight non-defensive game. 42-38.

You are looking at apples and oranges there. Coach Boyles inherited an odd situation in Meridian. Yes there is one great player on the squad this year but he has maximized the potential of what he has but we are still only 5-6. So if you look at the record only, he has not done a good job. But if you have the ability to look at something contextually, he has done an excellent job at Meridian. Comparing that situation to State is not even in the same stratosphere. Effectively speaking State’s record (4-5) is the same as Meridian (5-6) but that is the only thing similar. All I said is waiting to actually hire a new coach after the season , whether it is immediate or several weeks in the making is immaterial. Meridian did not hire Coach Boyles until January, two months after the regular season was over. I agree that the perception of the program is about a minus 3 on a scale of 1-10. The only way to change that is to win games. And we know perception trumps reality in the present day.

And Stoops being hired would be similar to the Howland hire in basketball. I am not saying that change does not necessarily need to not happen. But this rush to hire a new coach can wait until the end of the season. If the program is already a train wreck, then a few weeks or even a month are not going to matter much in the long run. Alabama waited about 6 weeks to hire Saban from MIA. Turned out pretty well for them.

My point was there are still three games left in the schedule (25% of the schedule) and I think we need to let the season finish out and then make evaluations and decisions going forward. But from what I have seen and heard, it seems to be a foregone conclusion. I mentioned 2013 because of Mullen being in jeopardy that year. From the time State was 7-0 in 2012 until the Arkansas game in 2013, our record was 5-11. Let that sink in (people conveniently forget that). And yes he was in serious trouble. Fans criticized Tyler Russell continuously but we won the Arkansas game (on the road) because of him. And if not for the Arkansas game, the Ole Miss game that year would have been meaningless, other than for the usual bragging rights. As unlikely as it seems right now, what if State beats A&M or OM or both? What then? The fans/alumni have already fired the coach. So what are they going to do then? Still fire him? The prudent thing to do is let the season finish out before convicting the coach of being a poor coach, motivator, game planner, recruiter etc. If that ends up happening, then there will be plenty of time to get a new HC. And that will be our 5th (FIFTH) Head Coach in six years as Mullen left in Nov/Dec 2017. And in that case we will be looking at a serious rebuild that will not happen overnight or in a year or two or possibly longer.

Things do look bleak but back in 2013, Mullen was on the verge of being fired before State beat Arkansas and Ole Miss and then won the Liberty Bowl. Not saying this year’s team will do that but it is a bit disappointing to me that everyone has already jumped off a cliff with three games to play in the season. That is still 25% of the season left. It would at least behoove everyone to let the season finish out and then evaluate what decisions need to be made going forward.

If they are going to continue with the NBA approach (where half the teams or more make the playoffs), then cut regular season down to 10 games and start the season on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

And to be fair State did that in 2014, when we had an opportunity to be 11-1. Now granted that Ole Miss team was much better than this years State team.

The most Ole Miss thing to do is beat Georgia and then lose to State in the Egg Bowl.

Good for Dillon Johnson. It was a shame the way his time at State ended. But I am glad for him that he is playing well up there.

Parson does look like he has the moxie to be a good QB but that was about the only bright spot tonight.

I think Pittman will be back. They have been in all their games this year but have lost a bunch of close games. Three point losses to LSU and Bama, 4 point loss to State, 7 point loss to Ole Miss. Could easily have a better record. Florida is a weird deal. Fired Mullen but hired a worse coach so I don’t quite understand their MO these days.

I did but had to call him out on it….LOL