Bulldogs4

Oak Grove 35 Meridian 28 3rd quarter Meridian had a TD called back early in the quarter and the momentum of the game completely changed to OG’s favor.

Meridian 28 Oak Grove 21 Halftime

Coastal Carolina & Liberty are both credibly good teams. Liberty dominated UAB in the opening game of their new stadium (stupid of UAB to schedule a quality opponent for that game). Both could and would be a tough out for most P5 teams in a one game scenario. They would each struggle to play a SEC schedule though. But in the overall picture it is kind of hard to gauge exactly how good each really is.

Interesting take there. I like Ole Miss over Arkansas because I think Arkansas is playing over the heads these days. They play hard and collectively as a team they are over achieving. Last week and again this week we will see that it has caught up to them. Ole Miss at home in an interesting game but they will win by 10-14 or more points when it is finished. I admitted I was wrong about both Arky and OM last week. This week OM gets the best of Arky and they fall back to earth for a while. I agree that LSU beats UK who has a decent team but are a weak 5-0 team and I see their bubble popping this week. UGA should beat Auburn but weird stuff happens at Auburn. In this case, I believe UGA will be comfortably in front for the most part and thus prevent the SEC refs (or any Auburn shenanigans) from affecting the outcome. Bama drills A&M 45-14. Texas over OK. Iowa over Penn St., ND beats VT and I hope Nebraska beats Michigan but just don’t see it happening this year.

Ole Miss beats Arkansas. Arkansas is playing hard and above their talent level. They no longer have the advantage of slipping up on teams. Other teams are much better prepared for them since they are no longer a cellar dweller.

I would think we will see the biggest crowd Ray Stadium has had in the last four-five years this Friday night but it will still be minuscule compared to 10-15 years ago. I like that our kids are playing hard. OG has the edge on us in talent/depth across the board but if we can avoid turnovers and be solid on special teams then I believe we will have a chance in this game to win it. A couple of big IF’s, but at least I have some confidence in us which is a huge improvement from 2-3 years ago.

Very true there. Florida had their opportunity and did not cash in. I think State can make the game respectable since it is at home. This weeks game for Bama @ A&M will tell us more about what happens next Saturday. Bama was emotionally ready for Ole Miss and it is reasonable to think they will be @ A&M. It is a Saturday night on CBS and another chance to showcase themselves to the nation. Hopefully they play another almost perfect game. Then because it is difficult to play three straight great games they will be due for a bit of a letdown. Thus the State game could be a bit closer than everyone expects. Again that is predicated on them playing a near perfect game Saturday. If they struggle this Saturday then it’s lights out for us early and often on the 16th. We will see what happens this weekend first though.

We are improved and a win over OG would be huge at this point. Obviously, the rivalry has cooled some because OG has dominated it recently and like Dub said, we did not get to play last year. But, I think the kids have heard from former players and fans that this is an important game. I think each will be fired up come Friday. I know we have been bit by the injury bug so I hope some of our players will be back in action for this game. We will see what happens.,

Mine was kind of tongue-in-cheek. But honestly (3-11) on most Saturday’s one team could beat the other. There seems to be huge gap between 2 and 3 and 11 and 12. I should have included USCe as #12. I do agree that OM, Arky, Auburn, KY, FL are generally higher than the others but there is not a huge separation amongst the middle nine teams.

Yep. Bama&Georgia then most everybody else missouri&vandy

Florida played today like I thought they would last week. Maybe KY is better than what they had shown in the first four games.

I will say it is a great win because this team needed something good to happen after the last two games. NO TURNOVERS tonight. Now we still left some points on the field (two missed FG’s) but the defense was outstanding again. I can not overstate enough that we took care of the ball on offense. For the most part the OL was very good (had one bad series of plays in the fourth quarter). Ball control was big as well. TOP was 36-24 and we almost doubled them in FD’s. Rogers did a great job of taking what the defense gave him. Proud of this team for taking a step forward. A&M is certainly no where as good as they were last year but they are still very talented across the board.

Well I will stand in the corner for 30 minutes. I was WRONG. Arky stunk it up completely.UGA appears to be the real deal this year. Complete domination. Bama still wins today but some curious 4th down calls by Kiffin certainly made it much easier for Bama.

I am not going to pick the State game other than I agree it will be a low scoring ugly defensive game. Ole Miss breaks the assistant coach hex and beats Bama 45-42. Bama is just due for a loss. They skated by Florida and I think they are vulnerable this week. It is going to happen. Florida 40, Kentucky 10. Florida in a romp. I thought they may have had a letdown last week against Tenner but they took care of business. Auburn-LSU may be the only other game that could be uglier than the State-A&M game. Going out on a limb and will say Auburn wins 22-21 in a fugly game. Arkansas beats UGA if they have Jefferson and they have a two score lead late. If it is only one score, then the officials will ensure that UGA wins a tight one. If Jefferson does not play, then UGA wins comfortably 24-7. ND beats Cincy. Okie beats KState, Michigan over Wisconsin (that hurts my fingers to type that but Whisky is terrible and they will out bad Michigan for the loss) and Mary Land will wimp out against Iowa.

UTSA scores 17 unanswered fourth quarter points to defeat Memphis 31-28. Why I am not surprised? Kind of expected it. With the COVID hangover and the transfer portal, this years unpredictable scores are going to continue through the season. Buckle up as it looks like it is going to be a fun and frustrating ride this year.

Imagine the melt in Georgia when they lose to Arkansas. That will be quite funny to see. OM beating Bama wouldn’t surprise me either. Actually I like OM to win this game. Just a gut feeling there. But I am going to go ahead and say it. Arkansas beats UGA unless the SEC officiating crew protects UGA which would not surprise me either. The conference is good at protecting certain teams in certain games and this will be one of those times. We will see.

The good We run 88 plays to their 51 TOP - 36-24 FD’s 29-15 150 more yards of offense Now to the bad 3 big plays for them for TD’s 2 turnovers to 1 for them One TO leads to their other score and one prevents us from scoring or at least having an opportunity to score. 1 missed FG all leads to a 3 point loss. Frustrating to say the least. I really do not know what to think. We are good enough to bad and bad enough to be good like one of you have already stated. Why can’t the 4th quarter team show up earlier in the game? NC State beats Clemson who is obviously not at the same level they have been over the recent years But they are still Clemson and it is a good win for NC State. Just shows how unpredictable college football is. ARKy is for real though I have said from the beginning that A&M was way overrated. I don’t expect it but I would not be surprised if we beat A&M next week.

CC I was not able to go but did listen on the radio. Excited to get the win. Hopefully we can get some injured players back in the coming weeks. Kids seem to be playing hard and that bodes well for the future. Prayers for the Levi Madison family. That is sad.

I actually watched the first half and thought both teams played well. You have to give credit to App. State. They are the modem version of what USM used to be. They have developed niche program that plays good football and they can play with just about anybody on any given Saturday (or Thursday) anywhere.

In the present day that is probably true. Historically, Meridian never had to recruit because kids wanted to play for the Wildcats. Obviously that is not really the case in the present day. Whether Coach Douglass can restore us to our former glory is still to be determined. However the team has made steady improvements since 2019 season which was easily the worst in school history. The team in Lauderdale County that has quietly become a pretty good team is Clarkdale. They are 4-0 and Coach Soules has done a phenomenal job building that program from scratch over the last 3-4 years. They have had zero success in football ever. So that is great story to follow and I think a lot of local people are pulling for them to have a great season.

Neither Leach or Orgeron will be on the hot seat if they lose Saturday. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and not micromanage every game. Both of these coaches did not forget how to coach just because they lost a game. Leach has been a HC for 20 years and O about 10 years. They know what they are doing. Each squad has some issues. LSU seems weaker at the LOS this year than I remember them being in the recent years. However they still have a lot of talent and definitely has some playmakers on offense. Their defense is solid though it did struggle against the run game with UCLA (something they will not have to worry about Saturday). For State, it is pretty simple. Clean up the penalties, avoid costly turnovers and dumb mistakes and just play with great consistent effort and execution for 60 minutes. Simple to say but obviously much more difficult to actually do. Which State team will show up? We will see what happens Saturday. I like Arkansas to finally beat A&M who I think is way overrated. I think USM covers the 46 point spread just because that is a lot of points. Does Florida have a hangover and slip up against Tennessee? Possible but not likely. KY lubes USCe in an ugly game. Missouri beats BC. Iowa State defeats Baylor.

It is wwwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy premature to even talk about a coaching change at State. Leach has coached 14 games, probably half the roster that was here last year has been purged, so the whole development of the program is still a work in progress. The issues that you all have brought up are legitimate but they are also things that can get better or be improved upon. I have no idea what will happen Saturday against LSU. LSU will obviously play their best game against us. We did a lot of good things this past Saturday that have been overshadowed by the dumb things we did. If we develop some consistency across the board we can win Saturday regardless of how LSU plays. If not, we can very easily lose this game. We will see what happens.

Did Alabama just beat the brakes off of Florida? You make some valid points. I think Leach has tried to drill this into our players but they had to learn the hard way yesterday. As painful as the loss was, I hope it works it out for the better in the long run. Forget all the issues with the officiating. Had we played clean football and taken advantage of our scoring opportunities, the score in the third quarter is 24-0 and the game is over with because there is no way our defense was going to give up that many points (in fact they only gave up 14 points on the day). Leach has been doing this a long time. I know he hates to lose but this loss might just be what this team needed. We have great potential but we are consistently inconsistent and that will not win many games. Memphis has been a top 25-40 team in the recent years so why our players would not take this game seriously is beyond me. In this case, I believe our coaches tried to impress upon them the importance of playing hard and consistent every play but as we all know you can lead horse to the river but you can’t…. We will see what happens Saturday.

Mout, I was not aware of our injuries on the defensive side of the ball. Proud of the kids for persevering last night on the road. Hopefully some of those guys will be back Friday for start of divisional play. Will be good to get back home after three straight road games.

Bizarre play. I would think any scoring play is reviewable. Pretty clear that the ball was touched and the play was over. All the pathetic officiating aside, we made too many mistakes, made poor coaching decisions and just failed to make plays as well. Defense played very well and was good enough to win the game, Offense and special teams cost us this game. When you play a game like this, you have to take care business to the point that the officiating can’t have a hand in deciding the outcome. We failed miserably there today. A hard lesson to learn but I hope we did learn a hard lesson today.