Dawg83

I think Oregon is out and USC is in if USC wins in Autzen on Saturday.

I really think it depends on the traffic around them. They’d really need chalk to hold in other leagues. For the record I think Bama should be ahead of Notre Dame right now and ND arguably shouldn’t even be in. ND is really good but BYU and Miami have better wins than anything ND has (who literally has a loss to Miami).

I’ll pose a different Bama question for you…. Are they out if they lose in the SECCG? The margins are tight enough where if certain results happen behind them I think it’s possible. I mean they’re currently the last team in, basically.

I’m not going to make a new Week 13 thread with State and OM on bye and a short week before the Egg Bowl. It’s also just a terrible slate of games in general. Mizzou/Oklahomw could be interesting. Some rumors that Pribula could be back for Mizzou. That’s probably going to be an ugly game. Otherwise in the SEC…. Slim pickings. Unless Kentucky/Vandy, Arkansas/Texas, and Florida/Tennessee do anything for you. Feel bad for Vandy, they stand a real chance of finishing 10-2 and not making the Playoff because they’re about 6th in the SEC pecking order right now. i saw some frustration from OM people about Texas Tech still being ranked higher. Feel like that’s a game control thing. OM has played a bunch of close games whereas Tech has been dominant, outside of their one loss without their starting QB on the road. OM does have the best win between the two, but Tech blowing out both BYU and Utah is driving their resume a lot too.

I think multiple things can be true with this. The next guy is 100% going to inherit a far better situation than what Kiffin inherited. It does feel like OM’s floor has been raised quite a bit in recent years. I’m not sold that they are now a 10 win a year program regardless of who the coach is, but I would think the bottoming out seasons you saw intermittently in the 2000’s and 2010’s are going to be a rarer thing. On Kiffin…. Yeah he’s got some flaws. Yeah he’s frankly kind of a weird dude. The social media stuff makes him seem like a teenage girl at times. But man I’d have a hard time just shrugging off a guy leaving that’s about to pick up his 50th win since 2021 and assuming the next guy will be able to keep the train rolling. Resources are excellent to have, but you’ve gotta have the right guy to be able to maximize them. If you don’t believe me, ask a Texas or LSU fan how excited they are to be playing in the Music City Bowl or the Liberty Bowl this December. In my opinion, Kiffin is a Top 5 to 10 coach in the country. That’s elite. And look, the next guy for OM may certainly be a good coach too! But the odds of him also being a Top 5 to 10 coach in the country do not seem high. All that to say… I would think the best scenario for Ole Miss here is that Kiffin stays. It’s a risky game to play to assume this guy that’s your greatest coach in the modern era can be easily replaced. State fans and other fan bases in the league know that all too well based off personal experience.

Watched some of that Kiffin interview. Felt like mostly a nothing burger. Or a bit of damage control. Want to say I’d read that McAfee is also a Sexton client. If true, that all may have been arranged by Sexton himself to make Kiffin look a little more sympathetic.

Yeah I don’t really get the ultimatum thing either if that’s what it is. Kiffin feels like he holds all the chips. Also, don’t really get the mentality of not wanting him to coach the playoff game if he decides to leave. It feels like folks are more worried about the hypothetical teams in 2026 and 2027 than the very real chance to advance deep in the playoffs and compete for a championship that exists presently. And as much good as Kiffin has done at Ole Miss, this is the first time it’s gotten to this level. Beyond just a good bowl game, a real chance to compete for a title. Folks really want an interim coach to lead Ole Miss in their biggest stretch of games ever if Kiffin is leaving? I mean look if the guy leaves he leaves and you figure it out, but I’m not sure about doing anything to sabotage the very real opportunity that exists this season about a month from now. It’s a bit of hubris to think this opportunity may come around again easily. Not just for the next guy but even if Kiffin stays. Having the kind of season Ole Miss is having is really hard, and a 9 game league schedule won’t make it any easier.

Sidebar I had totally forgotten that former State player and former almost State head coach Joe Judge was at Ole Miss. I hope John Cohen sends a Christmas gift to the New York Giants every year for saving his rear end on that one.

If Kiffin were to leave…. Golding would be one of the leading candidates to take his place, I presume?

I’m not informed enough to say whether I think he’s leaving or not. And maybe the end result ends up being different than what I’m about to reference. But man it’s not hard to draw some parallels to Dan Mullen 2017 at the moment.

I have no idea why Drinkwitz dialed up 12 pass plays. Hardy could have gotten to 400 yards if Mizzou had given him the ball instead on those 12 plays.

They can get better as the season goes on, but certainly seem to have had one of the weaker starts of anyone in the SEC.

We got a foreigner but he’s a lot less good than your foreigner. Either that or the basketball in France is better than the basketball in Slovenia.

It really all depends on how much faith you have in Lebby being able to improve the roster. Is the talent level of this team the norm or is it the launching point to something bigger and better consistently? He is really going to have to hit a home run in this portal cycle or it’s kinda tough to envision them taking another step forward from this year. I actually feel like this team in November has regressed to a level similar to 2024. Whether it be injuries or teams figuring them out, I don’t know. But they have clearly regressed in recent weeks.

I feel confident if the members of this board decided to team up and become an intramural football team we could rush for 200 yards on this State defense.

Basketball is a little different from other sports in that it is more prone to being a one year at a time sport and not quite as much about building over time. That said, in this era sometimes you just whiff on a portal class and that may be what ends up being the case with State. It kinda feels like it’s Josh Hubbard and a bunch of very average, unremarkable players. The Jans track record speaks for itself though so history says it will get fixed if not later this year then likely by next year.

Man if Lebby isn’t willing to make staff changes then I think you can pretty much go ahead and prepare for another head coaching search in a year’s time. I have been pretty adamant that there’s no way Lebby would get fired this year…. But both sides know how a humiliating Egg Bowl loss can bring out the emotions and drive decision makers to make moves. Croom was coming back for 2009 until 45-0 happened. Matt Luke was probably coming back for 2020 until a certain urination simulation. I would put the chances of Lebby getting canned this year at 5% or less…. But if you are looking at an Ole Miss fan takeover of Davis Wade and then Ole Miss were to just throttle State….. Good luck selling anyone on Year 3 of this regime.

State beat SE LA yesterday with a rather uninspiring performance. They are about to enter a pretty tough stretch of nonconference games over the next month and I’m not really sure what to expect from it. There is a chance they come out on the other side of it with a pretty bad record unless they clean some things up in a major way. Ultimately at 2-1 things could certainly be worse, but there aren’t many more directional schools on the schedule.

Eh I definitely get that in the Playoff era, but I think a conference championship still means something on an emotional level. Especially if you’re not a Bama/Georgia type that wins them all the time. I don’t know how much longer those things will be around especially if playoff gets expanded again. But I presume if A&M or Ole Miss makes it those fan bases would travel extremely well for the game given that it has some name value still and would be the first time for either participating in it. At this point it’s kinda like making it to Sunday in the baseball or basketball conference tournament. Does it mean a ton for the postseason? A lot of times no. But it’s still cool for your team to be in it. The chance to win a trophy of any kind is never a bad thing.

Someone correct me if I’m wrong on this, but I think the SEC title race simply comes down to this: A&M and Bama - win their last game and they’re in Atlanta, applies to both. Georgia - goes to Atlanta if either A&M or Bama loses (UGA has played all its conference games now). Ole Miss - needs to beat State and then have both A&M and Bama lose. If that happens the SEC title game would be a UGA vs OM rematch. Playoff wise I’d think A&M and Georgia will be in the Top 4 this week. All the one loss teams probably move up a spot with Bama losing so that would put Ole Miss back at 6. And if you’re not getting a bye, 5 or 6 is where you want to be because you’ll play either the ACC champ or G5 champ in your first game. I presume Oklahoma moves in to the bracket, probably ahead of Bama who should fall to around 9 or 10. Texas is obviously out now with their loss. Notably, USF lost today so leader for the G5 bid will change for the second week in a row.

1. It’s time to start Kamario Taylor, i don’t even disagree with those clamoring for him at this point. 2. It is not going to matter if State is going to continue to be a disaster on defense. Unless you think Kamario can play basically a perfect game against Ole Miss, which seems unrealistic.

There was a window of time this season where it wasn’t a ridiculous notion. OM has played some weirdly close games and State was punching above its weight for a long time. But nah, State at this stage isn’t beating anybody. They have nothing whatsoever going for them at the LOS.

Oh yeah I way way way overestimated State’s defense. Not making that mistake again.

If I had video editing skills I would set the highlights of this State game to “Yakety Sax” as this has been a straight up comedy of errors. I don’t even know where to begin with this one lol. To be totally honest with yall, I had kinda been leaning toward picking State to win the Egg Bowl for a decent chunk of the season…. There’s no way in good conscience I’m going to be able to do that when Black Friday rolls around. This is an improved team but still one that’s EXTREMELY dysfunctional. They’re not beating Ole Miss barring something just totally unexpected happening a la the Nick Fitzgerald injury in 2017. Coleman Hutzler, thank you for your time, but you are no longer needed. This has been an abomination of a defensive effort against a team that cannot pass the ball to save their life. Everyone and their mama knows all Mizzou can do is run the ball and they are forever more running WILD on State. I mean not even the slightest resistance. Kewan Lacy, how many yards do you want to run for in the Egg Bowl? You can literally take your pick. They will be there to be had in bunches when you make the trip to Starkville.

These are two really good teams in Bama-OU. I was wrong about OU based off only watching them against Texas and Ole Miss. Their defense is legit. If they could get anything consistent at all from Mateer they’d be a Top 5 team. I don’t really know what to make of Bama, still adjusting to watching post-Saban Bama and it’s a very different experience than our brains got used to watching for about 15 years.