Can we all take a minute to laugh at OleMiss?

[Op4isabitch]

Sold their souls for this year and are at best 6-7th in the conference. It?d be gravy if we crush their dreams completely this year.

[msudawg1200]

Their dreams are already pretty much crushed and will most certainly be completely crushed well before they see us. However, it would be glorious to take those bastards down as the final nail in their "all in" shite fest. I heard and took so much crap from those smug bastards up until Kentucky. Man it'd be great to beat them this year.

[EdwardDrayton]

I relish every opportunity to laugh at them. And they provide lots of opportunities.

[msstate7]

Of course, it's a terrible omen for us in this new age of NIL. Would we invest what they did to just be top half?

[StarkVegasSteve]

Of course, it's a terrible omen for us in this new age of NIL. Would we invest what they did to just be top half?

The top half may be good enough to make the playoffs if your schedule breaks right. I mean consider for a second that Vandy, yes Vandy, is 3-4 plays from being undefeated. Bama, with an NIL war chest double ours, looks like MAYBE the 10th or 11th best team. The parity this has created is good, if you can evaluate.

[viverlibre]

Win out, which means beating UGA, and they still make the playoffs.

[ScooterDog]

I don?t think they can beat Ga. Georgia?s defense is tops.

[LC Dawg]

I think Ole Miss's season proves that they or Mississippi State can't go all in and win a championship. We could both go to the playoffs in the current format but things would have to bounce right like they did last year for Ole Miss.
I still think the NIL format sets us up better for success at basketball than football but I don't think our fans will ever buy in to that.

[viverlibre]

I think Ole Miss's season proves that they or Mississippi State can't go all in and win a championship. We could both go to the playoffs in the current format but things would have to bounce right like they did last year for Ole Miss.
I still think the NIL format sets us up better for success at basketball than football but I don't think our fans will ever buy in to that.

Concur, but no matter what format, neither team will win a football natty. just like the past couple of decades, 4-5 teams have a chance at a natty and you can pick them out prior to the season.

Going into this year, pretty much everyone agreed it was Oregon, UGA, Bama, Texas, TOSU.

[Activated Alpha]

I would rather be in the position to make the playoffs and falter instead of never even coming close. Not all investments give the return you were hoping for, but that doesn't keep you from investing in the future.

[PGHBulldogBG]

Maybe some team will prove me wrong but winning a natty in football is going to require teams to still get consistent top 5 possibly top 8 recruiting classes. That is the big thing holding Ole Miss back this year. Kiffin is a great portal recruiter but the portal needs to be used for fill in top players and not building a whole team. It does give teams like Ole Miss and State a chance to make the players and have better seasons, but winning a natty or even getting to the final 4 is difficult without the high school recruiting. I really liked Leach but his lack of recruiting is a big reason we are in the position we are in on top of making poor administrative decisions. It’s clear Lebby had a big impact on the OU offense as they already fired their new OC. It gives me hope Lebby can do more with less offensively. I dont see UGA losing again even if they have a rematch with Texas because Smart knows the formula better than anyone.

[parabrave]

OM is 3 players. 1st is Harris 2nd is Dart and 3rd is Pegues on D. When Harris went out last week Dart couldn't do crap/ And Jerry please draft Harris.

[Todd4State]

What they did with the portal is really no different than what we did with JUCO's in the 1990's. And yeah you might have success with a new team from the portal but it could also blow up in your face if something goes wrong because those players aren't invested in the program other than the NIL they receive.

As I've said before you have to have a good core group of players to build around from high school recruiting. If you miss on some of them- then that's where the portal comes in. To fill in holes.

I think they miss Judkins a lot more than they would admit. And he was a high school guy for them.

One thing no one talks about with Ole Miss is their schedule last year was very favorable and they had a ton of one score wins. Similar to us in 1999 when we finished with basically an identical record. That's just simply not sustainable. And the funny thing about it is their fans that called our 1999 team a fluke all year that year are acting like they became Alabama/Georgia/returned to the days of Vaught 1959 for having the same season.

Who did they really beat last year? Penn State basically opted out of the Peach Bowl. They beat us by 10 without a head coach and Barbay as our OC. They beat Auburn by one score in year one of Freeze which is looking like it might not work out for Auburn. LSU was their best win and they beat them at home in a game where whoever had the ball last was winning that game which happened to be them. We see what happened this year in Baton Rouge. Arkansas wasn't even good enough to beat MSU last year. A&M was a mess and had a lame duck coach. Vanderbilt didn't have Pavia or Jerry Kill last year. And they got their ass kicked by Alabama and Georgia. Their best wins last year were LSU and a sloppy win over Tulane on the road.

Basically they won last year because they were more stable than every opponent that they played except for the two that skulldrug them last year.

But it goes to show you the importance of program stability IMO. And that's just going to ebb and flow for every program in the SEC. Even Alabama. Heck- Georgia could lose Kirby Smart to the NFL at some point and then they're in the same boat Alabama is now.

[Todd4State]

The top half may be good enough to make the playoffs if your schedule breaks right. I mean consider for a second that Vandy, yes Vandy, is 3-4 plays from being undefeated. Bama, with an NIL war chest double ours, looks like MAYBE the 10th or 11th best team. The parity this has created is good, if you can evaluate.

I think there are several factors to having a special season. Special being defined as 10 regular season wins or more.

1. Program stability. It's not just Ole Miss. I could say the same for Mizzou as well. And Tennessee.

2. Having a veteran team. Which is much easier to do with the portal and NIL nowadays.

3. Having a coaching staff that can evaluate talent.

4. Having the schedule break your way. That's what happened for Ole Miss last year. This year it didn't for us. But it will probably break that way in 2-3 years which by that time MVB and friends will be juniors and seniors.

[StarkVegasSteve]

I think there are several factors to having a special season. Special being defined as 10 regular season wins or more.

1. Program stability. It's not just Ole Miss. I could say the same for Mizzou as well. And Tennessee.

2. Having a veteran team. Which is much easier to do with the portal and NIL nowadays.

3. Having a coaching staff that can evaluate talent.

4. Having the schedule break your way. That's what happened for Ole Miss last year. This year it didn't for us. But it will probably break that way in 2-3 years which by that time MVB and friends will be juniors and seniors.

1. I agree with you on this. Stability is a huge part of things. It's why we need to hang on to Lebby.

2. Agree with this point to an extent. You do need a veteran team, but I still believe a majority of that veteran team needs to be built from HS recruiting or getting Freshman out of the portal. A majority of your guys need to be in the walls of your program for at least 2 years.

3. This is the biggest one. You have to be able to evaluate not only the recruits, but your own team. This is where OM fell flat. They failed to realize that they really didn't have anything behind Judkins and their O Line was a weakness.

4. This is important to an extent. We're in the SEC. There's never going to be a schedule that completely breaks your way. You're going to have to go win tough games. That's where the veteran team comes in. You need guys in your walls that have been through those SEC battles before.

[parabrave]

1. I agree with you on this. Stability is a huge part of things. It's why we need to hang on to Lebby.

2. Agree with this point to an extent. You do need a veteran team, but I still believe a majority of that veteran team needs to be built from HS recruiting or getting Freshman out of the portal. A majority of your guys need to be in the walls of your program for at least 2 years.

3. This is the biggest one. You have to be able to evaluate not only the recruits, but your own team. This is where OM fell flat. They failed to realize that they really didn't have anything behind Judkins and their O Line was a weakness.

4. This is important to an extent. We're in the SEC. There's never going to be a schedule that completely breaks your way. You're going to have to go win tough games. That's where the veteran team comes in. You need guys in your walls that have been through those SEC battles before.

number 2 cannot be emphasized enough. The ol/dl should always be homegrown because it takes awhile for them to jel.

[StarkVegasSteve]

number 2 cannot be emphasized enough. The ol/dl should always be homegrown because it takes awhile for them to jel.

OL more than DL. It's why Hevesy was always such a good OL coach for us and honestly recruiter, even though people didn't like him. Because he knew what he needed and what he could develop. We almost never had a bad line under Hev. And for the folks wondering, there were some discussions with John this weekend.

[parabrave]

OL more than DL. It's why Hevesy was always such a good OL coach for us and honestly recruiter, even though people didn't like him. Because he knew what he needed and what he could develop. We almost never had a bad line under Hev. And for the folks wondering, there were some discussions with John this weekend.

Well to quote the best line ever from Patton, " I don't want them to like me I want them to fight for me"!

[Johnson85]

OL more than DL. It's why Hevesy was always such a good OL coach for us and honestly recruiter, even though people didn't like him. Because he knew what he needed and what he could develop. We almost never had a bad line under Hev. And for the folks wondering, there were some discussions with John this weekend.

Hevessy was great at development but we were always flirting with disaster on the OL also because of our inability to recruit. 2011 was basically a wasted year because we didn't recruit and our DL that we converted to OT as an emergency measure got hurt.

[Todd4State]

Hevessy was great at development but we were always flirting with disaster on the OL also because of our inability to recruit. 2011 was basically a wasted year because we didn't recruit and our DL that we converted to OT as an emergency measure got hurt.
We also had to convert a tight end to OT as well one year. And he came very close to passing on Dillion Day.

[Todd4State]

1. I agree with you on this. Stability is a huge part of things. It's why we need to hang on to Lebby.

2. Agree with this point to an extent. You do need a veteran team, but I still believe a majority of that veteran team needs to be built from HS recruiting or getting Freshman out of the portal. A majority of your guys need to be in the walls of your program for at least 2 years.

3. This is the biggest one. You have to be able to evaluate not only the recruits, but your own team. This is where OM fell flat. They failed to realize that they really didn't have anything behind Judkins and their O Line was a weakness.

4. This is important to an extent. We're in the SEC. There's never going to be a schedule that completely breaks your way. You're going to have to go win tough games. That's where the veteran team comes in. You need guys in your walls that have been through those SEC battles before.

Definitely agree that the schedule won't completely break our way. Those are the 2 losses in a 10-2 season.

[1eyedog]

That is why I'm so disappointed with Dak's junior year against Bama and OM, and the great defensive team Joe Moe had.......those opportunities don't come often,,,,,the DOGS HAVE TO WIN THOSE YEARS.....

[Todd4State]

That is why I'm so disappointed with Dak's junior year against Bama and OM, and the great defensive team Joe Moe had.......those opportunities don't come often,,,,,the DOGS HAVE TO WIN THOSE YEARS.....

The problem with MSU is it seems like lately when we have a special season and we have to play Alabama it's in Tuscaloosa and they're a pretty good team themselves. Happened in 1999 and 2014. We lost to Ole Miss in 2014 because Dan was shopping himself around again and then blamed Collins for his offenses shitshow performance.

[TheLostDawg]

Hevessy was great at development but we were always flirting with disaster on the OL also because of our inability to recruit. 2011 was basically a wasted year because we didn't recruit and our DL that we converted to OT as an emergency measure got hurt.

Yes the fact that Hevesy recruited is laughable. DL wasn't the only one. 2015 we had to convert Warren to lineman.
He was a great coach being able to get the most out of those guys but imagine what he could have done with recruiting. I knew someone in the recruiting office then and it was well known that he didn't recruit and would say he hated it.
I'm seeing below now, Warren was that TE

[R2Dawg]

The problem with MSU is it seems like lately when we have a special season and we have to play Alabama it's in Tuscaloosa and they're a pretty good team themselves. Happened in 1999 and 2014. We lost to Ole Miss in 2014 because Dan was shopping himself around again and then blamed Collins for his offenses shitshow performance.

Boy this is true. Our ying and yang are always out of time. We drop Bama this year when they are down and we get TX. If we had OU, might be a W. OM on the other hand always gets the schedule break. One year Vandy is good, OM drops them.