The Rant: Ole Miss Is Vastly Over-Hyped

 

The Ole Miss Black Rebel Bears are getting an amount of hype this year way out of proportion to what reality dictates.

Hugh Freeze’s Ole Miss Rebels are capable of achieving a 10-win season in 2013. In fact, I’m actually predicting 10 wins for QB Bo Wallace and the boys this fall.

That’s right, 10 wins (9-3 regular season and a bowl win).

Picked by some as a dark horse to win the West, let’s review exactly what happened in their “breakout” season last year.

They went 6-6 in the 2012 regular season. The losses included a 66-31 Bolivian beatdown at the hands of Texas, in Oxford, as well as poundings by Alabama and Georgia. They also lost to Vanderbilt. At home.

They won three SEC games. That’s it. Three (3) SEC games.

Those wins included a last second miracle against a terrible Arkansas team and a win against an even more terrible Auburn team (0-8 in the SEC – LOL).

Their best win of the season was at home against a 6-6 Mississippi State team. (editors note: Mississippi State’s actual record at the time they played was 8-3)

Is that the entirety of the hype? A win against Mississippi State? Oh, wait. They squeaked into a “bowl game” and beat a 6-7 Big East team.

So let’s look at this coming year’s schedule:

Three of their first four games are at Texas, at Alabama and at Vanderbilt. The other is a cupcake. A 1-3 start, therefore, is almost a guarantee.

Their next game is at Auburn, and that could easily be a loss as well. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, though, they get a win there to get to 2-3.

The next two games after that? Texas A&M and LSU and two losses.

With a 2-5 record to start the season, will we still have to listen to this nonsense?

They have a few winnable games after that, but they will still have to win two games from Arkansas, Missouri and at MSU, just to get to 6-6 again.

The hype has everything to do with the fact that they managed to hire an enthusiastic new coach, compete decently against Bama (i.e., score, and cover a massive spread), have a disinterested aTm on the ropes before gagging, and to not be coached by Houston Nutt.

They weren’t a good team last year in any way, but they also wound up not being as bad as many might’ve anticipated, and then they piled up a bunch of recruits by (probably) cheating.

Because of what passes for graduation in Mississippi, they will be a younger team next year and that is not a winning formula in the SEC-West, even with the much hyped recruiting class coming in.

So STFU about Old Mississippi. They win 7 games at most.

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Having said all that, I’ll hang up and listen.

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