Sports
Four Years Later: Ole Miss Football Matters
Photo by Josh Bonner, Libertine Images (2015)
Four years ago Ole Miss was recovering from a 2-10 football season. The Rebels had suffered 14 straight SEC losses to cap off the end of the Houston Nutt era.
Four years later, Ole Miss matters in the landscape of college football. Four years later, Ole Miss is competing for SEC West titles. Four years later, Ole Miss is the second best program in the SEC. Four years later, numerous people are clamoring for the NCAA to do something about Ole Miss.
The reality is Ole Miss has upset the apple cart among the college football landscape. Ole Miss isn’t supposed to be a better football program than LSU. Ole Miss sure wasn’t supposed to beat Alabama two years in a row. But the Rebels are better, and they did defeat ‘Bama.
The Rebels have upset people who believed Ole Miss was only good for going to the Liberty Bowl every other year. They’ve upset people who looked at Ole Miss as an automatic win on their team’s schedule for so long. They’ve upset people on the recruiting trail.
Enter the NCAA. Ole Miss, yes, has undergone a 3.5 year discectomy by the NCAA. The most serious accusations–academic fraud–were found to have taken place under the previous staff.
Sure, there are more allegations under the Hugh Freeze era than people wanted to imagine. Sure. Those are issues that if they are true Ole Miss will ultimately pay for. They’ll lose scholarships. That’s not something to take lightly.
There, however, is nothing in the Notice of Allegations that Ole Miss released in late May indicating Ole Miss has been giving recruits copious amounts of money to sign with the Rebels, contrary to what some national writers and rival fans want you to believe.
There is zero evidence that Ole Miss has had boosters drop brief cases off in the middle of the night at a five-star prospects house. Zero. Nada. None.
If Ole Miss is giving these recruits all this cash to sign with the Rebels, then I’d like someone to explain National Signing Day to me. I’d like someone to explain Shyheim Carter, Terrell Hall and Jonathan Kongbo to me.
Ole Miss, however, isn’t going to be able to rid the cheating stigma anytime soon, if ever. The Rebels are going to be accused of wrongdoing when they sign any highly-rated prospect. Get used to it, it’s not going anywhere. If that bothers you, I’d advise avoiding social media. There is nothing you can say or do that’s making that go away.
My advice is to simply embrace it.
How many people like Alabama? How many people like Duke basketball? How many people like the Patriots or the Yankees? If you’re being honest, not many. Why? Because they matter.
For the first time in a long, long time the name “Ole Miss” elicits a response. People don’t like the Rebels, and that’s fine. That’s their right, and their prerogative.
Remember, however, that the reason the disdain throughout the nation has intensified towards Ole Miss is because they’re relevant. Ole Miss, over the course of four years, has made sure that people don’t like them, and likely never will. You don’t attract that by losing, you do that by beating teams you’re not supposed to. You do that by becoming more than what you’re supposed to be. You do that by winning games, and it appears Ole Miss is going to keep doing that, and people aren’t going to like it.
Collin Brister is the staff writer for HottyToddy.com. He can be reached at collin.brister@hottytoddy.com.
Follow HottyToddy.com on Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat @hottytoddynews. Like its Facebook page: If You Love Oxford and Ole Miss…
| Sat, Aug 31 |  | vs Furman | W, 76-0 |
| Sat, Sep 7 |  | vs Middle Tennessee | W, 52-3 |
| Sat, Sep 14 |  | @ Wake Forest | W, 40-6 |
| Sat, Sep 21 |  | vs Georgia Southern | W, 52-13 |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | L, 20-17 |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | W, 27-3 |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | L, 29-26 (2 OT) |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | W, 26-14 |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | W, 63-35 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | W, 28-10 |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | L, 24-17 |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | W, 26-14 |
| Thu, Jan 2 |  | vs Duke (Gator Bowl) | 6:30 PM • ESPN |
Buell Dagg
June 28, 2016 at 3:14 pm
4 years later, Ole Miss is NOT relevant. 4 years from now, Ole miss WON’T be relevant. Just because there’s no evidence, does NOT mean it didn’t happen. Ole Miss is NOT the 2nd best team in the SEC, they’re not even the 2nd best team in the SEC WEST. They are however, the number one team at cheating.
Esteban
June 28, 2016 at 5:33 pm
Here’s a tip. Football doesn’t matter. At all. Ever.
It didn’t matter four years ago. It won’t matter four years from now.
5hrbunkis
June 29, 2016 at 2:41 pm
I think the only people UM football matters to is the NCAA, excluding their delusional, unrealistic fans, of course. We’re talking about UM here, not exactly a bastion of football superiority. So when they start dragging blue-chips from other legit football powerhouses, something very, very funny is afoot.
UM fans simply can’t grasp that reality because their egos are inflated entirely too much. Why? Decades of ridiculously pretentious self-proclamations, such as “most beautiful campus” or “where all the fine women go” (as if no other college offers such). Their desperation to impress the nation with their pitiful football program has caught up with them.
smitty
June 29, 2016 at 7:23 pm
The academic fraud happened while Nutt was here, but Freeze was on staff then as a recruiting coordinator. Word is he assisted in setting test dates up and such.
Anonymous
June 30, 2016 at 8:57 am
@Smitty- Your and idiot. Freeze never worked under Nutt. Anything else you want to lie about?
Anonymous
July 1, 2016 at 9:59 am
Buell Dagg (really clever cover up for Bull Dog) is obviously a typical Rebel hater trolling Ole Miss web sites. Esteban obviously is not into college football, so what he thinks is of little consequence in the matter. Smitty, another Rebel hater probably from State does not know how to do his homework. The other anonymous did his/her homework and, like me, has no interest in engaging in a battle of wit with three unarmed opponents. Ole Miss matters in every respect – in athletics, in the classroom, at UMMC and in every department performing significant research throughout the entire UM system. Nice job Collin Brister!