HottyToddy.com’s Daily Ole Miss Sports Roundup

HottyToddy.com provides readers a roundup of the commentary and information about the Ole Miss Rebels from various publications around the Web.

Readers can check out the latest information in a single post each day throughout the year. Here at HottyToddy.com, we are doing all the leg work to find the information that people want about Ole Miss sports.

Today’s stories come from Ole Miss Sports, Saturday Down South.com and SEC Country.com

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Derek Mason compares Shea Patterson to one of the NFL’s best young QBs

Derek Mason gave high praise to Ole Miss true freshman quarterback Shea Patterson leading up to Saturday’s matchup in Nashville.

The coach compared Patterson’s elusiveness to former Oregon and current Tennessee Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota, who Mason faced numerous times during his tenure as Stanford’s defensive coordinator.

Courtesy of Jason Hall and to read the rest of this article go to Saturday Down South.com

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SEC Film Room: Ole Miss QB Shea Patterson shows shades of Johnny Manziel

The college football world lost one of its most entertaining players when Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly went down with a season-ending injury. Kelly, though hot and cold when it came to wins and losses, was one of the country’s true gunslingers who could lead an offense, consume large chunks of yards and score a lot of points in little time. Following the announcement of Kelly’s injury, Rebels coach Hugh Freeze then announced plans to remove the redshirt from the team’s freshman phenom quarterback, Shea Patterson.

I remember reading some split opinions on whether this was the right move since the big-picture season goals (meaning a conference championship or College Football Playoff berth) were shot, but as we sit here now reminiscing about the incredible fourth-quarter comeback Patterson led in College Station against top-10 Texas A&M, I think those opinions are far less split this week.

Patterson finished the game with 338 yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception. He started off slowly, as you would expect from any true freshman in his first game, but once Patterson became comfortable, he began to remind the broadcasters in the booth of a certain dual-threat gunslinger who played in that stadium not too long ago.

Courtesy of Trevor Sikkema and to read the rest of the article go to SEC Country.com

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Ole Miss Earns Highest Graduation Success Rate in School History

Coming on the heels of a successful weekend on the football field and basketball courts, Ole Miss received more great news this time on the academic side of things. In the most recent NCAA Graduation Success Rate Report released on Tuesday, Ole Miss recorded its highest GSR in school history at 81 percent.

Additionally, Ole Miss is graduating student-athletes at a rate nearly two percent higher than the University for the first time since 2009. This is just one of many accomplishments Ole Miss student-athletes have had in the last year. In the spring, Ole Miss student-athletes posted a collective 3.0 GPA for the first time.

Vice Chancellor of Intercollegiate Athletics, Ross Bjork, is pleased with the progress Ole Miss student-athletes are making in the classroom.

“I am extremely proud of our student-athletes, coaches and athletics staff for reaching this new academic threshold,” said Bjork. “Our biggest responsibility in college athletics is teaching, educating and providing leadership opportunities for our students who compete in athletics. Our intentional approach to enhance our academic performance is now paying off with the best graduation success rate on record.

Earning a college degree is the ultimate measure of success in higher education and we are extremely proud of all of our Ole Miss Rebels who have received their degree and allowed our university to enrich our academic profile. While we have come a long way in a relatively short amount of time, our work in this area is never complete, and we will continue to strive for academic excellence for our entire athletics program. We must continue to fulfill our purpose by providing every opportunity for our student-athletes to reach their full potential. ”

Senior Associate Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development, Derek Cowherd, is equally impressed by the dedication of the student-athletes, coaches and FedEx Student Athlete Success Center staff to achieve this milestone.

“It has taken a lot of dedication from our students, staff and coaches to move closer to our target of 90 percent graduation success and to see Ross’ vision for our department coming true,” said Cowherd. “We take the utmost pride in the process and the way we do things with integrity and within our core values. It’s very rewarding to see so many of our student-athletes graduating and having a plan for their lives after their collegiate days are done. I’m thankful for this talented team who works tirelessly to reach our goal of being in or near the upper third of the SEC in federal and graduation success rates.”

The women’s basketball, women’s golf, volleyball and rifle teams each posted a perfect 100 percent GSR. This will be the eighth consecutive year the women’s golf team has posted a perfect GSR, while volleyball achieves the feat for the sixth straight year. It’s the fourth year in a row with a perfect score for women’s basketball and the third for rifle.

In 10 years, Ole Miss’ graduation success rate has improved from 69 percent to its current 81 percent, and the Rebels are graduating two percent higher than the University population as well as the federal graduation rate.

Additionally, Ole Miss is making strides among its SEC counterparts, and with its 81 percent graduation success rate the Rebels continue to climb into the upper echelon of the SEC.

For further academic accolades, follow @UMTrueRebel on Twitter.

Ole Miss Student-Athlete Development Mission
The mission of Ole Miss’ Student-Athlete Development program is to challenge student-athletes to be lifelong learners while pursuing continuous improvement academically, relationally, socially, personally, and professionally during and beyond their careers as student-athletes.

Courtesy of Ole Miss Sports

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