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Vassallo: Ole Miss Football by the Numbers
Ole Miss’ Robert Nkemdiche and Laremy Tunsil step out for the Auburn game. Photo by Joshua McCoy, Ole Miss Athletics
Very few individuals (including this writer) would have ever imagined that the Ole Miss football team would be playing at this level within the Southeastern Conference at this juncture.
Let’s revisit the four years prior to team Freeze arriving. Here’s what 2008-2011 reflected within the league scorecard:
- Total Wins 10
- Total Losses 22
- Winning Percentage .310
- In 2010 to 2011, the Rebs were 1-15.
Fast forward to the four year period of 2012-2015 to date. The Rebs are 15-15, an increase of 19 percentage points! And in the previous two years, the Rebs are are 9-5 in conference play, a winning percentage of .643! These numbers are phenomenal in such a short turnaround. Here’s why.
College football, unlike the pros, is solely dependent upon recruiting high school players for the most part with junior college players and transfers filling in some holes. Typically the high school players are redshirted more often than not which delays their contributions by a year or more for those not getting a chance to play right away.
What Hugh Freeze and his staff have accomplished is the blending in of these new recruits, filtering through the inherited players while at the same time establishing a winning program from year one!
Coach Freeze has not only won immediately (three bowls in three years with a fourth on the way), he has recruited beyond anyone’s comprehension while rebuilding the program.
It’s easy to be a critic when the team does not win each and every game, but it’s much more gratifying to understand how competitive this team truly is and how difficult the competition is.
Before concluding, let’s examine this year’s SEC competition’s composite records:
Alabama 8-1
LSU 7-1
Auburn 5-4
Arkansas 5-4
MSU 7-2
A&M 6-3
Florida 8-1
Vanderbilt 3-6
Total: 49-22 (Winning percentage .690)
There you have it. No one guaranteed a league championship at this point in time, but no one anticipated such a success story either. Winning is awesome, but competing is exciting!
Steve Vassallo is a HottyToddy.com contributor. Steve writes on Ole Miss athletics, Oxford business, politics and other subjects. He is an Ole Miss grad and former radio announcer for the basketball team. Currently, Steve is a highly successful leader in the real estate business who lives in Oxford with his wife Rosie. You can contact Steve at sovassallo@gmail.com or call him at 985-852-7745.
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| 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 | 6:45 PM SEC Network |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | 11:00 AM ABC / ESPN |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | TBD |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | TBD |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | TBD |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | TBD |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | TBD |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | 11:00 AM |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | 2:30 PM |
Michael Hughes
November 10, 2015 at 11:55 am
Congratulations to Ole Miss coaches and players for playing so hard and playing with class. Also, congratulations to Arkansas players for not giving up, even when behind and playing for a classless coach. Bielema confirmed his lack of class during his halftime interview in which he professed to not worry about winning because Kelly was going to make mistakes. Please ask Bielema and Arkansas to stop piling on a young kid who is turning his life around and playing great football.
Jeff Smith
November 10, 2015 at 3:51 pm
And there is the problem. No one ever expects nor demands that Ole Miss win the SEC as long as you beat Alabama it’s all good.
Katherine Puckett
November 10, 2015 at 3:54 pm
Thanks, Steve!
People need to chill out, support the Rebs and enjoy the ride. I like how you have put a positive spin on the Rebel story. LOTS of fans need to hear it!
For real
November 10, 2015 at 8:04 pm
I agree with Jeff. Quit condoning mediocre r.
Tim
November 10, 2015 at 8:52 pm
Helluva lot rather watch Rebels of today than Houston Nutt’s teams,who by the way were Orgeron’s recruits!
Jeff Smith
November 10, 2015 at 8:57 pm
it is nice to watch today’s Rebels better but when your team does something it has NEVER done in the same year by beating Bama and Auburn on the road then you should be able to parlay that into a Western division title. That won’t happen again this year and the questions begs to be asked will we EVER complete an AL sweep again, history says no so when can we expect a championship in Oxford???
Hawaii Reb
November 11, 2015 at 9:00 am
Progress? Yeah, sure. But losses continue to show the areas of mediocrity the OM football is famous for. Attitudes of “well, better than a losing season” shows how fans and coaching staff are becoming satisfied with a little better. “Mediocre people have an answer for everything and are astonished at nothing”,
Brenda Scott
November 11, 2015 at 10:35 am
If all this is true, super talent, Check; great coaches, hummm, we should be better this year than last year. We seem to have a pattern of great talent but less wins. THIS should have been our best year out of 4. Instead we are back pedaling. We’re all tired of wait until next year.
Randy
November 11, 2015 at 2:30 pm
All I can think is if we have the great recruits that we have accumulated over the last 4 years and we are not improving and competing for a championship every year that only leaves one problem, COACHING.
umchemeng86
November 11, 2015 at 8:51 pm
The negative comments are pretty sad. Part of Ole Miss’ problem is that we change out coaches every 3-4 years because they haven’t won the West and a National Championship. Let’s all take a dose of reality and understand it takes time, money, recruits, etc. We have a coaching staff that can recruit and lead a team in the correct way. By all means, let’s fire the lot of them and start over again.
Jeff Smith
November 11, 2015 at 9:18 pm
Umchemeng86, fans like you are the ones I am talking about. We should expect more out of the program when we pay out a HIGH paycheck for our head coach. The school has put money into the program and wanting to win some hardware along the way is not asking to much. We are the ONLY program who has beaten Bama twice in a row under Saben’s watch and what do we get? More than likely a 7-5 season with a trip to the Liberty Bowl. What a great season!