https://youtube.com/shorts/lC2jjqaZ4p4?feature=share
In the media business, there’s only so much praise that can be dumped on players and coaches every year. Even that can get boring.
Ole Miss is about that way primarily because everybody knows the only news right now is if something bad happens to quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, running back Kewan Lacy, or the other names expected to contribute big.
That list is too big to even start looking at right now.
Rebels fans probably know all the names, their numbers and backgrounds by now. Some have memorized it better than the media.
At this point in fall camp practices, coaches are analyzing just about everything they see in the films of practice.
Trust me, these days asking a coach right after a practice what he saw that day is a waste of time nobody wants to admit.
They wait and look at the films. Pete Golding will look at multiple positions. Position coaches will watch their group multiple times, and they are looking for every little bitty detail.
At some point you wonder if there’s some overthinking to this whole thing, but coaches aren’t buying into that. At least publicly.
Over all the decades I’ve covered football at every level up to the NFL, there have been more games overcoached than underprepared.
At some point, it’s human nature to hear information overload but not retain it.
Money has changed modern coaching grind
Hall of Fame coaches have told me for more than 50 years that there comes a time when you’re just trying to get their mind off the details for a bit.
A lot of folks don’t like hearing that, but it’s true.
Don’t put it on the head coaches, either, unless you’ve experienced it. Most of what they do has nothing to do with watching film and breaking it all down.
They’re dealing with the multitude of issues or answering questions on what he wants to do with things from the people he’s delegated to deal with those little things.
Ask any head coach at the big-time college football level and above, and they have an answer like Alabama’s Nick Saban used on some occasions.
He would rather have just been a secondary coach and dealt with just that part of the game.
It’s the money that has reached a level nobody would have ever guessed 50 years ago. Lou Holtz was the first coach at Arkansas to break the $50,000 mark in 1978 after winning the Orange Bowl and finishing No. 3 in 1977.
Jackie Sherrill was the first coach in college football to break the $100,000 barrier when future Dallas Cowboys owner H.R. “Bum” Bright hired him at Texas A&M in 1982.
He was one of the few owners in the NFL that reportedly had more loyalty to his alma mater than the pro team he owned.
These college coaches now have something to do almost every waking minute of every day. They take some limited time off during the summer, but they are still on the phone a lot.
Recruiting doesn’t get a vacation even in the dead times.
Rebs enter the quiet before kickoff
Now we’re in the deadest of times.
When you reach the two-week warning for the football season opener, just about everything that can be written and said has happened.
The latest court rulings give us all something interesting to talk about, but the guess from here is there will be more money spent on lawyers over the next two weeks.
Not that it will affect the betting lines much at all, if any.
Until then, just remember the Rebels’ offense is pretty well set and should be really good. The headline will be if they come up short somewhere nobody can anticipate now.
Besides, the defense appears to be much better than most thought.
https://youtube.com/shorts/lC2jjqaZ4p4?feature=share
Key takeaways
- Ole Miss coaches have shifted from live practice reactions to detailed film study as fall camp winds down.
- The Rebels’ offense appears set heading into the season, while the defense looks improved beyond preseason expectations.
- With two weeks until kickoff, the remaining storylines are more likely to come from courtrooms than the practice field.
