Ole Miss can finally end the “talking season” that Rebels coach Pete Golding was already worn out doing when fall camp started.
Don’t you just love first games? A lotof people determine the fate of an entire season off that game. That goes both ways. Teams either get better or worse over a long season.
Too often we in the media spend all summer talking about the teams and games from every possible angle that we have been known even talk ourselves into expecting something.
Then somebody needs to explain to us why what we thought knew would happen didn’t happen. Yes, we’re completely wrong at times. There are even members occasionally that think our job is to paint the best picture possible.
A story by Ben Garrett at OMSpirit.com reminded me of what Pete said on the first day they started.
“All everybody’s doing is just talking,” Golding told the media then. “I was getting on Kyle [Campbell, Ole Miss sports information director]. Like, ‘Kyle, we just had a media day. It’s been like 10 days. Like, what are we doing?’”
Kickoff arrives tonight in Nashville
Well, Pete, we’re tired of it too, but all we can do is write about what limited amount we get to see and what he tells us. Golding will find out from somebody somewhere sooner or later what can happen when the media starts inventing stuff.
Tonight shortly after 6:30 p.m. on ABC we’ll all start to find out about this Ole Miss team. Ninth-ranked Ole Miss will get around to opening the season against No. 24 Louisville team in Nashville that is probably leaps and bounds better than the Clemson team kicked around in Baton Rouge by LSU on Saturday night.
Fans shouldn’t be expecting anything like that to happen tonight.
Nobody should be looking at a schedule that’s going to be brutal starting Sept. 19 when LSU and Lane Kiffin play in Oxford. It’s already analyzed to death all summer long.
Golding’s issue is a game tonight where he can’t afford to stumble much. Expectations are off the chart, but there’s also a sense of wait-and-see with some Ole Miss fans to see what they do.
That’s not unusual anyway. While there are Rebel fans that expect a team that’s going to win three games on the year but that’s not this season.
They still want proof the train keeps rolling at breakneck speed.
Since we’ve had almost nothing to base speculation on over the summer, we can only take what was seen in spring practice and the players coming back from last season. Nobody’s considered they will not be as good.
Louisville brings proven playmakers to matchup
We’ve already had some surprises after the first real week of the season. Tonight’s game between the Rebels and Cardinals is the only ranked matchup in opening weekend, which is why Sunday night is the place for it.
Louisville has good players and one of the top running backs in the country in Isaac Brown and a coach in Jeff Brohm that played quarterback for Bobby Petrino. He has a lot of that philosophy in his offense.
That involves establishing the running game and having bail-out receivers on nearly every pass pattern that usually includes a short crossing pattern over the middle or a wheel route.
Beyond that it’s going to come down to the players, which is usually the case. Especially in big games.
The Tigers had players 40 points better than Clemson last night. Even Mississippi State had players nearly 50 points better than Louisiana-Monroe.
I still stand on my prediction from last week we did.
Ole Miss 34, Louisville 31
Hopefully Lucas Carneiro doesn’t let me down because he could have a big night.
