Egg Bowl Guest Blogger - Red Solo Cup - Mississippi State Sports Blog

Egg Bowl Guest Blogger - Red Solo Cup

The folks over at Red Solo Cup, and Ole Miss blog, emailed me about doing a Q & A exchange leading up to tomorrows Egg Bowl. Here are my questions and their answers.

1. Ole Miss has been up and down this year with the big win over Florida only to turn around and lose to Vandy. What was the reason for those ups and downs?

Our team spent the first half of the season learning how to win. We should have beaten Vanderbilt only to turn the ball over six times and still lose by less than a touchdown. We should have beaten Wake Forest, but we gave up two huge chunks of yardage in the final minute to set up the game-winning field goal. I don’t say that to say that we could be 10-2 with the right bounces or anything like that. I say it to show that this team simply could not win games early on in the season. We didn’t know how. After three seasons of moral victories, that was all we could do. The players had to be taught to play their hardest when the game was on the line.

2. What are the weaknesses on your team that the Bulldogs should look at taking advantage of?

Well, I actually think that we have turned into a relatively complete team. Still, I question our pass defense. We’ve done better over the four game win streak, but we still let Kodi Burns pass for more than 300 yards only three weeks ago. While I’m not sure that Wesley Carroll(sp?) or Tyson Lee will be able to take advantage of our secondary, it’s prime for the picking. I would go at least three wide on every play. Pass a lot. Ole Miss is ninth in the country in run defense. We are eighty-second in pass defense. Pass the ball.

3. Who is the best player on the Ole Miss offense this year? What about on Defense?

It’s hard to decide whether the best player on offense is Michael Oher or Jevan Snead. Oher has finally turned all of that potential into reality with legitimate coaching and a solid weight staff. He has helped Ole Miss to its paltry 13 sacks allowed. I never would have mentioned Jevan until the past four games. Over that span, he has thrown nine touchdown passes and one interception. There was a drive against LSU when Jevan completed three consecutive passes that honestly could not have been thrown better. It was elite NFL placement. I’m not saying that Jevan Snead will be an elite NFL quarterback. I’m just saying that he has the ability to do so. I guess if I had to choose one, I would give the edge to Oher since his success has been season-long.

4. Houston Nutt has never really competed against other SEC schools for recruiting. At Arkansas, they recruited mostly out of Oklahoma and Texas. How do you think he will do recruiting, especially against the schools that seem to commonly raid the Mississippi high school pool?

We are certainly worried based on the shape that our current class is in with comparison to yours, however we’re not too worried for three reasons. First off, there are good players outside of the state of Mississippi, obviously. Most of our team is from outside of the state, and they’re contributing a ton. Second, we are winning football games. That will help with recruiting. Multiple sources have said that we currently have three private commitments from three of the top juniors in the state. I think that 2010 will be the real season to worry if we don’t get many players from Mississippi. The staff needs time to build inroads with the high schools in the state. Sylvester Croom has been recruiting these kids for the past four years while Nutt only started last season. Thirdly (that’s probably not a word), Nutt has been able to evaluate talent very well. He built classes at Arkansas that were “bad” that went to SEC Championship games and Cotton Bowls.

5. What is your prediction of the game? Do you think Ole Miss will give us the give of going for it on fourth and long at mid-field again?

Though I run the risk of appearing to be too cocky, I think we’re going to beat you by at least two touchdowns. Trust me, I’m not traditionally an optimistic Ole Miss fan, but we’ve just been playing a different level of football than we have seen since 2003. Also, our run defense, as I mentioned, is ranked ninth in the country. I think we will be able to contain Anthony Dixon who appears to be most of your offense. Again, I know I sound cocky, but I’m just saying what most Ole Miss fans think. We will probably have trouble putting up points on you early, but Houston Nutt and Kent Austin (our offensive coordinator who happens to be a Rhodes Scholar) have figured out ways to manufacture points in every game this season. We’re averaging 30 points per game in a league that isn’t known for letting teams into the end zone without a fight. I think we’re going to run away with this one.