Some of what's happening around the SEC: An Alabama-West Virginia game is in the works for 2014. Athlon has Arkansas ranked No. 13 in its preseason poll. Is Alabama's flirtation with Georgia quarterback recruit Brice Ramsey over? John Adams of ...
"The Season: Ole Miss Football 2011" picked up another honor recently, earning an Emmy nomination by the Southeast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).
Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
I spoke with Hugh Freeze a minute ago for an update on football academics now that the spring semester has ended. The immediate need for his players with grades concerns in the spring semester ...
Source: SEC Football Blog
"College Football Live's" panel of experts preview South Carolina's upcoming season.Source: The Ole Miss Blog
BASEBALL: Ole Miss baseball is ending its regular season this weekend against Vanderbilt in Nashville. I wrote a few things about it. Ole Miss baseball SID Bill Bunting has your notes. Red Cup Rebellion also has some thoughts.
Home Run Derby: Not that it's a thing, but it's interesting to me. Zack Kirksey (13) and Matt Snyder (12) have been in an intersquad home run derby of sorts. Kirksey is 2nd to Florida's Mike Zunino (14). It'll be interesting to see how those two end up over the weekend.
Ole Miss Depth Chart: Barrett Sallee, who shall forever be known as the first guest ever on Jake's Take on Rebel Sports Radio, has a post over on his SEC blog regarding the Ole Miss spring depth chart. However, be forewarned, I'm not sure one should read much into Nick Brassell's presence on the chart. More than 24 hours ago Chuck Rounsaville over on the Spirit message board (I try not to steal Chuck's info since he works hard for it, but after 24 hours I think we're good) wrote that things were looking bleak for Brassell academically. Bleak is bad.
ELI'S RING: Manning picked up his new diamond ring at Tiffany's in NYC last night. It weighs approximately 20 pounds and glows in the dark. The picture is right below this post, but in case you missed it.
Source: Red Cup Rebellion by The Ghost of Jay Cutler
[ED: Press time on this was before we lost to Arkansas State, so read this as if I both assumed we won and didn't care at all to mention said outcome.]
So this is it. This is the final weekend of the regular season of Ole Miss Rebel baseball, a weekend which will yet again be spent somewhere outside of the confines of Oxford-University Stadium at Swayze Field. The #22-ranked Rebs will instead travel to Nashville to take on the inconveniently resurgent Vanderbilt Commodores in a series which will have significant impact on this team's position heading into the SEC Baseball Tournament and the NCAA
Source: SEC Football Blog
I'll be back in the chat room today at 1 p.m. ET and looking forward to taking your questions -- the good ones and the bad ones. Nah, I was always taught that there's no such thing as a bad question. Well, maybe sometimes.Source: The Ole Miss Blog
Eli got his ring last night. Ain't it purdy?
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Source: SEC Football Blog
We're taking a look at some of the breakout SEC players from this spring: Marcus Caffey, CB, Kentucky: Caffey spent his first year on Kentucky's campus looking up at the rest of the running backs on the roster. But the coaches didn't want to waste his talent, so he moved to cornerback, a position in desperate need of bodies. The Caffey experiment worked, as he immediately adapted to his new position and left spring with one of the starting corner spots.Source: SEC Football Blog
Today, we dissect Arkansas' schedule as the Hogs look to break through in the Western Division: Nonconference opponents (with 2011 records) Sept. 1: Jacksonville State (7-4) Sept. 8: Louisiana-Monroe (4-8), in Little Rock Sept. 22: Rutgers (9-4) Nov. 3: Tulsa (8-5) SEC home games Sept. 15: Alabama Oct. 13: Kentucky Oct. 27: Ole Miss, in Little Rock Nov. 23: LSU SEC road games Sept. 29: at Texas A&M Oct. 6: at Auburn Nov. 10: at South Carolina Nov.
Source: Bleacher Report NCAAF
The schedule doesn't do Hugh Freeze any favors in his first season as Ole Miss head coach. If the Rebels don't beat Vanderbilt in early November, it's a real possibility that they won't win a game in the final two months of the season.
What's the reason? Depth, of course.
Ole Miss released its 2012 post-spring depth chart on Wednesday afternoon, and there were a few surprises.
Quarterback
Returning starter Randall Mackey was moved to wide receiver this spring, which left the quarterback battle to junior Barry Brunetti and sophomore Bo Wallace.
Brunetti opened the 2011 season as the starting quarterback, but was supplanted shortly after the season started by Zack Stoudt and eventually Mackey. He completed 19-of-35 passes in 2011 with zero touchdowns zero interceptions in limited action.
Wallace redshirted at Arkansas State when Freeze was its offensive coordinator in the 2010 season, but transferred to junior college for the 2011 season. He threw for 4,604 yards and 53 touchdowns at East Mississippi Community College last season, and is ready-made to step in and operate Freeze's offense.
Consider Wallace the front-runner. He completed 16-of-26 passes for 240 yards, two touchdowns and one interception in the 2012 Grove Bowl. Freeze may not want to admit it yet, but it's Wallace's job to lose.
Brassell Makes an Appearance
Wide receiver/defensive back Nickolas Brassell sat out most of spring practice getting his academics worked out, but he is listed on the spring depth chart as Ole Miss' third-team field cornerback.
That's at least a small indication that Freeze expects Brassell to suit up in 2012, and that there's a chance that his academic issues won't cause him to be ineligible.
One thing is certain—Freeze needs him. He has the athleticism to be a difference-maker in the defensive backfield and has proven to be a playmaker at wide receiver.
Read more Ole Miss Football news on BleacherReport.com
Source: The Ole Miss Blog
Ole Miss begins its last SEC series of the season at Vanderbilt tonight. A glance at Vanderbilt's record might lull an opponent into thinking the Commodores are a good win opportunity, but that 26-25, 13-14 SEC record is deceiving. Vanderbilt is hot. The Commodores have won 9 of 12 SEC games and three straight SEC series, including a series win at No. 4 LSU last weekend. They're also playing for their NCAA lives. While Ole Miss is widely considered a solid No. 2 seed and still holds on to hope that a series win and a big run in the SEC Tournament could land the Rebels a host position, the Commodores are just trying to make the tournament field. They need a sweep just as bad or worse than Ole Miss. The Rebels haven't won a road SEC series since Alabama back in March. All of it spells trouble for Ole Miss. After dropping that disappointing midweeker to Arkansas State on Tuesday night the last thing the Rebels need is to go into the SEC Tourney with a deflating series loss to Vandy.
TV: The game is in ESPNU at 6:30.
Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
Needing one win to guarantee a .500 record for SEC play, the Rebels have a good shot tonight with Bobby Wahl . The sophomore right-hander has given the Rebels a chance in most SEC Game 1s with...Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
A few notes this morning before getting on the road to Nashville. Game 1 for Ole Miss and Vanderbilt is tonight at 6:30 and will be televised by ESPNU. There are other scenarios to get ...Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
Interesting update here from Daily Journal sports editor John Pitts on former Ole Miss star Seth Smith , who is in his first season in Oakland. Boss wonders if Smith, who has hit a stride i...Source: Red Cup Rebellion by The Ghost of Jay Cutler
The last coaches, they let certain things slide. Certain things were small, but eventually they start building up and turn into big things and people started feeling like they could get away with more and more things. Since [Hugh Freeze]'s not letting little things slide, you’re seeing the team come together closer and closer and there are fewer problems.
That's Ole Miss linebacker Mike Marry, quoted in this Edward Aschoff piece on the changing attitude around Ole Miss football under Hugh Freeze.
Source: SEC Football Blog
Edward Aschoff talks about Mississippi State defensive end Denico Autry's progression this spring.Source: SEC Football Blog
Our look at the SEC's most productive returning players in 2012 continues with a look at players that grabbed the most interceptions. Past producers: Quarterback Running back Wide receiver Tight end Sacks Tackles The SEC returns four players that ranked in the top 10 in the SEC in interception. The top pick man returns this season, though he'll have to sit to start the season. Here's a look at No. 1: Bacarri Rambo, S, Georgia: He had eight interceptions and defended eight passes last season.Source: SEC Football Blog
ESPN's K.C. Joyner has ranked his top quarterback-receiver tandems in the SEC going into the 2012 season, and his choice for No. 1 is going to surprise a lot of people. He has Vanderbilt's Jordan Rodgers and Jordan Matthews at the top of his list. In choosing his top tandems, Joyner used a list of metrics from the 2011 season that detailed such things as how the combo fared in short pass yards per attempt, vertical yards per attempt and overall yards per attempt.
Source: Ole Miss Official Site
The No. 22 Ole Miss Rebels travel to take on Vanderbilt in the final weekend series of the regular season beginning on Thursday night.Source: Ole Miss Official Site
The No. 13 seed Ole Miss men's tennis team (15-8) punched its ticket to the NCAA Final 16 last weekend with wins over Binghamton (4-0) and Michigan (4-2) to earn its 16th Sweet Sixteen appearance.Source: Red Cup Rebellion by The Ghost of Jay Cutler
Coming off of a sweep of the (bad) Tennessee Volunteers and in a position to improve its postseason stock, one would think the nationally ranked Ole Miss Rebels would make mincemeat out of a mediocre Sun Belt team during an otherwise non-noteworthy midweek matchup. Instead, they lost by five runs to Arkansas State last night, sucking some wind out of their post-sweep sails and failing to avoid an easy RPI damaging trap.
If you, like me, said "well, that figures" or "WAOM" or, really, anything along those lines of self-deprecation and honest awareness, then you too have noticed that this baseball program has shown an continued
Source: SEC Football Blog
The rich just keep getting richer in Tuscaloosa, Ala. Nick Saban's recruiting roll continued Wednesday, as ESPN 150 quarterback Cooper Bateman (Salt Lake City/Cottonwood) committed to the Crimson Tide. Bateman, the sixth-ranked quarterback in the 2013 class, chose Alabama over Auburn, Florida, LSU and Washington and claimed over 50 offers. "The campus was awesome," Bateman told ESPN.com's TideNation. "It was probably my favorite campus. It's gorgeous out there.Source: Ole Miss Official Site
First-year Rebel head coach Hugh Freeze inherited a team that returns 60 lettermen, including 29 on offense, 26 on defense and five specialists. That group received immediate help in the spring with the addition of four, talented mid-year transfers.Source: SEC Football Blog
Time for some links. Kevin Scarbinsky of the Birmingham News writes that the late Derrick Thomas was a major snub for the College Football Hall of Fame. Missouri dismisses safety Tavon Bolden ... again. Tennessee coach Derek Dooley and new athletic director Dave Hart laud new Hall of Famer Phillip Fulmer. Alabama coach Nick Saban says wide receiver DeAndrew White is "doing fine" after last month's late-night altercation outside of a Tuscaloosa, Ala.Source: SEC Football Blog
OXFORD, Miss. -- Ole Miss’ football program is stuck in the wilderness -- a scary place, filled with a plethora of overgrown obstacles. When coach Hugh Freeze arrived last December, he says the jungle was as thick as ever and it didn’t look like his new team was ready to cut its way out. That was until Freeze offered a solution: his “Journey.” He told players that he didn’t know how long it would take for them to make it out or find some sort of salvation, but if they followed him, they’d find the light.Source: SEC Football Blog
DawgNation Roundtable : After Mark Richt vacated the hot seat this past season, some of his fellow SEC coaches are starting to sweat. DawgNation wonders: “Which SEC coach has the most pressure on him going into the 2012 season?” Kipp Adams writes : With names like Brice Ramsey and Derrick Henry, Georgia either has landed commitments from or is in hot pursuit of some of the top prospects of 2013 in the backfield. Adams : Georgia CB target Brendan Langley holds steady with his top three: Georgia, Tennessee and Alabama.Source: Red Cup Rebellion by The Ghost of Jay Cutler
What would College Football Relegation Look Like?I am working on some baseball-related material right now, but until then please enjoy SB Nation's look at relegation of the EPL variety and how that would look in the realm of NCAA Division 1 football. To call this little endeavor "interesting" is quite an understatement.
Source: SEC Football Blog
With spring practice behind us for all 14 SEC teams, it’s time to start breaking down the schedules for next fall and assess who has the toughest paths and who has the easiest paths to a successful 2012 season. We’ll start with defending national champion Alabama: Nonconference opponents (with 2011 records) Sept. 1: vs. Michigan (11-2), in Arlington, Texas Sept. 8: Western Kentucky (7-5) Sept. 22: Florida Atlantic (1-11) Nov. 17: Western Carolina (1-10) SEC home games Sept.Source: The Ole Miss Blog
Ole Miss traveled up to Jonesboro and had a complete meltdown, losing to Arkansas State 10-5. The Rebels just continue to struggle with pitching depth. They put six pitchers on the mound not named Wahl, Mayer or Hively and got absolutely hammered, giving up 14 hits to a Sunbelt team with 21 losses. It's frustrating to see the good work the Rebels did sweeping Tennessee get tarnished with a garbage performance like that. The loss solidifies Ole Miss as a No. 2 seed. Maybe they can still overcome it with a big weekend against Vanderbilt and a strong SEC Tournament performance, but a long win-streak to end the season would have been better.
WOMMACK SPEAKS: Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack spoke at the West Tennessee Rebel Club in Jackson, Tennessee, last night and said the usual stuff you expect to hear at such places.
REVENUE: Ole Miss senior executive associate athletic director (say that really fast 10 times) John Hartwell fleshed out the USA Today athletic department revenue report with the Clarion Ledger's Hugh Kellenberger, saying UMAA Foundation contributions not reported to the NCAA do make the Ole Miss athletic department self-sufficient. I don't get as worked up over the numbers in the athletic department as some might. There's nothing new here. The Rebels are toward the bottom on the SEC in revenue. Look at the football stadium. That should tell you the entire story in a nutshell. Only Vanderbilt and Mississippi State have smaller football stadiums. Football's where the money is made. Ole Miss has a smaller stadium by SEC standards and has had two years of crappy football. It should be no surprise to anyone that revenue is down. Yawn. If you're interested, here's the USA TODAY CHART showing Ole Miss with $49,180,892 in Total Revenue, $47,109,301 in Total Expenses and a subsidy of $3,660,915. Hartwell said that revenue figure is not a reflection of the total money available from the UMAA Foundation. So there you go.
NICE CATCH: Hugh Freeze caught another big fish yesterday. That's at least the third one in a few weeks. Is he trying to rub it in?
JAKE'S TAKE: Barrett Sallee from BleacherReport.com was on the show today to talk some SEC football and his expectations for Ole Miss in 2012. Be sure to give it a listen. It's available OnDemand on the Rebel Sports Radio app for iPhone and Android.
Source: Ole Miss Official Site
Rising junior soccer player Rafaelle Souza has been featured on an ESPNU video feature about being an Olympic hopeful for Brazil in this summer's Olympic Games in London, England.Source: SEC Football Blog
USA Today's annual study is out on who in college athletics makes the most money and who spends the most money. Not surprisingly, of the 10 biggest spenders, four are from the SEC: No. 4 Florida ($107.1 million), No. 5 Alabama ($105.1 million), No. 7 Auburn ($100.5 million) and No. 8 Tennessee ($97.6 million). According to the 2011 figures gathered by USA Today, 13 of the 14 SEC schools operated in the black, meaning they generated enough money to cover all of their athletic expenses.Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
With the busy time that the close of the spring semester becomes on the high school front, it took a while to get this to print, but hte Joe Walker feature appeared today. It's been a l...Source: SEC Football Blog
Tennessee will open the season against NC State on Friday, Aug. 31 in a 7:30 p.m. game that will be televised on ESPNU, while Auburn will face Clemson the next day, Sept. 1, in a 7 p.m. game that will be televised on ESPN. The two ACC versus SEC matchups are part of the 2012 Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game weekend at the Georgia Dome. "Over these incredible 48 hours, all eyes will be on Atlanta as we open the season like never before with our first-ever double hosting of Chick-fil-A Kickoff games," said Gary Stokan, Chick-fil-A Bowl president and CEO.Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
Notes and observations from the Rebels' loss in Jonesboro ... A few weeks ago Josh Laxer had all the right stuff (7 ip, 4 hits) in a combined shutout of Southern Miss, but the freshman righ...Source: Ole Miss Official Site
Zach Kirksey hit his 13th home run of the season, but Ole Miss wasn't able to overcome a surge from Arkansas State in a loss on Tuesday night.Source: The Ole Miss Blog
One of the things I like most about Hugh Freeze, currently 0-0 as head coach of Ole Miss, is that he seems to be having a lot of fun in his new gig. Some head coaches act so dang serious you wouldn't know if they actually have a life away from their cell phone or outside their office door. In most cases it's just a front they feel they need to project to make it appear as though they're worth that $2.5 million salary they're getting. Not Freeze. He's more of a "What you see is what you get," kind of guy, and right now, he's having a good time with this SEC head coaching thing. A head coach who posts fish pictures on Twitter, plays in golf tournaments and provides me with a nice inspirational morning tweet every day is just kind of fun. Nice catch, Coach.
Source: Ole Miss Official Site
Ole Miss men's golfer Joe David will travel to Athens, Ga., to compete as an individual in the NCAA Athens Regional May 17-19.Source: SEC Football Blog
College Football Live's panel of experts preview Arkansas' upcoming season.Source: SEC Football Blog
Edward Aschoff discusses three games to watch in the SEC this fall.Source: Red Cup Rebellion by The Ghost of Jay Cutler
Ole Miss Travels to Arkansas State for Baseball TonightWe haven't the time to give you a full preview, nor have we the time to lament the asinine idea of playing a Sun Belt program as the away team, so head on over to the Ole Miss sports mothership to get a preview of tonight's action. Freshman Josh Laxer will get the start tonight for the Rebels against Arky State's Cody Woodhouse.
Source: Ole Miss Official Site
Ole Miss men's golfer Joe David will travel to Athens, Ga., to compete as an individual in the NCAA Athens Regional May 17-19.Source: SEC Football Blog
With two new teams added to the mix, let’s take a look at what we learned in the SEC this spring: 1. Quarterback Central: The SEC gets a bad rap for not piling up Xbox-like passing yards, and granted, it wasn’t a great year for quarterbacks in the league last season. But did you know that an SEC quarterback has been taken in the first round of the NFL draft eight of the last 10 years? And that includes four quarterbacks taken No. 1 overall.Source: Inside Ole Miss Sports
Fifth in a series. Well, what better way to break into SEC play than with the national champion on the road. That will be the official “welcome to the league” game for new Ole Miss coach Hug...Source: SEC Football Blog
Does anybody really remember spring awards? They don’t hand out any hardware for what goes on in March and April. Nonetheless, we’re still going to honor the highs and the lows of the spring in the SEC: Best performance: How sharp was Arkansas quarterback Tyler Wilson this spring? The Hogs’ offensive coordinator, Paul Petrino, said if anybody had a better spring than Wilson, then he was Superman. In four major scrimmages, including Arkansas’ spring game, Wilson threw 16 touchdown passes and completed 75.Source: SEC Football Blog
From billboards to an untimely joy ride, the SEC has seen a lot of change in recent months. The black Missouri billboards sprinkled around the South, reading “PROUD TO BE SEC: MIZZOU” coupled with those not-so-discrete Texas A&M/SEC TV adds ushered in the arrival of the SEC’s new families. But their exodus from the Big 12 wasn’t the only big change for the league. The league said goodbye to a load of defensive talent and lost a couple of head coaches -- and even more assistants.Source: SEC Football Blog
Chris Low discusses the SEC players to watch during the 2012 season.Source: SEC Football Blog
A check of what's shaking in and around the SEC: Missouri quarterback Corbin Berkstresser is arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident. Arkansas receiver Kane Whitehurst has been granted his release and plans to transfer. Vanderbilt is off to an early start on the 2013 recruiting trail. Auburn defensive coordinator Brian VanGorder is looking to stock up at safety. Auburn's Gene Chizik says his young Tigers are growing up. The SEC is making officiating adjustments with Missouri and Texas A&M coming aboard.
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