I agree, and accept the fact that it's time to move on past Colonel Reb.

But my God what the hell have you done to us?

Seriously... "The Rebel Land Shark"... When's the last time you found a shark in North Mississippi? Central Mississippi? South Mississippi? Not to mention "land shark" is a derogatory term used for lawyers! Oh wait, we do have a law school. I know the story of how this mascot came to fruition but let's be realistic about this: Something that's only been in the Ole Miss vocabulary for 3 years, "land shark", does not a mascot make - that's either cool or traditional or has SHIT to do with Mississippi. And the way our defense has been playing this season, I'm ready to call them the Land Kippers!

The Rebel Black Bear, who happens to be brown and not black, is probably the best choice out of the 3... if he didn't look so damn Yogi Bear cartoonish silly. Aside from the President Roosevelt legend about hunting bears, a bear has absolutely nothing in common with Ole Miss.. except the one that used to roam the sidelines at Alabama and kick our ass. I can just hear Alabama fans now.. "Ole Miss wants to be like us so much they named their mascot after our dead but not forgotten bad ass coach Bear Bryant!" My God Ole Miss, don't we have enough problems with Alabama without having to add anything else??

This brings us to "Hotty Toddy", or as I call him "The Rebel Silver Surfer". Just when we thought he was no more thanks to the Fantastic Four in the movie Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, he resurfaces not looking for revenge against said Fantastic Four but looking to make a mockery of Ole Miss! Horrible, horrible choice here.

The 'Selection Criteria' states: Unify the Ole Miss Community (none of these will); Have a Mississippi Connection (only the bear does this, and barely); Be Unique (how many schools with a bear mascot or name are there again?); Adapt from Grove to Game (because it's hard going from sport coat and tie to Maker's Mark stained t-shirt); Fit Ole Miss Culture (land shark is a perfect mascot for our good for nothing law school grads, anyone seen Dicky lately?); Project a Proud Image (and any one of these do?); Be Timeless, Not Trendy (as land shark is only 3 years old and about our football defense, I'd say that's trendy); Have the Ability to Be Active (as opposed to laying down at the 50-yard line and not moving the whole game?); Appeal to Children (the bear wins again)

And if this isn't enough to make you rething these 3 horrid choices, let's see what other have to say:

From Twitter:The Ole Miss potential new mascots are absolutely ridiculous & hilarious.

From Twitter:being a Tennessee fan has been tough....but at the end of the day I thank my stars I'm not an ole miss fan

From Twitter:The ole miss mascot situation has grown shameful. These options look like they were thought up by a bunch of 3 year olds with finger paints

From Twitter:Dumb Dumber & dumbest!! Good Grief!!! Ole Miss mascot designs

From Twitter:just checked out the new ole miss mascot designs. how embarrassing.

Indeed. How embarrassing. And I take it you dear fine folks at Rebel Nation HQ don't know much about social networking, except automated back-end computer posting, or you would have had a free poll right there.

Again, I'm all for a new mascot. Colonel Reb did his duty and was appropriate for his time, even if his time was a bad and shameful time. Yes, I agree, he's got to go.. and has gone. But seriously Ole Miss, you couldn't come up with anything better? ANY THING?

Respectfully and with a broken heart,

Most of the Rebel Nation

PS: Whatever happened to this guy?


You really think he's worse than this guy?

Take a moment to say hi or thanks or whatever well wishes you prefer to this gentleman. Next time you're at a store that has greeting cards, pick one up for Coach Dale.

From Pete Boone's Twitter account: Coach Roland Dale is in a nursing home. Teenie (Dale's wife) would love to have cards to read to him. Coach Dale, 128 Bridlewood Dr., Brandon, Ms 39047

For those that aren't familiar with Coach Dale, he was born October 30, 1927 in Magee, Mississippi.

He's a former end in the NFL for the Washington Redskins for one season in 1950.

He played college football at Ole Miss in 1945, 1947, 1948 and 1949 playing center and tackle.

From 1955 until 1960, he was hired as an assistant coach at Southern Miss.

He became an assistant coach at Ole Miss under Johnny Vaught in 1960 and spent 12 seasons on the sidelines at Ole Miss until 1971. He helped coach our 1960 Ole Miss team to a national championship.

In 1972, Dale became the ninth head college football coach for the Southeastern Louisiana University Lions located in Hammond, Louisiana and he held that position for two seasons, from 1972 until 1973.

In 1974, he returned to Southern Miss as the school's new Athletic Director.

He's a member of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, the Ole Miss Sports Hall of Fame and the Southern Miss Sports Hall of Fame.

As was noted in a Red Cup Rebellion post previously, The Clarion-Ledger's David Brandt, who is/was the Ole Miss beat writer, is/has leaving/left. Kyle Veazey is moving from the CL's MSUx beat and taking over the Ole Miss beat. MSUx's new beat writer will be Brandon Marcello who is leaving the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette where he was the online sports editor. Just an FYI.. if you care. Now there'll be 2 things in Starville that hate Ole Miss.. MSUx and The CL's MSUx beat writer who is from Arkansas. Fun times. See source.

This whole league expansion has gotten steam and it'd be interesting, and fun, to see your thoughts on which 4 teams would make for good addition to the SEC. Call it what you will but hey, I'm Jonesing for football talk, keeping in mind of course that league expansions also include new league members other sports such as baseball, basketball, etc.

Poll

Should the SEC expand to 14 or 16 teams?

3%

Yes, ASAP to 14, regardless of what the other leagues do.

2 votes

12%

Yes, ASAP to 16, regardless of what the other leagues do.

8 votes

23%

Only if the other leagues expand. Then we match them. They go to 14? We add 2 teams. They go to 16? we add 4 teams.

15 votes

60%

No, not even if the other leagues do so.

38 votes

63 votes | Poll has closed

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And if you're a student who will be voting, you need to know what you're voting for.

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The bright minds at the SEC have now made it possible for you to buy and download any game by any SEC team, for $3.99.

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Chris Low is nuts and so is anyone else that votes Bama's Mark Ingram as number 1 for the Heisman Trophy.

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Sadly, 8 4 recruits skipped the game yesterday because of the KKK presence, Coach Nutt said in his press conference today.

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was MSUx who sent the KKK in the first place nor would it surprise me one bit if Dan Mullen himself was under one of those hoods... but I'll hold off on the conspiracy theories for now.

Just really hate to see our recruiting take a blow because 12 racist idiots showed up on the Ole Miss campus to protest something so stupid. This is something that just royally pissed me right the fuck off. It angers me to even read it!

UPDATE: Nutt has since said it was 4 recruits. Too lazy to find the linkage. I personally don't care if it was 1 or 20, this still angers me. And did you see the photo of the KKK member wearing an Auburn hat before they put on their robes? I'd like to know who those 4 recruits are that skipped and see if Auburn or Alabama is on any of their lists...

If you don't own this book, published last year, it's an awesome treasure trove of pictures of Ole Miss from its beginning to now.

You can view it all online at http://issuu.com/thebooksmithgroup/docs/olemiss and/or purchase it at http://www.olemissbook.com.

Just one of the neat pictures in there.. a reprint from The Mississippian newspaper of the "Hotty Toddy" cheer when it actually went "Highty Tighty".

Another neat picture: Blind Jim Ivy kicked back in a chair, feet up on the desk like he owned the place.. a black man doing this at Ole Miss waaayyyyyyy back then. It just strikes a bell. Ivy was loved by Ole Miss!