This excerpt was taken from Mandel's Mailbag column on SI.com.

In terms of available resources vs. job expectations, what is the worst coaching job in college football?
-- Ron, Indianapolis

Two words: Ole Miss. I feel bad saying that because I've made cracks about that fan base's deluded expectations before, but in all seriousness, it's a graveyard job. Despite residing in a small state, despite constant struggles to recruit elite athletes who qualify academically, despite one of the smallest football budgets in the conference (slightly more than Kentucky, Vanderbilt and Mississippi State and about half of Alabama's) and despite playing in a division with three of the past five national champions, two of the Rebels' past three coaches (David Cutcliffe and Houston Nutt) have been fired within two years of Cotton Bowl appearances.

Nutt's program was obviously trending downward, but even in a solid state, the Rebels were never going to keep winning nine games every year. And a couple of 7-6 seasons probably would have scored Nutt maybe one extra year. The next coach will be given a year or two to rebuild, then expected to contend for a New Year's bowl, all while the SEC adds two more schools to recruit against and implements stricter rules about oversigning (which Ole Miss leans on as heavily as anyone) and the NCAA stiffens academic entrance requirements (which means even fewer kids will qualify). Personally, I'd ask for a contract that at least allows me to partake in the Grove before games to help ease the misery.

 "Guys, I just want to hit briefly, let’s just go back to the start of the year. You know, this season has not gone the way we planned. It started with that first game. We knew this was going to be the year. We knew this third year ,with the amount of players that we lost, we knew that this would be a difficult year. What we didn’t plan on was about three knee surgeries, four concussions, a guy like Lockett, your leader. We didn’t plan on that, to lose a guy like that. But I just want to remind our fans of this, number one, it was just 50 years, its been 50 years since you won back to back January 1 games. Fifty! Fifty! And so my point is, I’m excited about — not with wins and losses, but I’m excited that there’s 12 freshmen that are playing. Twelve! I’m excited about the future. I know now, more in my heart than ever, I know we can get to Atlanta. I know we can. Because I know we can recruit here. We’ve proven that the last two seasons. What you didn’t plan on was that first game to put you in a tailspin. What you didn’t plan on was a couple of other things where, and it’s my fault, we weren’t as sharp, weren’t as ready as we should have been. But I see a lot of hope. And I’m excited. I’m excited about these next two games. I don’t want to lose focus on this — I remember the day we got here. I remember the day we got here, guys. I didn’t see any life. I didn’t see any. I saw a lot of no-hope. And I don’t want that to come back on our guys now, and that’s what I’m feeling a little bit. I don’t want that. I want to convince them of this: Number one, you’ve got two ballgames left and a lot of these guys have done a lot of good things these last two years. And it’s easy to dwell on the negative. It’s easy to sit up on the 50-yard line, it’s easy to sit there and say ‘Bad, bad, bad, bad, embarrassing.’ And hey, I was the first one to say it after Saturday. Man, I don’t want to do that. If you think you’re hurting, you oughta just look at the tip of my itsy-bitsy little finger and then go all the way up through my body. I’m sick to my stomach. The Tennessee game, because we planned on winning that game. But look at this, though, if you think Florida’s happy? You think Georgia’s happy? There’s going to be a year, in this league, the greatest league in America, there’s going to be a year where things don’t go just right. But it ain’t all about gloom and doom. And that’s what’s difficult about the world that we’re in now because I’ve got 18 and 19-year-olds that actually believe everything that comes outside these walls. And so, I’ve got to turn that. I’ve got to turn it. You’ve got to listen to what’s inside these walls. It’s about your family and this football family. We’ve got some outstanding recruits, recruiting is still going good, the last two signing classes have been real good. I think this will be our best one. Yeah, I planned on being at seven wins, right now at this point, seven to eight, six at the worst, but the bottom line is, reality is, we’re not. So, no more. I’m not going to allow my players to be gloom and doom. I’m going to let everybody else be gloom and doom. Remember, you’re part of something that was great. It wasn’t too long ago they’re patting you on the back about — ‘Can you believe it was a half a century?’ Fifty years and you went back to back and won January 1s? And you’re putting up these Cotton Bowl deals? And you’re helping bring in good recruits? There’s good things getting ready to happen. And so, I just want to tell our fans that, I want to tell our players that, most of all. ‘Get your head up.’ I just saw two out here with their head down. ‘What are you doing? Get your head up.’ This is what’s the greatest thing about football: It teaches you all you want about life. There’s not a sin about getting knocked down. There’s not a sin about that. The sin is if you stay down. And so, the thing I want to do, I want to make sure our coaches are going as hard as we can with all the energy and effort to make sure they’re taking the correct step, the proper stance, the perfect read and play. You don’t play tight. You turn it loose. One of the things we did, if you look the last two years, and the games that we played good this year, we turned it loose. That’s always been that way with us. Always. You turn it loose, you play the greatest game in America with a lot of passion, a lot of enthusiasm, and you turn it loose. So we’re getting ready to go play one of the best teams in America, LSU. LSU has the finest defense that I’ve ever seen, right now, so far, the best. Starts with their front, their front is outstanding because they’re big, they’re huge, they’re fast, they don’t give up but very very few points. They swarm ot the football. I mean, with speed. And one day we’re going to be two and three deep just like that. They have real speed from the front to the backers to the back end. Offensively, real weapons at the wideout. A real tailback. A good offensive line. Good special teams. So we’re playing, I guess, the No. 5 team in the country. LSU. Get ready. Questions?”