SBNation.com User Blog: Whiskey Wednesday

RCRuiting Position Analysis: Defensive Backs

Whiskey Wednesday — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:03:37 -0000

Nickolas Brassell - 4* - 6’1" 180 - Other notable offers: out of high school, pretty much everywhere.

What’s that? A talented South Panola player with academic issues? Seriously, I don’t know if the administration is to blame or what, but someone is doing these athletes a big disservice. With that sidebar out of the way... Picking Brassell back up is huge; he might be the fastest guy over 6’ in the SEC, and he has the chance to have the biggest year-one impact of anyone in this class. I’ve tempered my expectations for Brassell, but if all goes well, he could be our best corner immediately. Grouped with Sawyer and Golson, Brassell gives us at least 3 really solid SEC corners, something I’m not sure we’ve had in the last 20 years. Having all three on the field at the same time could be a great look for us on passing downs. His potential impact on special teams and even occasionally on offense can’t be understated, either. Of course, he could just fail to qualify. That could happen too. Ultimately, Brassell’s potential impact is one of the biggest swinging points for Ole Miss this season.

Antonio Conner - 4* - 6’2" 202 - Other notable offers: Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Tennessee, MSU

After bashing South Panola players’ academic issues just above, I would be remiss to mention here that I haven’t heard anything negative about Tony Conner’s academics. So maybe we have a drama-free, elite prospect on our hands here (knock on wood). The knock on Conner as a prospect is that he might not have great coverage awareness, but what he does have is great size, tremendous closing speed, and the ability to really punish receivers and ballcarriers. Freeze mentioned Conner as a great fit for the Husky position; while I really like Mike Hilton there (and think he’ll still have a role there down the stretch), Conner could really be a difference maker there right away. And though Conner could stick at Husky and be awesome there, he could also improve his coverage skills and move to safety, or gain 20 pounds and move to linebacker. It’s just great to have athletes like Tony on the team. This highlight film is from one game, but it's really the best one I can find.

Bobby Hill - 3* - 6’ 163 - Other notable offers: Tennessee, Kentucky, Purdue, Central Florida, South Florida

Bobby Hill is a lower-profile prospect that I’m extremely happy to have. At 6’, he’s got good height for corner, and looks to have good enough speed and ball skills as well. Apparently he played extensively both ways, actually earning 2nd team All-State honors at receiver (for all classifications) in the Gainesville Times. I really like bringing in guys who have played a lot of corner in high school, and Freeze has done a great job of that. While it’s nice having athletes in the secondary, it seems like the Rebel secondary has often suffered from lack of awareness and blown coverages; recruiting more experienced players there can’t hurt. Freeze mentioned Hill while he was talking about the receivers class; he may get a look there, but you have to think of him as a corner, since he’s listed as such on Rivals and Scout.

David Kamara - 3* - 5’11" 185 - Other notable offers: Clemson, Illinois, MSU, Kentucky, Wake Forest

David Kamara is a player that I am admittedly pulling for. Though some of it was his own doing, behaving like he was a package deal with Robert Nkemdiche really took a lot of the credit away from Kamara as a player. Another guy who actually plays the cornerback position in high school, he appears long-armed and aggressive in coverage. Kamara was selected to play in the Semper Fidelis All-American Bowl, where he was praised as a standout in the secondary; coaches commented not only on his athleticism, but his intelligence and awareness. Again, we need players with intelligence and awareness. Nice highlight video, with bonus butthurt in the comments section.

Quadarias Mireles - 3* - 5’11" 185 - Other notable offers: Oklahoma State, Purdue

Quadarias Mireles was recruited by Houston Nutt out of high school, and has signed again after a detour at Hinds Community College. As is the case with a few other guys, we aren’t sure what position Mireles will play; he was a slot receiver at Hinds, though in high school, he started at cornerback in addition to receiver. With the star-studded receiver class, and with Freeze’s tendency towards taller receivers, we’ll assume he’s bound for the secondary until shown otherwise. Mireles has plenty of speed, and appears to have pretty good hands as well. His quickness and vision may not be ideal for a slot receiver at the highest level.

Freeze and company did a good job with this position group. They were obviously trying to get in on guys like Vernon Hargreaves, Shaq Wiggins, and Jeryl Brazil, but the interest just wasn’t there. Failing to sign a truly elite corner, the staff did a great job of recruiting several guys who can provide depth and quality starts down the road, while Brassell and Conner look to be stars from year one.

Ole Miss Recruiting Position Analysis: Running Backs

Whiskey Wednesday — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 14:02:15 -0000

Eugene Brazley - 3* - 5'10", 175 - Other notable offers: Arizona State, Tennessee

Brazley was one of Freeze’s earliest commitments for 2013, though he apparently considered overtures from a couple of other schools, mainly Arizona State. Brazley’s GW Carver Rams competed in Lousiana’s 2A class, with an enrollment in the 850 range. Not the highest level of competition, but not terrible either, and Brazley appears to shoulder much of the load for the Rams, rushing for over 1,100 yards, with another 300 receiving and 21 TDs.

Brazley has a small-ish frame, but electric speed and acceleration. He has a nice stop-start move in traffic, breaks ankle tackles well, and appears to have good vision cutting against the grain to get upfield. It seems possible that Brazley will be considered for a switch to cornerback, but his skills certainly warrant a long look on offense.

Mark Dodson jr. - 4* - 5'10", 193 - Other notable offers: Texas, Oklahoma State, Arkansas

As a Parade All-American, Shelby County's all-time rushing leader (in 6A competition, no less), and a Spring enrollee, there are a lot of reasons to be excited about Mark Dodson. He rushed for almost 3,300 yards and 37 TDs THIS YEAR, including a 318 yard, 5 td performance in the 6A title game. There are reasons to compare him to DeAngelo Williams, though that's extremely optimistic; he's a little bigger and stronger than you might give him credit for, makes great moves in traffic, has a really nice stiff-arm, and can really make himself smaller to slip through gaps. His 40 time is listed as 4.7 pretty much everywhere; that's a little odd, as he frequently appears to leave defenders in the dust. It seems worth noting though, that Dodson will have a slightly different skill set than Jeff Scott or Jaylen Walton. Even so, it's really hard to speculate what his impact might be for next year, with those two, plus I'Tavius Mathers already in the rotation.

Kailo Moore - 4* - 5'10" 180 - Other notable offers: Alabama, Vanderbilt, MSU

Kailo Moore: After committing to Houston Nutt, then Dan Mullen, the most dynamic offensive player in Mississippi ended his recruitment by committing to Hugh Freeze a month ago. Apparently, we'll have to trust the coaches' evaluations on Kailo, as there are clearer videos of Bigfoot than Kailo Moore. What is well-documented is his pure speed; Moore is one of the fastest high schoolers in the country in both the 100 and 200 meter; he'll continue to compete in Track and Field at Ole Miss. There is some speculation that Moore might not be a traditional running back, but a slot guy who gets gadget carries. That said, I'm sure he'll have the chance to earn a spot in the backfield if he really is great with the ball in his hands. Below is a highlight video that may in fact be a series of sketches turned into a flipbook.

Jordan Wilkins - 4* - 6'1" 210 - Other notable offers: Michigan, Nebraska, Arkansas, Auburn

One of the biggest voids in the Ole Miss offense last year was the power run game. Though Jeff Scott and Bo Wallace both had success running up the middle, 3rd or 4th and inches was a treacherous down and distance for the Rebels. Though we'll never know exactly how the process went down, Ole Miss lost or cut ties with long-time commitment Peyton Barber and almost immediately picked up Wilkins. Both guys are bigger backs, though Wilkins is taller, lighter, and faster than Barber. Whether that's ideal for Freeze's purposes remains to be seen, but Wilkins' video seems to indicate that he has a lot of speed and open-field ability for a larger back. His skill set seems much like that of I'Tavius Mathers, so it will be interesting to see what his contribution will be, especially early on. I suppose it's even an outside possibility that Wilkins could gain some weight and move to linebacker, though with Barber's departure, that seems even less likely. Although Wilkins is a 4 star prospect (no. 9 in Tennessee, no. 20 amongst running backs), he might have been ranked even higher had his senior season not been cut short by a knee injury. Wilkins has reportedly recovered completely, and is a dynamic player for his high school basketball team this season.

Freeze has reason to be very pleased with this running backs class; there is some star power there, and a wide array of skill sets. Holding on to Peyton Barber certainly would've given Ole Miss a bit more confidence in addressing the power run game, but the staff did a great job of filling his spot. Running back can be a tricky position to recruit. High profile guys don't pan out, and give way to guys like Jeff Scott or Brandon Bolden. The great thing about Freeze is that there are a lot of carries to go around, and he puts guys in a position to succeed.

So this commercial with Patrick Willis will motivate you within inches of your life

Whiskey Wednesday — Sat, 12 Jan 2013 15:45:30 -0000

Duracell Batteries: Trust Your Power - NFL's Patrick Willis (via OfficialDuracell)

2011 SEC Media Days- Day 3- Live

Whiskey Wednesday — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:22:15 -0000

So yesterday was a snoozefest compared to the final day of Media Days. The Wynfrey Lobby was crawling with Crimson-clad zombies (Spencer Hall's wording, not mine) eager for a passing glimpse of their slick-haired, pennyloafered savior. Writers were giddy with anticipation for the one-two punch of absurdity from Les Miles and Houston Nutt, and both were, at times, happy to oblige. The Twitters were also full of chatter, addressing Nutt's response to questions about MSU's aggressive marketing, and his indication that Barry Brunetti might be leading the QB race. Click the jump for more details.

JUCO and I had been talking about questions for Nutt and the players all week, and I decided to ask how the offense might look different, after moments of explosiveness, coupled with inconsistencies last year. With changes to the offensive staff, and three new quarterbacks in the mix, I figured Nutt might have some insight on how we'd look on offense. Apparently, I got under his skin with the "inconsistant" part of that question, and he went on an unrelated rant about Jeremiah Masoli, a guy that I was always a big fan of. Really, it seemed like Nutt had been waiting to pounce on a question about Masoli, and it caused him to brush over any real answers to my question.

In the "coaches not taking shit" department, Nutt was asked three different questions about Mississippi State's approach to the Egg Bowl rivalry, and each time, he seemed increasingly reluctant to re-hash his contributions to the program, his refusal to define his team's progress by what's going on in Starkville. I wonder: surely, most of these reporters realize the coaches' general desire to talk about football, and general disinterest in creating soap opera style drama between programs. Why do they continue to ask these questions? Is it because they don't know enough about football to ask anything interesting? Do they get bored with coachspeak, and want to force something awkward? I dunno, but it got old, fast.

As far as funny/weird stuff that Houston said, we did elicit one "Gotta buckle both chinstraps!!!", forcing some chuckles from the bloggers. Also, when talking about the elite SEC West, Nutt quipped "Every time I look at Alabama during warmups, they always look the same to me. LSU, they always look... beautiful in their uniform." T-Bob Hebert reportedly offered a coquettish wave of his little finger from the corner of the conference room.

Nutt also made some waves by indicating that Barry Brunetti had a leg-up in the quarterback race. This seems like an unpopular decision for Ole Miss fans; we've been excited about Mackey since he signed out of high school, tore up record books in JUCO, and showed promise as a redshirt last year. Most of us would prefer that Brunetti take a redshirt, giving him an extra year of eligibility after Mackey leaves. Still, this has the feel of a make-or-break year, and I'm sure Nutt will go with whomever gives us the best chance on September 3rd against BYU.

Player interviews were kinda boring, as I wasn't able to grab Kentrell Lockett's attention for a question. Boo. Sorry. I now know more than I ever wanted to about the timeline of Lockett's knee injury, and very little about his favorite TV shows, Twitter antics, locker room shenanigans, etc.

The Miles interview was pretty tame. Grass-eating jokes, talk about how Miles will seamlessly replace Patrick Peterson and Drake Nevis that is, unfortunately, almost certainly accurate...

That just about wraps up Red Cup's SEC Media Days coverage. I hope you've enjoyed this week half as much as I have, because I had a damn blast. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for updates when Fall practice rolls around.

2011 SEC Media Days-Day 2-Live

Whiskey Wednesday — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 16:04:21 -0000

Good Lord, 8am is early. Day 2 of Media Days, the bustle and confusion from yesterday's internet crisis has subsided. I'm plugged in the wall, with an internet cable, like a plebian. Mark Richt is speaking as I type this, talking about Boise State, Pro Combat jersies, the Bible...

Yesterday, Dan Mullen was a lot more boring, less antagonistic than I expected. He took his pot shots at Ole Miss through conspicuous omission: when prodded by an LSU writer about the "This is Our State" campaign, Mullen conceded that USM might be annoyed by the implication. Apparently, a 14 year-old girl told Dan that we'd be even more hurt if he just ignored us altogether.

In the "reporters asking stupid questions" department, one guy asked Mullen what his expectations were when he started at State, and asked him what his timetable was for winning the West, and eventually the SEC. Apparently, just trying to win every game you play isn't enough, you have to have a schedule. Dan mumbled his way through that one and moved on.

Chizik and his stoic chin are at the podium now; it'll be interesting to see how he projects Auburn's chances after losing Cam Newton, Nick Fairley, and the better part of a great offensive line. It'll also be interesting to see who asks bratty questions about the Newton investigation; entertain me, Bama homers!

So of course, the main reason I'm here at Media Days is to cover Ole Miss. Houston Nutt speaks tomorrow, and then I'll have a chance to interview Brandon Bolden, Kentrell Lockett, and Bradley Sowell. Let me know what you want to hear, who you want to hear it from, etc., and I'll try to make it happen.

2011 SEC Media Days - Day 1 - LIVE

Whiskey Wednesday — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 20:32:27 -0000

Hi Cuppers (is that a thing? Do we say that?), I'm writing this live from the Wynfrey Hotel in Hoover, AL. SBNation has been kind enough to get us a pass into SEC Media Days, and Ghost and JUCO have been desperate enough to hand the pass to me. I apologize for the light coverage of today's events; the internets are pretty scarce here, what with hundreds of bloggeurs trying to cram onto two or three wireless networks. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some photos, interviews, and whatnot with some of the players and coaches. If you have any specific requests, suggestions, irrational demands, etc., hit me up in the comments and I'll see what I can do. After the jump, I'll talk about how things have gone so far...

First off: This event is, to a comic extent, a total sausage fest. No surprise there. Also no surprise: dressed in decent-fitting jeans and a plaid button-down, I am completely out of uniform. Should've brought my khakis, tennis shoes, and ugly Under Armour polo. Even the media in the SEC keeps it fratty; gotta respect that.

The only head coach I've been able to catch so far is Will Muschamp. After being introduced by random explosions, monster truck jousting, etc., Muschamp settled into his press conference with some obligatory opening notes, including some worrisome (for Florida fans) comments about his numbers and depth up front. I'm assuming that his concerns are equivalent to when people in Ohio complain about the humidity there. Still, his concern about his depth along the lines in worth noting.

From there, Muschamp didn't seek to blow any minds:

"I'm very pleased with the staff we have here" -no shit.

In response to a recruiting question: "There are a lot of good football players in Florida..."

He also displayed some real potential for future press conference assholery in dealing with some less-than-unbiased questions from the media.

When asked about rumors of Jeff Demps leaving the team: "I don't deal in rumors, and I don't know of any good football coaches that do."

When 'informed' that 8-5 wasn't acceptable to the "Gator Nation," Muschamp dismissively moved on with "They've told me."

With that, I'm about to emerge from the media workroom and try to catch Dan Mullen probably take some shots at Ole Miss for no reason. Stay tuned for more SEC Media Days coverage.

Post Game: Tulane

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 15:30:47 -0000

So, after modest expectations spiraling out of control into talk of NYD Bowls and Dark Horse potential... here we are, with modest expectations. If that's not Ole Miss, then I don't know what is. Apologies, once again, for the belated report (though I make no such apologies for last week's lack of a report. What did you want me to say?); I made it down to New Orleans, ate seafood, drank 14 gallons of beer, took my sweet time getting back home, and slept in this morning; I'm a Good Rebel.

Like all Good Rebels, I was more than happy to see us win this weekend. And like all Good Rebels, I'm also a bit perplexed...

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I don't like to go overboard blaming coaches for mental lapses or general malaise on the behalf of their players. Most of these guys have been playing sports for their entire lives; they realize, surely, that there are important mental aspects to sports, and that to be a good player, they've got to manage what goes on between their own two ears. So, while play-calling in the second half has been vanilla and uninspiring so far, we still have the types of athletes who should be able to execute these plays with some success, especially against such inferior competition. Step up, Rebels. Get your heads right.

Now let's talk about some guys that totally disappeared on Saturday. Brandon Bolden got seven carries (and four receptions) at a 4.6 YPC clip. After a 100 yard outing last week, why limit his carries, and give Enrique Davis 14 carries (which he used for 2.9 YPC)? Why put Devin Thomas on the field to the exclusion of Jeff and Rodney Scott? Did Melvin Harris or Ferbia Allen have anything thrown their way? Maybe we're still feeling our way through our offensive rotations; maybe we're still giving different guys some chances to break into the lineup. Still, we have some pretty good players that we didn't use properly, en route to scoring 27 points on Tulane. Yuck.

Defense... I'd rather watch our defensive backs get beat man-to-man than watch some mediocre QB throw underhand lobs into the wide open holes in our shitty zone schemes. I'm sure the defensive linemen get tired of rushing the passer, only to turn around and see receivers dancing through the secondary before Johnny Brown awkwardly pushes them out of bounds.

Still, I'm tempted to feel some excitement about this team. Jeremiah Masoli is probably better than most of us expected; his decision-making is rare, especially coupled with the size and speed that he brings. Nathan Stanley should be the best backup quarterback in the SEC.

The receivers... look pretty good. Ja-mes Logan had a pretty terrific grab, and Grandy seems to be getting more and more comfortable running routes. Markeith Summers looks awesome, and it's not the Grove Bowl.

We KNOW we have some experience and talent on the defense. Surely they'll come around at some point.

Wayne Dorsey probably isn't as bad as he's been portrayed. I see a huge, athletic guy who seems out of place. Whether it's coaching schemes, early game jitters, or just trying to do too much, I really think Dorsey will settle down, play within himself, and give us a solid bookend at DE. He made one great play on a reverse, in which he read the play quickly, chased down the back, nearly missed, but used great effort to stay with him until the rest of the defense arrived. You have to like guys that use their eyes, react well, and look to finish plays.

Over the next few weeks, Houston Nutt and Tyrone Nix stand to show us a lot about themselves. Will Nutt force the team to find an offensive identity? Is Nix's defense as immensely predictable as it looks, or can he still be aggressive and smart with his schemes?

I can't pretend to be confident about the Vanderbilt game this weekend. The chance seems too great that we'll mess around and make it entirely too close. Vanderbilt is probably slightly more talented than Tulane, and has already played a solid half of football against LSU. The season is still young, and this game could be a great indicator of how mentally tough the Rebels are as a team.

Red Cup Cooks: Volume Three, Chapter One

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:21:29 -0000

This week (last week, I know), JUCO made meatloaf, Mrs. JUCO made corn casserole, and I made bloody marys.

Smeargle's Meatloaf (prepared by JUCO)

This meatloaf recipe was concocted by the strangest Cup contributor not residing in a ranch-style house in Arkansas:

I came up with this recipe in my feeble attempts to repeat Ajax's Matty Mom's Meatloaf. I finally just gave up and took my own measures to make my own spicier counterpart. (if anyone out there knows how Ajax makes theirs, please enlighten)

1.5 lbs. ground beef (the leaner, the better, shit gets greasy)
0.5 lbs. Hot Andouille OR Jalapeno/Cheddar sausage (I use a brand with a pig logo, Southern something...)
half a large onion (or all of a smalle one), diced
whole green or red bell pepper, diced (I prefer red, remove seeds)
1/2 cup bread crumbs (italian seasoned or not, but I prefer italian)
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons (4 cloves) minced garlic
1.5 cups Habanero shredded cheddar cheese (can be found at Kroger)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon cayenne (optional...for an extra kick, a little goes a long way)
Salt and pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 and spray loaf pan with cooking spray. (If you make a lot of meatloaf like myself, I would invest in an actual meatloaf pan. It's actually 2 pans: the top pan in which you put the loaf and a bottom pan in which to place it. The meatloaf pan has holes at the bottom for the grease to drip into the other pan. It's a lot healthier and there's plenty of grease left to keep your loaf moist.)

Ground the sausage in a food processor. This usually takes up half the sausage link. I cut up the other half and cook on a skillet and serve with cheese and BBQ sauce as an appetizer while the meatloaf cooks.

In a large mixing bowl, combine meats, diced onion and bell pepper, bread crumbs, ketchup, worcestershire sauce, garlic, egg and cayenne. Using your hands, mix ingredients. Don't overmix, but make sure all the ingredients are dispersed throughout the meat.

Take 2/3 of the meat and place into loaf pan. Form the meat into a meatloaf "boat" in the pan, pushing up the sides and making a swimming pool for your cheese.

Pour 1 cup of habanero cheese into the meatloaf pool. Set aside remaining 1/2 cup for later.

Use rest of meat to form a top layer. Make sure you connect and seal the top section to the sides thoroughly so that no cheese can escape.

Place in oven for 1 hour. Last 15 minutes, sprinkle rest of cheese on top and zig zag some ketchup on top of that. Enjoy!

Review:

The main dish in our most Southern meal so far was, by all accounts, pretty tasty. Meatloaf is one of those dishes that can be really dull if not executed properly, and this one delivered on the weight of shitloads of spice and cheese, as well as some really excellent sausage. I remember back in my college days that Ghost had a pretty stellar meatloaf recipe of his own, and I'm sure he'll be tempted to chime in on what's wrong and/or right about this one.

Corn Casserole:

Because Ivory Tower had just finished the bar, we decide not to shoulder him with the incredible burden of preparing a side dish. Delegated to JUCO's wife, we had a Paula Deen inspired corn casserole...

Ingredients:

1 (15 1/4-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained

1 (14 3/4-ounce) can cream-style corn

1 (8-ounce) package corn muffin mix (recommended: Jiffy)

1 cup sour cream

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Cheddar

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, stir together the 2 cans of corn, corn muffin mix, sour cream, and melted butter. Pour into a greased 9 by 13-inch casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from oven and top with Cheddar. Return to oven for 5 to 10 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Let stand for at least 5 minutes and then serve warm.

Review:

I'd recently been to Oxford, and stopped for lunch at Ajax. I was (as always) disappointed that I couldn't get everything that I wanted on the menu, so I was excited about this combination of main dish and side, both of which felt a lot like pulling up to 118 Courthouse Square. The casserole was really buttery and sweet, with a really light texture that belied the ridiculous amount of butter and cheese. You could easily add some more vegetables to this and have something else entirely that would be really good. Also, though I enjoyed the sweet version of this casserole, I'd probably like to try it with some saltier ingredients to see how it changes.

WW's Bloody Marys:

After hearing about the menu for tonight, I tried to come up with an awesome drink pairing. Bloody Marys sounded good (though I'd never really enjoyed one before), so I looked up several recipes and combined the elements that I liked.

Ingredients:

64oz. can of tomato juice

4oz. orange juice

4oz. cola

2oz. olive juice

1/2oz. Louisiana hot sauce

1/2oz. Worcestershire

10 dashes Angostura bitters

A few shakes of garlic salt

A good bit of fresh black pepper

Pickled green beans for garnish

For the Potent portion of this Potable, I picked up a fifth of Cathead Vodka, distilled in nearby Gluckstadt. I first ran across Cathead at a music studio, trying to take the edge off of a coffee buzz before recording some horn tracks for a friend's band. We all passed the bottle around and took straight from it, and we were all in agreement that this was a most excellent spirit, not what we were expecting at all. It has a smooth, subtle finish, and I'd highly recommend it, for cocktails or just for sippin' on.

Anyways, given the ingredients, you know how to make a Bloody Mary; just mix all that shit together, pour it over some vodka, and shake/stir it up however you like, with whatever garnish makes you happy.

Everyone seemed pleased with the results, noting that the mix had plenty of spice and flavor. I enjoyed some of mine, but to this day, I can't really finish a whole Bloody Mary; the tomato juice really starts to taste bad after a few pulls. Regardless, I'll be tempted to mix a batch of this stuff for the Grove one Saturday and give it another go.

As always, hope you enjoyed the meal this week as much as we did; let us know what you think.

Red Cup Cooks: Volume Two, Chapter One

Whiskey Wednesday — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:33:59 -0000

After one full rotation, JUCO again provides our entree, Ivory supplies the side dish, and I've brought the potent potables. Enjoy, and let us know what you think.

Scallops, Corn and Okra Jambalaya, and an Old Fashioned.

When we first kicked off Red Cup Cooks, our idea was to cook meals with some sense of theme or continuity. That certainly didn't happen this week, but we still threw together a pretty damn good dinner.

JUCO broke out the checkbook this week to provide us with something that doesn't grace our dinner plates very often: pan-seared scallops in an herb and cream sauce...

One and a half pounds of sea scallops
Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons fresh parsley
2 cloves of garlic
6 heaping tablespoons of fresh basil
Three-quarters of a cup of heavy cream

Wrap the wet scallops in paper towels, let stand for five minutes. It is important that they're as dry as possible.
Heat a skillet to medium heat. Place a tablespoon of olive oil in the heated skillet, and melt in two tablespoons of butter.
Once the butter is fully melted down to yellow bubbles, gently place the scallops into the skillet, sautéing them on both sides until they're cooked. Since scallops cook quickly, this should only take a minute or two on each side.
Don't crowd the scallops in the skillet. You may have to cook them in two or three batches. Since scallops come in different sizes, remember that large scallops will take slightly longer to cook than medium scallops.
Remove the cooked scallops to a plate, and season them with salt and pepper.
Add the remaining olive oil and butter to the skillet. Add parsley and garlic, both minced. Cook until you smell the aroma of the garlic, under one minute.
Pour the heavy cream into the skillet. Reduce the cream, until it coats the back of a wooden spoon, about three or four minutes.
Add basil to sauce. Put the scallops back in the skillet. Bathe with the sauce and let simmer about two minutes.

Admittedly, this was my first encounter with scallops, so I lack any frame of reference for how well this dish was executed. The scallops had an interesting texture, with a nice bit of sear on the tops, and a tender, fleshy center. The sauce was a nice complement; really easy to make, and brought a nice herbal flavor to the scallops.

Ivory Tower added a nice, simple side dish; it wasn't technically jambalaya, but hey, it hit the spot. Here's his (predictably) long-winded description:

If you're looking to stay regular, you don't need orange powder or menopause yogurt. As I found out the next morning, you just need to throw some vegetables in a pot and cook them until they're niiiice and easy. Put the right produce together in the right order and the flavor is as robust as the post-gestinal product.

Your ingredients are simple: two tomatoes, one 16-ounce bag of frozen whole kernel corn, 1 lb. of fresh okra, two onions, 4 tablespoons of butter, and seasonings that you desire.

First, preheat your oven to 300 degrees and slice your tomatoes. We're going to stew those. Put the tomato slices in a pyrex dish with 3 tablespoons of butter, enough water to almost cover them, and spices like you'd like (maybe Worcestershire, Italian Seasoning, Tobasco, Chili Powder or a combination of the above). After stewing the tomatoes, I regretted that I hadn't smashed two cloves of garlic and thrown them in there, too. These can stew forever, but let them work in there for at least 20 minutes.

While those are stewing, chop the onions and okra. Drop all that with a tablespoon of butter in a big skillet on medium heat. Your best indicator on when these are ready are the onions. They need to get a little soft, but don't let them caramelize or anything. This should take about 15 minutes. There's no need to season these yet.

After this mixture was done, I had to transfer it all to a larger pot because I didn't have a skillet large enough to accommodate all the produce. If you've got one big enough (or you've got a cast iron dutch oven), then good for you. In whatever you've got, combine the okra and onions with the corn and stewed tomatoes. Now is the time to season to taste. It is, nominally at least, jambalaya, so Tony Chachere's ain't the worst idea. But, I could also see loading it down with chili powder, cilantro, salt, and black pepper. You could also, I think, replace the chili powder with garlic and a half a teaspoon of cinnamon for an old world flair.

After you've seasoned it, cook it covered on medium low for 40 minutes or until 10 minutes before time to eat. When you're ready to serve, take the top off, turn up the heat, and boil off any excess water (this is, after all, not a soup).

Plate it just like that if you're watching your carbs. If you're poor and just trying to make a meal that is filling, serve the "jambalaya" over white rice.

Finally, when we thought of the Red Cup Cooks format, I envisioned the 'libation' portion to feature a variety of classic cocktails, and new twists thereon. So far, we haven't made anything that really qualifies as a cocktail, until this week. Get ready to get'cha Old Fashioned on, ya'll...

So the classic recipe is essentially this:

Dissolve a sugar cube with a splash of water in a short, fat glass
Add a pretty stout portion of bourbon and two dashes of angostura bitters
Garnish with an orange slice and a couple of maraschino cherries
Stir well, add ice, maybe a splash of water

Later, other touches were added to what may have been the first drink referred to as a cocktail, most notably a splash of soda water. My recipe is way awesomer though, and here's how you should really do it:

Make some simple syrup, pour enough in the bottom of the glass to coat it
Squeeze a pretty decent-sized orange wedge into the glass, drop it in, add two cherries and a touch of the juice from the cherry jar
Pour in a terrifying amount of bourbon. Maker's Mark is my favorite for this cocktail. This week, we used Jim Beam Rye, as rye whiskey is often used in Old Fashioneds. Add the bitters
Use a mixing tumbler to mix it up a little bit, add some ice, mix it up again
Instead of soda water, add a splash of cola, for a little extra depth of flavor, and a little fizz

At dinner, I made the more traditional version, and while it was good, it left me wanting my revamped version. It's pretty sweet, but what makes it a winner is the way the orange and the whiskey leave an amazing aftertaste behind. The cola may defeat the purpose of the bitters, but I like to think I can still detect a difference. Your mileage may vary, but this has probably replaced the mint julep as my all-time favorite beverage.

Anyways, that does it for this edition of Red Cup Cooks. We hope you'll give us your feedback, and maybe even let us in on what's happening in your kitchen.

Red Cup Cooks: First Edition

Whiskey Wednesday — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 01:46:20 -0000

One of the sobering realities of post-college life is that your friends, once concentrated within reasonable geographic boundaries, tend to disperse themselves all over the damned place, forcing you to once again establish new ties in a new hometown, making friends by testing your awkward and/or inappropriate jokes out on crowds of relative strangers. The Red Cup crew certainly suffered this fate for a while, but for now at least, three of us live within one city's limits. To tide us over during the Rebels' non-sports season (and let's face it, it's pretty much already started), JUCO, Ivory, and yours truly have decided to take advantage of our close proximity to write about our second-favorite common interest (aside from Live Action Role Playing (or as we call it, LARPing), of course): food. And no... it's totally NOT gay.

Each week, the three of us will try to meet to cook an entree, an appetizer or dessert, and a potent potable to match our culinary selection. We'll provide recipes, pictures, and reviews for your summer perusal. Today, JUCO supplied our entree, Ivory made an appetizer, and I brought the libations. Enjoy, and let us know what you think...

Appetizer:
Knish
Six Potatoes
Three Eggs, beaten
Two Egg Yolk, beaten
One onion, minced
2 Tbs Butter

Peel and boil the potatoes for 20 - 25 minutes. Fry the minced onion in one tablespoon of butter. Mash the potatoes in a tablespoon of butter (or more, if you want). Mix in the onions and the three beaten eggs. Form the potato mixture into cakes, about like a biscuit. Glaze all around with the two egg yolks. Place on a greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 until golden brown.

For fun, form the knish with a bowl in the top in which you can fill toppings of your choice at the end.

Entree:
Pastrami Sandwiches with Mustard
1 1/2 cups beef broth
1 cup dark beer (we used Newcastle)
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 onion, sliced
1 pound thinly sliced pastrami
6 sandwich rolls
12 slices Swiss cheese
Dijon Mustard

1. Heat broiler to 500 degrees Farenheit. Combine broth, beer, onions, and Worcestershire sauce in small saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low. Separate layers of pastrami and add to pan. Cook until pastrami is heated through.

2. Split sandwich rolls and place on baking sheet. Arrange pastrami and onions on bottom half of each roll. Reserve cooking liquid and keep warm. Top each roll with 1.5 slices of chees. Broil 1 to 2 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with mustard and reserved cooking liquid for dipping.

Drink:
Gulf Porter by Lazy Magnolia Brewing Company

Getting into the review: our first The Cup Cooks meeting was a conservative success. Typically, we'll try something more complicated than sandwiches and beer, but we didn't want to over-extend ourselves on the first attempt. First, about the knish: it was pretty good, something I'd never had or really even heard of before. The potatoes are well-seasoned and fluffy, with a nice crisp glaze on the outside. Like Ivory indicates, it'd probably be more fun to add some more stuff to this recipe, but it was simple, tasty, and well-executed.

The sandwiches were another exercise in simplicity. The onions and au jus were great additions, the onions were saturated with juice while still retaining some crunch. Pastrami is a meat you don't have very often, but it's quite good, and if you can find really great, thick-cut pastrami with blackened edges, you could make this sandwich even better. Putting the whole sandwich in the broiler (watch it like a hawk, of course) really adds a lot to the texture of the sandwich, and overall, it was a great meal for something that you can throw together so quickly and feed so many people.

Gulf Porter is one of the better beers I've come across lately. I used to love porters, especially creamy and sweeter ones. Though I've cooled on them considerably, the Gulf Porter has much darker, earthier flavors (more coffee and wood, less chocolate and vanilla) than you find in a lot of porters. It's also pretty hoppy for a darker beer. Right now, you can only buy Gulf Porter in 64 oz. growlers, and this one was pricier than a 6-pack of other Lazy Mag beers (at 72 oz.), but I'd still say it was worth it, for what was a very distinctive beer that paired with the food really nicely.

Well, that's all for this week, keep your eyes peeled for future editions of The Cup Cooks, and we hope you'll pitch in your thoughts and ideas. Meanwhile, apparently we're not losing at baseball? Hmmm...

2010 Signing Class Analysis: Running Backs

Whiskey Wednesday — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 18:33:06 -0000

When thinking about next season, it's pretty painful to think of it in terms of what we're losing on offense. Namely, Dexter McCluster and Shay Hodge. At halfback, it seems like we're returning a competent stable of rushers, but really, if Brandon Bolden, Cordera Eason, and Enrique Davis did their jobs last season, then we don't have to play two true freshmen (Tim Simon and Rodney Scott) and move Dex to halfback. We have options at RB, but we're still looking for answers. The fullback position is also wide open next year after graduating Andy Hartman. The 2010 signing class features two running backs who could easily push for playing time as soon as they set foot on campus. More after the jump.

Nick Parker- Halfback, South Panola. 6'2, 210 lbs

Video... it's not Youtube, so it won't embed.

Parker seems to be built in the mold of several of our current and former running backs. Like Bolden, Eason, Davis, and Simon, he's a one-cut, downhill runner with good open-field speed. At South Panola, Parker really made the offense go, rushing for 2,500 yards as a junior, and carrying the team through the 6A playoffs as a senior. While a redshirt year or even a move to fullback isn't out of the question, I wouldn't be surprised to see Parker take some snaps at halfback in 2010.

Other reported offers: LSU, Tennessee, MSU, USM

Jeff Scott- Haflback, Archbishop Carroll (Miami). 5'8, 170 lbs

Scott seems like his "hype" may have fallen victim to his early commitment to Ole Miss. He's apparently extremely quick, and the coaches are sold on him. In their Quest To Replace Dexter, I can't blame the coaches for taking some chances on kids like Jeff Scott, Jesse Grandy, and Korvic Neat. Taking quick, undersized guys is a calculated risk, and hopefully it pays off for us.

Other reported offers: Colorado State, Florida International, Troy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xats6v2Y8vQ

Martez Eastland- Fullback, Ringgold, GA. 6'0, 235 lbs

Some of my favorite Ole Miss offensive players have been athletic fullbacks who seemed to make big plays at clutch times. Charles Stackhouse, Toward Sanford, Lorenzo Townsend... guys that were big, fast, and had good hands. Eastland fits the bill here, and I think he has the best chance of contributing on offense next year of maybe any of the incoming freshmen.

Other reported offers: some dispute here. Some sites report offers from Tennessee and South Carolina, while others report offers from UAB and Tennessee-Chattanooga

So, without a blue-chip running back in our backyard this year, it seems like Recrootin' Dale and company did a good job of filling some holes and taking some chances on guys in the offensive backfield this year. Considering that it could be considered a weak area of this class, that's pretty good news.

The Five Worst Moments from 2009, or: "We Are... Ole Miss, vol. CXLII"

Whiskey Wednesday — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 16:36:06 -0000

How do you use this thing again? Seriously, I apologize for my extended leave; maybe the Egg Bowl caused a short circuit in the part of my brain that cares about Ole Miss sports. Alternately, lately I haven't had access to both alcohol and internet simultaneously. At the end of 2007, we did a list of the most "Ole Miss" moments of the year. There were ten of them, and they were all funny, humiliating, and depressing. In 2008, we had a banner year. It was awesome, and I felt no need to harp on the negative. 2009 was a mixed bag, but not the kind of mixed bag where you'd find some assorted fruit, maybe some hard candies, then pretzel dip and cheese straws. No, it was the kind of mixed bag where you'd find some cocoa dusted truffles, some gourmet bagel chips, and then maybe a rat carcass. So, to accompany Ghost's Five Greatest Moments of 2009, here are the really sucky ones.

5. Missing Omaha... again: Mike Bianco has had some pretty impressive baseball teams, in terms of talent, depth, and experience. The 2009 edition was not one of them. Still, here we find ourselves hosting a Super Regional, 40+ wins under our belt, facing an upstart Virginia team that doesn't look as strong as the ASU, Texas, or Miami teams that have put us out in the past. And, for the 4th time in my 5 years at Ole Miss, we miss the bus to Omaha. Fielding errors, coaching errors, and weak-ass hitting cancel out great performances by Phil Irwin, Drew Pomeranz, and Matt Smith. The only reason this wasn't high on the list is because, let's be real: we all knew it was coming.

4. Basketball season takes a shot below the belt: If a football team suffered three season-ending injuries, all at the same position, it would be ridiculous, right? If our 9-4 football team had lost three receivers, running backs, offensive linemen, etc., suffice it to say that our win total would be less than nine. But in basketball, losing two guards preseason, and one more within the first third of the season, how do you... how does that even happen? Between David Huertas being a giant pain in the ass, Will Bogan actually catching minutes, Terrico White providing occasional highlight material, and Andy Kennedy facepunching a guy after a night spent getting hammered before coaching his biggest game of the year, this season was pretty much a three-ring dog and pony show of awful.

3. Leaving the Egg in Starkville: Until last November I had never, of my own volition, traveled to Starkville to watch an Ole Miss football game. I may never attempt it again. Some sports fans in-state claim that when Ole Miss and State are competitive with each other, it helps both programs. Bullshit. If we ever want to be significant in the SEC, we have to crush MSU almost every year. For recruiting, for bowl eligibility and exposure, and just for the sake of consistency. We've been the more talented team almost every year of the last decade. Why the fuck are we 6-4? Only twice this decade has MSU entered the Egg Bowl with a better record than UM. Twice, the records have been even, and six times, we've held the advantage. In three of those six years, however, we've dropped the ball and lost, none in more embarrassing fashion than in 2009. This, along with 2001, was a year that MSU really deprived us of something by beating us, sending us to the Cotton Bowl instead of the Capital One.

2. The South Will Continue To Dig Itself A Deeper Hole: Dammit, is it too much to ask to be able to feel pride for your state and your university? First, it's impossible for the University to make any sort of progressive move without the media framing it in the context of our past. The progressive move will end up gaining us net bad publicity. We still need to make the move, but it's so fucking frustrating for every media outlet to dig 50 year old skeletons out of the closet when we try to do something GOOD. Second, the fucking students... What can you say? My only hope is that this was an extreme case of the vocal minority being heard. I really, really hope I didn't go to school with that many shortsighted, immature, or flat-out racist idiots. I mused, years ago, about the students' ability to get bent out of shape over a foam-headed mascot being taken off of the sidelines. This shitstorm has dwarfed the mascot issue in comparison. We can only hope that Houston Nutt will continue to win football games, so this can all go away.

1. Remember that time we were ranked #4 in football?: Remember when every sidewalk idiot called us overrated all summer, just because we were Ole Miss? Remember when every talking head on TV crawled and clawed to be the first and the most adamant to call us overrated after we lost? Remember when our starting left tackle had a microphone shoved in his stupid face, and he expressed relief over losing? Remember when Dexter McCluster rushed for 70 yards in the 4th quarter, letting us know that we easily could have beaten USC had we only used him properly the other 3 quarters? Yeah, that sucked pretty bad.

Well, now that all of that's out of our systems... Let's move on. Let's hope for another year where a "Bottom 5" is hard to come up with. Sure, we may not make the Cotton Bowl this year, but we get to watch the future right in front of us. We get to watch someone who is not Jevan Snead make mistakes and throw interceptions. We could be freakishly sick at basketball. And hey, I hear you can drink beer at baseball games! Happy 2010, everyone.

Post Game: MSU

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 06:44:58 -0000

Well, this isn't going to be long-winded. I don't feel like making excuses, criticizing coaches or players, or belittling MSU fans. I don't feel like analyzing the game, because there wasn't much to analyze. I don't feel like it, because once I got the initial frustration out of my system, I wasn't crushed by this loss. I was... annoyed.

So let's get it out in the open without sugar-coating or over-analyzing it; we were thoroughly out-coached and out-played today, and we failed to capitalize on the chance to go to a great bowl we've never been to and play a prestigious team we've never played. Next year, we're likely to beat State in a blowout, but it won't matter much, because we're infinitely less likely to be hunting for our 9th win. This was a year when we needed to beat them, and we came out with a poor game plan on both sides of the ball, and a lackluster effort to match.

I sincerely hope that the coaches and players learned not to overlook an MSU team with nothing to play for. That kind of effort was tough to watch. It's hard to cheer for a team when you don't respect the effort they bring to the field.

I really wish that some of our fans wouldn't get so bent out of shape over this loss. That sounds funny coming from me (I fumed for a good 15 minutes afterwards, said some silly things), but really... don't give MSU fans the satisfaction. We hung around for a while and congratulated the passing State folks. Some of them were nice, but some of them seemed genuinely bothered that we weren't acting like dicks about it. Don't feed their need to make us the bad guys; it's bad for both schools.

As Ghost mentioned earlier, some Ole Miss fan tried to pick a fight with Ivory Tower, seemingly because IT wasn't acting pissed-off enough over the loss. IT, being more of a lover than a fighter, was able to put this fellow in his place with more wit and class than I was presently willing or able to employ. IT, thanks for not making me fight a guy 5 inches taller than me to defend your honor. It probably would've ended badly. Seriously though (somewhat talking to self): getting torn up over losing to State is ridiculous. My strategy (adopted today) is to play it off and be too nice to them. You should try it, too.

As much as I feel obligated to cuss and rant, I really can't do it. The team royally pissed me off, maybe to the extent where I've temporarily lost interest. The weekend was fun, and I guess we'll still go to a decent bowl. Could be worse: we could live in Starkville.

Hotty Toddy, and goodnight.

Post Game: LSU

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 06:59:11 -0000

I'm a well-trained Ole Miss fan. Before I embark on what would certainly be a rollicking series of jokes (about how that could mean anything from learning to be tastefully racist, to perfecting the art of being drunk while wearing a sport coat, to being able to hit a moving target with an empty whiskey bottle from 30 yards away), I'll spare the funnybusiness. Being a well-trained Ole Miss fan means that you see the disastrous future before it happens. Like penny loafer-clad Miss Cleo wannabees, our generation of Ole Miss fans are quick to stare into their crystal balls of abject mediocrity, and predict the wildly, unfathomably terrible future.

Blame it on my undergraduate years. In four years, we won 14 games. We beat one ranked opponent (a #23-ish USC squad in 2004). We split the Egg Bowl series with an MSU team that sported 17 wins over the same period, lost to Memphis once, Vanderbilt twice, and had 12 losses decided by a touchdown or less, including The Single Worst Officiating Debacle In The History Of Football (TSWODITHOF... it rolls off the tongue.). I want us to win. I frequently predict us to upset better opponents. At some point in every Ole Miss game I've ever watched, I felt like we would win. Still, when things go south, they go south hard, and I've come to anticipate this.

So when LSU scored the touchdown to draw the game within two, forgive me if I was certain that they would miss the conversion, recover the onsides kick, and score to seal the game. Forgive me if the second most plausible outcome in my mind was: LSU converts the two-point conversion, the game goes to OT, and Ole Miss loses in 8 overtimes due to a review situation involving a Shay Hodge force-out and/or some magical seconds appearing on the LSU game clock.

Like I said before, I'm a well-trained Ole Miss fan.

So when I walked out of the stadium, well after the players had retreated to the locker rooms, my head and my heart knew that we'd won, but my stomach felt as unsettled as if I'd engorged myself with China Royal pork 5 minutes before they closed.

All of that having been said, let's talk about how totally fucking awesome this weekend was.

Friday night: Ghost, JUCO, and some people I don't remember, went to Parrish's to observe the debacle unfolding on the Square. The environment wasn't LSU 2003 crazy, but needless to say, there was chanting in the barrooms, and drinks were hard to come by. Before the bars, I dominated a Big Easy from Ajax, and all was right with the world.

The Grove: When I'm anxious about something, I require no alarm clock. I woke up in a cold sweat at 8:30 a.m., because I'd promised the RCR tent that I'd make jambalaya. I'd purchased a bevy of awesome produce at the farmers market the day before, so, my financial commitment already laid down, I poured a Jack and Coke, and began chopping onions. Two Iron Chef-esque hours later, I had successfully transferred the jambalaya to the Grove, and the ridiculousness began. LSU fans are awesome, in their own way. Sure, they look completely absurd. Sure, they have no problem yelling at strangers. But they will also take a good corndog joke in stride, compliment your jambalaya (with helpful hints on how to make it better, of course), and generally shrug and laugh if you can scream back at them instead of cowering in gentrified horror. We met two lawyers, a Miami fan and an Oregon fan, who had traveled to catch the Grove spectacle, only one of the dozen interesting conversations we had before kickoff.

The Game: I sat in the Old People Seats. I got yelled at by an Ole Miss fan for my choice of words after the celebration penalty. I became high-five buddies with a late 30's, blonde tanning bed denizen as the game wore on. I ate Corky's bbq nachos for the last time until next September rolls around. As for actual game observations:

Ole Miss fans are quick to feel victimized by officiating in the SEC. I've felt that way before, and this game had some poor calls, but I can't say it was the worst, or even the second worst SEC officiating job this year. This is a problem we need to fix, and a hearty fUcK yOu goes out to Mike Slive for pushing the problem under the rug.
Shay Hodge was the MVP of the game, in my opinion. You don't have a 100+ yard day against Patrick Peterson unless you ate your Wheaties. He runs great routes, has impossibly quick cuts, and has a pretty excellent set of hands. If you think we miss Mike Wallace this year, wait until we have to replace Shay.
Lionel Breaux had an amazing special teams play to down a punt on the 1 yard line. A guy that's underperformed this year (and probably suffered from Snead's difficulties), I'm glad he was able to contribute to a huge special teams play
Emmanuel Stephens was not a guy I counted on to contribute this year, even knowing that Hardy was likely to be hurt at some point. He had an amazing game. He has a motor and a nasty streak, and I'd rather watch him overachieve than watch a more talented guy fall short of his potential. His sack, on a 3 or 4 man rush, won the game.
LSU has the best receivers in the SEC. It isn't even close. Jefferson played lights-out too, but the biggest reason for that is because the receivers were usually open, and were able to haul in anything near them. If you can score in the SEC with only 40 yards rushing, that's quite an accomplishment.
The offensive line has become an average SEC unit. We knew that if we managed to pull together an average SEC line, we'd win football games. Sowell, while still physically and mentally shorthanded for SEC play, has stepped up his game immensely, and he may be good before his career is over. That's hard to believe after the first few games. Markuson also made a great move in the lineup. John Jerry is a phenomenal player, but not a phenomenal tackle. Groom Massie at tackle, let Jerry do what he does best at guard, and all of a sudden, we don't suck along the line anymore.
Cassius Vaughn: Hey, thanks for coming to play this weekend! Tell your friend Marshay that we're taking a road trip next week, and it'd be cool if he came along. Seriously, it's funny that week in and week out, we don't know which starting corner is going to show up, and which one will get scorched. Either way, it's better than knowing that all of them will get scorched, always, no matter what. I still can't believe it every time we successfully defend a pass. I just forgot what that looked like for a few years.
Dear national media: before LSU was "upset" in a tragic turn of events in Oxford, remember, we beat LSU in almost every statistical category, and the game was kept close by a bizarre 14-point turnaround. If we score there, LSU possibly finds themselves out of the game by halftime. Please quit framing your news coverage as if LSU deserved to win, or as if you wanted them to win. That shit's annoying.
Dear students: notice that, without From Dixie With Love (a song that I loved, but you ruined), we were still Ole Miss. There weren't hemp necklace vendors in the stadium, or hippies strapping themselves to oak trees in the Grove. We'll be ok, I promise.

Saturday night: I went to Parrish's, again. I met Godfrey and Halpert for the first time. We celebrated with Rumpleminz (Samuel Adams voice: "Always a good decision!"), I made out with two random girls (thanks?), and I had to lead Ghost back to my car by the scruff of his neck, OPD licking their chops in anticipation of a drunk wipeout. It was pretty badass.

So this season: sure, it fell short of our extravagant expectations. Most seasons do. Still, I could get used to this. Losing in November hurts a lot worse than losing in September. The Cotton/Capital One/Outback Bowl is a lot better than the Indy Bowl, or more recently, the Schadenfreude Bowl. Beating LSU twice in a row is better than sitting through a 40-7 beatdown in the rain, proclaiming amongst your friends that we will see it through to the bitter end, because it will make the wins so much sweeter down the road.

Well, this probably set the record for the longest post game report EVAR, so I'll tie it up here. This was the best home football weekend I can remember, and if I never have that much fun again, I could live with it. I hope someone took pictures...

Good night everyone, and Hotty Toddy.

Post Game: Tennessee, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Nutt

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:57:44 -0000

So, we totally fucked Tennessee up. I feel like I can say that this week without fear of a 100 comment bitch-fest by Arkansas fans about how... well, it's hard to understand them through the bad grammar, and the tears on the keyboard and whatnot, but they were bitching about something. Anyways, UT fans know they have a good team, they know they got whipped by a better-prepared squad, and they know that they could easily return the favor next year. They appeared to be exceptionally good sports. But for now...

Thrashing an SEC opponent feels good. Thrashing a historically strong SEC opponent on a fantastic Fall afternoon, going out on the Square, while not having to worry about the Internet fallout from the opposing fans' various personality disorders... feels fucking amazing. Before I dive into any real analysis, I'd like to send thoughts out to LaMarcus Thompson, the injured UT linebacker. Apparently, the prognosis is good, likely no more than a stinger, but this is not the first such injury for Thompson. Be careful, LaMarcus, it's only football.

Let's talk about replay for a moment; I don't think the topic has been mentioned much this year, so I feel like my opinion needs to get out there (/sarcasm). Seriously though, what the fuck!? Jevan's run on 3rd down leaves him splayed out across the Ole Miss logo on midfield, practically his whole body past the marker. 4th down. The offense lines up, snaps the ball (replay is no longer an option at this point, remember), and the play is "stopped" after Snead clearly picks up the first down. After an illegal review, the play stands, even though there is precisely zero chance that the ball was not advanced past the marker. The offense lines up again, Snead dives again, converting the first down (for the 3rd time, now), and comes up limping on his ankle. Thanks, replay! With LSU's prison rape-esque treatment by the replay officials last week, and the circus at the Notre Dame/Pitt game that may cost Charlie Weiss his job... something's gotta give. I'd love for someone more industrious than me to study the effectiveness (or more realistically, perceived effectiveness) of replay over the past three years or so.

The New Offense looks incredible, and not just the part where we hand it to Dexter thirty times. In case you didn't notice, we incorporated:

1. A really effective misdirected draw play

2. Some option read opportunities for Jevan, where he can toss to Grandy on the end around, or hand off to McCluster.

3. A screen for Shay Hodge, with Markeith Summers blocking

4. Some pass plays designed for Brandon Bolden. (I'm convinced that he's hurt, but we still need his reliability out there)

5. A new setup along the line, with Bobby Massie at right tackle and John Jerry at right guard. I'd been dogging Jerry's play at RT all season, so it's nice to see him back at the position he'll play in the NFL.

Everything seemed planned, everyone looked calm and competent. Except for a few glaring errors by Bradley Sowell (I'd even credit Snead's interception directly to Sowell getting reverse pancaked), the offense is performing like we thought they could.

The defense quietly had a good day. Injuries have carved into our depth a little bit, and we'll need guys like DT Shackleford and Lamar Brumfield to return if we're going to have a complete defensive showing against LSU. Still, 17 points agaist a Crompton-led offense used to be about normal, but in case you hadn't noticed, he's been pretty excellent lately, and put his team in a position to make the game much closer than it was.

Jerrell Powe had a fantastic game. Having a defensive tackle who can explode through the line like that changes the entire defensive dynamic. He continues to be an excellent replacement for Peria Jerry, which is more than we could've asked from him. Jerrell, please don't go pro.

Cassius Vaughn... welcome back, big guy! We're playing LSU next week, wanna come play?

Lastly, recruiting fanatics: if we sign a 5'7, shifty guy this year, hold off on the Dexter McCluster comparisons. Dex is making a case for being one of the best players in Ole Miss history. I hate to make premature claims like that, but damn. Percy Harvin is a poor man's Dexter McCluster. NFL defenses, watch out.

As much trouble as I had feeling good about this Ole Miss team since the loss to South Carolina... here we are. We're playing LSU next week, and the game means something. If we win, LSU's stock plummets and ours soars. We'll have a chance of surpassing our record from last year, and the chance to play in Orlando or Tampa, against a Big Ten team we've never played before. That's pretty exciting. Also, the Grove is going to be FUCKING EPIC. This week can't go by fast enough.

Have a great Sunday, Rebel fans, and Hotty Toddy.

Post-Game: Arkansas

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 04:56:25 -0000

PAY ATTENTION TO US!!!! Is it just me, or would the complete lack of coverage for today's game have been different if Arkansas wins? Sorry, the anti-Ole Miss conspiracy is gaining some credibility, at least in my head. I want the rest of the nation to join us in making fun of silly Arkansas fans today. Instead, I got to see Air Force/Utah and Indiana/Northwestern on Sportscenter, as well as coverage of a baseball game that was postponed due to rain (enthralling!!!), but didn't see Ole Miss until we were getting scored on by Arkansas in the Top Ten plays of the night. I wonder if Mark May's glasses contain a mind control chip that forces him to act like a smug, metrosexual, football-ignorant piece of dog shit, or if he's just always that way. More post-game thoughts after the jump.

So in the Florida game, the officials were about as observant and fair as a referee in a late 90's WWE match, distracted by a woman shaking her cleavage while Florida hits MSU with a metal folding chair. Good thing you suspended the officiating crew from last week's Florida game, SEC. That sort of monkey business just won't stand around here. Although I felt bad for State, I had a pretty hearty chuckle at Robert Eliot getting tackled by the crushing weight of his own douche-itude.

On to more pressing matters...

Kent Austin is probably calling the plays now. Arkansas fans (I'll address you directly a few paragraphs down), I'll admit that I don't want Houston Nutt calling the plays. This game, we used intelligent playcalling, ran plays to set up later plays, took what the defense gave us, ran the offense with a nice tempo, and otherwise abused the defense from a strategic standpoint. That was probably Kent Austin's doing. This I will concede.

Dexter McCluster may be the best offensive threat in Ole Miss history not named Manning. A great QB can cure all woes, but a guy that's often just too fast to tackle is pretty effective, too. Find me another 170 pound guy in a BCS conference that can take 29 touches and carry a team on his back.

Pat Patterson: keep throwing him the ball. Also, Jesse Grandy and Ferbia Allen. But mainly Patterson. You have to love a 5-star caliber guy who will lay out for any ball that comes his way, drag guys along the field with him, run block like a maniac... I mean, this guy likes to play some fucking football. Let's facilitate his desire to do so.

Bradley Sowell (and the rest of the offensive line) played like a 14 year-old who'd just gotten dumped for the first time for the first several games of the season. Today, he was pumped. He went after people. He was good. I can't imagine the reason for the turnaround (or for the shit-tastic play in the first place) but hey, thanks for showing up while we can still have an awesome season.

We could really use a fullback who can get to the perimeter a little better. Powe is not that guy. Neither, apparently, is Hartmann. Anyone?

I loved the playcalling. Screens should have been a cornerstone of our offensive scheme from day one. You can't let a defense get used to pinning their ears back against a line like ours and going for the ball. The passing game was much less vertically oriented, which really helped as well. When we needed to throw it downfield, we had some space to do so, because we'd passed it short to set it up. Amazing.

The defense did not play it's best game, which is pretty great, because they still looked good. Tackling needs to improve. Michael Smith was able to bounce off of guys all game long. We had trouble bringing guys down after the catch, which is a new problem that needs to get fixed, STAT. We had some unlikely guys step up today, so that's fun to talk about. Lamark Armour had an amazing sack. Marcus Tillman made some real noise against the run, coming off blocks nicely a few times. Jonathan Cornell had a great game. Powe continued to have the most enthusiastic offsides penalties in the history of football, but you know that gets in the O-line's head, because if he jumps the snap successfully, I've got news for you: you aren't about to block him.

Defensive playcalling was great, and if you're an Arkansas fan, you have to be upset about Petrino's inability to adjust. To be fair, this game was an ambush for Petrino and Arkansas. Ole Miss hasn't played well all year, hasn't called a good game offensively, haven't given teams enough good material to study. How could they have known that we'd suddenly be 5000% better than we were against Bama and USC? Also, Ryan Mallet's receivers had a pretty shitty day catching the ball. Mallet could've used more touch on several passes, but this is big kid's football. Dropping sure TD passes won't take you very far. After the catch, the Arkansas receivers were exceptional, but it wasn't even close to enough.

Because let's be real here for a minute. Ole Miss thoroughly kicked the shit out of Arkansas. If not for a lucky bounce on a 3rd and super, super long, Arkansas manages 10 points. If Cordera Eason doesn't fumble, or if Andru Stewart doesn't make an amazing interception, maybe Ole Miss extends the lead even further (not trying to take away from two outstanding Arkansas defensive plays, but they were both huge and unusual momentum swings). I'll say with confidence that Ole Miss didn't benefit from any bounces or bad officiating in this game. We just... won. The game was in doubt for all but the final 3 minutes, but it was so cleanly called, so well executed... It was an incredibly fun game to watch, even though it was nerve-wracking.

Sitting in the Grove post-game, talking about an outside shot at the Capital One Bowl is a lot more fun that getting drunk in the dusk and wondering if we'll ever be good at football again.

And finally... Arkansas fans.

I almost miss your nagging today. Maybe you knew we'd feel this way if we won, and you disappeared strictly to spite us. Maybe you're just not ready for this realization to sink in. But here it is:

Somewhere in the madness, you forgot that Houston Nutt is a good coach. He hired great assistants here, he (usually) motivates the shit out of his team, and he uses tried and true strategies to win in the SEC: run the ball, take care of it, and play nasty defense. He isn't perfect, but compared to some coaches, Nutt peaks at the right time. He drops games he should win, but he does it in September and October. Is that frustrating? Yeah, it can be, but so, too, can starting off 5-1 just to end up in the Indy Bowl. We've been there. Nutt helped claim a respectable spot in the SEC for Arkansas, and gave you the leverage to go and get a hot, slutty piece of coach when you got tired of him. At Ole Miss, we'd be thrilled if he elevated our program a bit, retired, then allowed us to hire someone who can win us an SEC title when he's gone. We're patient like that (usually).

To the better half of the Arkansas fan base: You have lots of reasons to be excited about your situation. Your team is young, your coach is recruiting the players he needs to make some runs in the SEC. I don't think he'll win an SEC title, but he could, if the chips fall his way. We feel like we're in the same position, just at a different time. Next year will likely be a down year, as the juniors and seniors will represent the dark years of Orgeron's recruiting. But we'll bounce back, and Arkansas and Ole Miss will be fighting for a spot in the West division race more often than not. We hope you'll come around and talk football, but man... let's drop the coach shit-talk.

To the shitty Arkansas fans: Please realize that this convincing victory has crushed most of the even slightly valid theories about Houston Nutt. Even if you feel like you still have something interesting or important to say on the matter, please be assured that you are mistaken. It's over for the year. We're doing fine, you're doing fine, but not quite as fine... because we beat you. We were the more experienced team this year, playing at home. Next year, it's your turn; we lose a lot of talent from a great 2006 recruiting class, and we play in Arkansas against a bunch of young guys who are coming around big time. You'll probably win next year, and it won't mean much with regards to the long-term futures of either program. We're tired of hearing the same stuff, we could easily turn this season around and be really good, and you have no ammo left in the chamber until next season. Give it a rest; even you guys will probably feel better.

That's about all I've got. Feel free to add your experiences and observations. It was a hell of a weekend. Hotty Toddy and goodnight.

Post Game: Alabama

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 06:54:03 -0000

This is difficult. Being an Ole Miss fan is difficult. We all got our hopes up; even those predicting modest success this year let themselves dream about Atlanta. When I write these reports, win or lose, I'm frequently analytical, sometimes jubilant or angry, but mainly just anticipating the next game, talking about who's improved and what we need to try to do better. This week, I have a hard time doing that. I'm sure we all did something to calm ourselves down after the game this weekend, and while I'll get back to football in a bit, here's what I did.

As some of you know, this Whiskey Wednesday moniker of mine is, as far as my actual writing style and normal personality goes, a bit of an act. But WW does exist, and I knew that if I were to enjoy this game from my slot in the sardine can that the student section often resembles, WW was going to have to make an early appearance. So I drank quite a bit; an amount totally unbecoming of a 24 year-old. But I was pleasantly rowdy, no longer nervous, and ready to go to the game. I tottered over to the stadium, stood up and yelled for the defense, and generally acted like a good Rebel. When Jevan threw his third interception of the night, I nonchalantly hopped off the bleachers and walked, calmly, back to the Grove. I met JUCO there, and we drank some more. I thought he was keeping pace with me, but I was mistaken. We talked somberly, calmly, about the future of the team, where we go from here, how to approach such a letdown. We didn't reach any satisfying conclusions.

I came to, and I was watching LSU and Florida on the couch at Ghost's brother's apartment. I wasn't sure how I got there, and someone had pulled a trash can within projectile distance of my head. I ran my tongue around in my mouth; no vomit aftertaste, thankfully, so the garbage can was only precautionary. I found my phone, along with a broken pom-pom handle, in my pocket. I checked the call log and inbox, and it appeared as though I hadn't embarrassed myself with my wireless device. I've performed this post-blackout checklist before, but it's been awhile. I seems as if my calm post-game demeanor carried over into my drunken cruise control. If I offended anyone in this three hour period, I haven't heard about it yet. I rolled over and tried to sleep. I woke up only two hours later, with a pulsing headache, and the sort of dehydration that makes your skin cling to your ribs. I was cold. I trudged into the kitchen, downed some water, found a blanket, and went back to sleep. I drunkenly marveled at the propensity of man to perpetually improve his condition. Three or four hours later, the sun was up. I stretched the crick out of my neck, rubbed my still-pounding head, and surveyed the room, where I noticed Ghost passed out in similar fashion on an adjacent couch. He hadn't found a blanket. He stirred slightly as I was reloading my pockets and tying my shoes. "How did we get here?" I croaked. I cleared my throat, and attempted to speak again, more successfully this time.

"I dunno," Ghost mumbled, and turned over. I left. The walk back to my apartment at 7AM was refreshing, placid. I was glad I had my jacket as I walked through the grass, leaving footprints in the dew to mark my progress. My hands were stuffed in my pockets, and I winced as each car flew by. Being upright and hydrated made my headache subside, each throb less painful than the one before. Twenty minutes later, I was home, the symptoms of my hangover having generally subsided. This was better than I deserved.

I spent the morning saying goodbyes to friends, eating tacos from the Tacqueria, and perusing the NFL pregame shows. Later, I went to do the only thing proven to make me feel better about Ole Miss football; I played Ultimate frisbee. The air was crisp enough to chill the sweat clinging to my clothes, but the sun made up for the cool. I ran the rest of the alcohol out of my system, the pleasant burn of a full sprint serving the same function as coffee and Huddle House would for other Saturday night revelers. On one defensive play, I caught the thrower's eyes from ten yards away as he prepared to launch a deep throw. I left my man and sprinted towards the endzone, my angle allowing me to gain ground on the two larger men who were about to battle for the plastic disc that lingered over our heads. I was the first to jump, and managed the kind of leap that surprised even myself. An inch or two from deflecting the pass, I realized my legs had been knocked out from under me. I felt the sinking feeling in my stomach as I feel from several feet up, directly onto my back. The air vacated my lungs, and I lay in the dirt for a minute or so, writhing around. My teammates commented on my unique ability to hurt myself in hilarious ways. My ass has a giant bruise on it. It was still a great day.

I went home, took a nap, made myself dinner, and drank the lone Blue Moon in my fridge. I say all of that to say this: I love football, especially the Ole Miss variety, and this weekend was tough. This year may have been our best chance to make some waves for a while, and it isn't looking likely anymore. We could have a miraculous turnaround, or we could continue to flounder. Either way, don't let it kill you. Do those things you need to do on Sunday that help prevent you from fretting over Saturday. Sure, I still have my opinions about the team, what we need to do to help ourselves... I'll still be excited for the remaining games. I haven't discovered a way to make myself ambivalent to an Ole Miss game yet. But if we lose to UAB, or Auburn or Tennessee, then just let it go. Eat some tacos, take a walk, throw a frisbee.

Post-Game: Vanderbilt

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:44:37 -0000

First, some sorta bad-ish news: ESPN's College Gameday is heading to Baton Rouge next week. There went our chance to host it, as far as I see it. Instead of going to a place which they've never been and is renowned for its football atmosphere to feature a game which has the potential to be a close, SEC-West deciding matchup, ESPN has opted to watch Tim Tebow ~~snip the tips of of Phillipino penises~~ kick the dog shit out of LSU. I wanna say "boo ESPN," but it's really our fault for dropping a game to South Carolina.

Ok, now the post-game:

Instead of a game which is likely to be closeWell, it's a relief to beat Vanderbilt without last-second heroics, career-ending injuries, or really, any drama at all. The week before a huge game, that's exactly what you want. There are a lot of positives to take away from this game, and since I half expected us to drop this game, I'll focus on those for the majority of this report. Ground breaking concession after the jump...

Bradley Sowell appeared to play extremely well. He gave up one sack, which Jevan would probably admit was his own fault. Certainly, Sowell wasn't facing Eric Norwood this week, and the mind-crushing pressure of the #4 ranking was off of his shoulders. Still, Sowell showed up for this game, not dominating, but certainly keeping his quarterback safe and re-gaining the respect of many of his detractors. I'm not so self-important as to think that Sowell would care that I trashed him last week, or that I praised him this week, but still, I feel obligated to note the unbelievable turnaround he displayed. Let's hope he keeps it up.

Here's an annoying prediction: Jevan Snead will probably be really good again by the end of this season. It may be too late for us to make a run to Atlanta, or even make it to another January bowl game, but by damn, if things keep going this way, Snead will be helping us run up the score on Kansas in the Independence Bowl. Seriously, this was Snead's best game, against a team that had his number in the worst way last year. There were 4-5 flashes of greatness, some smart, average SEC quarterbacking, and 3-4 inexcusable mistakes. Still, you have to admire Snead's grit, handling his frustration at himself by tucking the ball and running for big gains to help ice the game in the 4th. I'm sure as a teammate, you like to see that out of your quarterback.

Grit and determination aside, with the way Snead is currently playing, the Bama game looks more and more like the Florida game last year. We thought that we might match up well against Bama, but it looks like we'll have to have a great scheme, keep mistakes to a bare minimum, play inspired defense, and hope for a mistake to bounce our way. That sounds bleak, but these are the games where you want Houston Nutt at the helm.

Bolden and the running backs continue to produce, albeit a little inconsistently. It's interesting to see Nutt try to get Rodney Scott a few carries at the end that would otherwise belong to Enrique Davis.

Shay Hodge, welcome to the 2009 season. We've all missed you. Tell your boy Jevan to come see us soon. Great game against cornerbacks that appeared to be the strength of Vanderbilt's defense.

You have to be happy with the way Dexter was used in this game. Not too often, and nothing fancy. Just hand him the ball in easy situations, keep him on the field to draw the attention of the defense.

Pat Patterson continues to be used as a fullback lined up out wide. Give him the ball, and laugh while the defensive backs try to drag him down. We need to find some ways to get him in those match-ups further downfield, where that ability can be used to create touchdowns.

The middle of the offensive line seemed to struggle more than last week. Like I've said a thousand times before, it's hard to watch a game once and tell which offensive linemen played well and which ones didn't, unless they have a really terrible game. From what I could tell though, pressure up the middle was more troublesome than pressure around the edge.

There isn't much to say about the defense. We have one of the top 3 defenses in the conference, easily. Really, we're one game-breaking linebacker away from having a totally unstoppable defense. Trahan, Shackleford, whomever feels compelled to step into this role, feel free.

This was Jon Cornell's best game. After being out of position on a pretty consistent basis the past few weeks, he stepped up his play and make some very sure-armed tackles.

Trahan was flashy, but we're seeing him as more of a blitz threat than a complete linebacker.

Allen Walker: not so awesome. Don't lose your job to a 5'9 true freshman, Allen. Step it up.

Cornerbacks and safeties were awesome. Sure, it was against Vanderbilt, but you can't ask for much better. Johnny Brown continues to surprise me. Kendrick Lewis is playing solid, but maybe isn't having the type of statistical season that some expected. Teams may be testing Brown and avoiding Lewis, and Brown is certainly responding.

During the game, I was very pleased with the playcalling, but I'd like to see the game again, and maybe (gulp) the S. Carolina game again to see how the playcalling actually changed. Obviously, the offense ran much more smoothly, Snead played better, the line played better, so we're inclined to think playcalling was better. I'd still like to think that coaches made some welcomed changes that helped to move things along.

I'm already excited/nervous about the upcoming week. Oxford should be a madhouse. See you there.

Post-Apocolypse: South Carolina

Whiskey Wednesday — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 03:37:17 -0000

I'll be frank: I'm not in the mood to really break this down. There are a lot of reasons we lost. Here's the biggest, and the only one that really mattered in the end:

Bradley Sowell is the worst starting player in major college football. That's it. John Jerry is only better because of his size and strength. His technique, aggression, stamina, and quickness were all extremely disappointing for an SEC player. How, as a coach, can your offense plan around having two such terrible players protecting the quarterback? I was aghast. Was Snead bad? Oh yes. Did the receivers, at times, seem to mail it in? Sure. But the failure in this game starts back in 2004, with our consistent inability to recruit offensive lineman worth their weight in dog shit. As far as I can see, we don't have any. Some of them may go on to have NFL careers, and at this point, I can't even be happy for them. As a unit, they're completely terrible while playing for the only team that matters to me.

The defense was great. McCluster was great. The running backs did the best they could, and the receivers... well, it's hard to run crisp routes and really dominate your man when you have no confidence that the ball will come your way, or if it does, if it will be catchable.

Sure, I was, as always, a little irritated about the officiating. It's rare for a receiver to be called for a hold on a play where his hands are completely inside the cornerback's shoulders. On Bolden's called-back TD run, Hodge made a clean block, and an excellent one at that. It's unfortunate that the official, who generally flagged the Ole Miss guys for interference on some relatively close ones (though I felt like they were the right call) missed a pretty bad interference flag on Hodge, on the comeback route where Hodge appeared, to the visually impaired, to fall down on his own accord. He was pulled down. You also really, really want to pick up that 15 yard facemask that would have made it 1st and 10 in the red zone instead of 4th and 1 on the 40 or so. USC picked up their share of flags, some of them more obvious than others. It just turns out that we got the more critically timed flags and no-flags. It certainly didn't cost us the game; I just wish we could get the same favors returned at home. Ever. But it didn't cost us the game.

Tomorrow, lots of people will question the playcalling. I'm undecided. It seems like if we had known how bad Sowell, Jerry, and Snead would be, we could have put something in place to minimize our weaknesses. I just don't think they could have had any idea how bad these two guys would be. John Jerry is supposed to be good. He got embarrassed on several occasions. I wanted to see more pass protection from the tight ends. I don't remember seeing Harris and Allen held back in protection very often. I also understand the coaches' early hesitance to send Dex running through the middle. It's a long season, and we had enough talent, we thought, to move the ball without requiring him to get too beat up.

Tomorrow, lot's of people will question Snead. Those people will be, for the most part, totally justified. Hog fans have been claiming for a year and a half now that Nutt is a quarterback killer. I don't see it. What I see is a quarterback who can't find his head right now. Nutt isn't holding an Xbox controller wired into Snead's brain. I can't tell how much of his problems come from the offensive line, how much comes from sickness and distraction, and how much comes from poor preparation, physical and mental, on his part. I just know that it isn't Nutt's job to teach a quarterback the things that Snead is doing wrong. And for folding in the face of such a huge opportunity, I really resent Snead right now. Do what you need to do to get your head in the game. Move the chains with your legs, audible into something more manageable... just anything other than throwing into coverage and taking sacks for 4 quarters.

TIME THE FUCK OUT...

From ESPN.com

"I'm glad it's gone," left tackle Bradley Sowell said of the high-intensity spotlight, "so we can just get back to basics and win ballgames."

Get the fuck out of my University, you weak sack of shit. You lost the game. You did. I feel sick. Have fun watching the coaches scramble to replace your sorry ass in the starting lineup. Nice quote, you sad, sad loser. Seriously: if you feel relieved of the pressure because your miserable performance led to a loss... I don't know what to tell you. I'm no athlete, but when I fuck up and let other people down, I at least have the decency to feel bad about it. Ugh.

Wow. I was getting halfway calm again, then I had to go read the Internets. My mistake.

On a "bright" note: This defense is fantastic. They'll keep us miserably close to winning some games this year that our anemic, defeatist offense will blow for us in the end. Really, they're the best Ole Miss defense I've seen. Is it 1993 again? Well, no it's not, because we won't win 9 games and have the pleasure of losing to Michigan in a bowl.

I usually analyze plays and players for awhile, then wax philosophical or shit-talk at the end of the report. Tonight, I'm pretty stumped for inspiration. If our offensive line wasn't so terrible... if our quarterback could've found a little more focus... we'd still be riding the wave of fun and anticipation that comes from having a top 5, undefeated team. Now, we may never see that again. This was our shot. We blew it. Our fate may have been sealed by complacency and mediocrity that started before most of us were born. I hope not; I'm sure I'll feel better about the future of Ole Miss at some point, but for right now... I've got nothing. If we end up 6-2 in the conference this year (which ain't lookin' too likely) and finish 2nd in the West again, I'm not sure I'll consider that a success. This was our shot.

We are...

Post Game: SELA

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 19:41:00 -0000

I'll go ahead and tell you upfront: this one's going to be pretty tame. And why not? I get another dose of Rebel football in four days, one that I'm pretty excited and nervous about. So why get myself going too early writing a post-game report about SELA? There were plenty of things to be excited about, nervous about, and just plain confused about. Hit the jump, unless you're a Markeith Summers fan...

First up, quarterbacks (I'll get to you in a minute, Markeith...). I thought Snead was more than adequate in this game, much, much improved over his Memphis effort. He was still a little bit stubborn about going through his progressions, picking up blitzes pre-snap, etc., but his arm and his eyes were much more effective this week. Catch some easy balls that ended up on the ground, and Snead's stats look much better, and most of the haters don't speak up. Even the throw to McCluster that was picked and negated with the interference call... that was fine. Easiest call of the game. The defender knocked Dex out of the way, with the ball still in the air, no question. It was a perfectly aimed ball, even if a little ill-advised.

There isn't a clear-cut superstar halfback in the conference right now, but Brandon Bolden might be the best all-around back in the SEC. Feed him the ball. Nomnomnomnomnom.

Cordera Eason and Enrique Davis both had scampers for scores that made the defense look silly, but both probably would have been eaten up for a loss by a decent team. Again: Bolden. Nomnomnom. 20 carries/game. Do it. Also, Tim Simon still wants to play.

Is losing Hartman for a while a big deal? I can't decide. He can certainly blow up a linebacker or three, but it seems like he misses his assignment sometimes, or doesn't square up properly. You shouldn't see defenders sliding off of the fullback's block so easily to get to the ball carrier. We seem like we have a deep stable of walk-ons from Tennessee private schools with rich parents and attitude problems. Let's give them a shot, and I think we'll be fine.

Receivers... Oh heavens, where to start? You were all pretty terrible, those of you not named Shay Hodge, Jesse Grandy, and Pat Patterson. I suppose that Jesse Grandy needs to prove at some point that he's a threat to catch a pass downfield, because people will start to realize pretty quickly why he's...

WE INTERRUPT THIS BROADCAST TO BRING YOU AN IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: SHAY HODGE, WIDE RECEIVER FOR THE OLE MISS REBELS, IS A TOTAL BADASS. THANK YOU. WE NOW RETURN TO YOUR REGULAR SCHEDULED PROGRAM.

...and that's how I discovered that Mark May was a transvestite. Where were we? Oh, receivers. Markeith Summers, Lionel Breaux, and Dexter McCluster all had pretty bad drops. Will that happen every week? Of course not. Did Pat Patterson just make Breaux and Summers look a lot less useful? You bet he did. He'll be making layout grabs and offering piggyback rides to defensive backs for a long time.

It was good to see Ferbia Allen earn some of Snead's trust, grabbing a couple of passes when Snead had Shay Hodge downfield with only 3 guys on him. I noticed that Allen and EJ Epperson both lined up more as H-backs at times, which was a look I hadn't noticed with Gerald Harris before. I don't know if that might be indicative of how he wants to use those two down the road, or not.

The offensive line: I wasn't paying attention to you. Every time I try to look at you, I miss a touchdown pass or something. Sorry, no offense, it's just that I like touchdown passes and I don't like fat people. You allowed one sack, and I feel like that was probably Snead's fault, because he looks at linebackers showing blitz, and thinks "yeah, I totally got that guy." Eat your Wheaties this week, because Eric Norwood is pretty good at football.

The defensive line is playing well, but not as well as last year. This has nothing to do with Peria Jerry, really; Powe has been our best lineman this year. This has more to do with the defensive ends over-pursuing and only using outside moves. Stay at home sometimes, guys. Don't try for a sack on every play, because sometimes, the quarterback will hand it to the short, fast, muscle-y guy standing next to him, and he'll run right past where you were two seconds ago. You can ask Coach Nix to tell you what a 'draw' is, though I'm not sure he knows himself.

You know what works against draws? Linebackers! Except not for ours. On any given draw play, our linebackers have erected a table somewhere in the back corner of the field, and are discussing the societal ramifications of the changing demographic landscape of Europe, enjoying a delightful cup of chamomile. With a dash of soy milk. Cream does a number on Allen Walker's sensitive stomach, after all. Seriously though. The draw play. It's killing me. The quarterback slips the ball to the running back, I look up field and I clench: uhohuhohuhoh OHNO SOMETHING'S WRONG!!! Because nobody's there. Fix. That. Shit. The jury may still be out on Stephen Garcia, but by God, he can pretend like he's passing, and then hand it off.

Secondary was fine. Johnny Brown looks like a superhero again, because he's having to tackle running backs all the time because NOBODY ELSE WOULD!

Marshay. Marshay, Marshay, Marshay. You set the record for "amount I've screamed at a player while up a million to 3."

3 botched punts? Really?

Speaking of punts... must we go there? Andrew Ritter and Tyler Campbell want your job, dude.

While that's all I have from the actual game, here are some Grove notes:

Grove etiquette (that means "manners"): Don't walk through someone else's tent, say "Excuse Me!" with an implied exclamation point, as if they are in your way. GTFO.

To the two fellows, also walking through our tent, who tried to start a fight upon being asked to cut the colorful language while in mixed company: I know that orange polo shirts were probably on an awesome sale at Old Navy, and that giant brass fishing hooks look bitchin' when perched on the bill of a camo visor, but please, go crawl back into the dark recesses of Lafayette County from whence you came. And cut the jew-fro; you look ridiculous. Not like a "grown-ass man" as you so eloquently described yourself. I don't fight inbreds in the mud while wearing my nice shoes, thanks.

To the 4 year-old girl who darted through our conversational circle, galoshes caked in mud, distressed look on your face: I hope you found your parents.

Let me know what you thought of the game, the Grove, the 58k we had in VHS for a DII school (crazy, huh?), etc. Have a nice weekend, and Hotty Toddy.

Post-Game: Memphis State

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 05:43:08 -0000

Good riddance, Memphis. We beat you by 31, and we weren't happy about it, except for the fact that we won't be playing you again for several years. And haters from Arkansas, Memphis, MSU, and wherever else: we didn't play like a top 10 team today. We know that. But when the polls come out this week, guess what? We'll be in the top 10. You won't. I'm convinced that we have a team that can play at a top 10, even top 5 level, but that obviously didn't happen this week. So what went wrong? What went right? Click that jump button, playa...

First off: if we ever decide to renew this wretched little series, we could move the game to December 1, and it would still be 95 degrees with bright sun and 300% humidity in the Liberty Bowl. Ugh.

Second: Selling beer is a bad idea at Ole Miss games. Don't crucify me, because it's freaking true. Did I have a couple before the game? Absolutely. Did I have a couple back in Oxford later tonight? Absolutely. But for the 21 year-old kids in the section around us, buying beer at a football game was such a damn novelty that the spectacle that is Ole Miss football was completely ignored, and the sport of the day devolved into a marathon relay of beer runs. The fishing shirt-clad fellow next to us had his girlfriend run her pretty self down into the tunnel to fetch beer roughly 42 times during the game. I was both annoyed, and a little bit jealous. A beer-fetcher like that is one to hold on to, friends.

But seriously, there's no need for beer. Let me know if you're having trouble getting alcohol into the stadium, and I'll let you in on a little trade secret: carry half of your booze in your girl's purse, and the other half in your bloodstream. There, that wasn't so hard now, was it?

A sociological side-note, the Memphis fan demographic is experiencing a dramatic shift. Fewer and fewer faded jerseys, jean shorts, mullets and the like. More and more gelled/dyed hair, man-capris, visors, with a few sets of faux-rich frat getups mixed in. It's as if they finally realized that they were trashy, but couldn't decide whether to imitate USM or Ole Miss as a remedy. Either way, you all still look ridiculous.

As for the football game: well then, where do we start?

Jevan Snead will be fine, I've decided. Last year, he needed some time to shake off the rust, had a shaky start against Memphis, a burst of brilliance against Wake, then slowly climbed out of mediocrity until hitting his stride late in the season. Obviously he needs to keep things simple, to worry about just getting the ball in the hands of his playmakers, and work hard to get himself mentally right. Call Nutt a QB killer if you want, but he's a coach first, not a QB psychologist. Snead has the potential; he's already displayed it against major opponents last year. He's just got to get his head stable. He'll be alright, but still, it's safe to say that we're all glad that Bama isn't next week.

Running backs were fine. Bolden looked like he wasn't even trying. Enrique lit a fire under himself. Andy Hartmann made some fantastic blocks. Moving on...

The receivers were pretty underutilized today. Most of the problem was the vanilla playcalling, coupled with Jevan finding his security blankets in Hodge and McCluster when he wasn't hitting the throws like he wanted. Glad to see that Jesse Grandy will have a chance as the main motion guy in the Wild Rebel. I think that's his strong suit, and his best chance to make plays without taking many hard hits. Shay Hodge is still amazing. If I were an offensive coordinator scheming against Memphis, I'd have thrown it up to Hodge a lot more than we did.

The line... I can't decide what to think. Snead was sacked only once by a Memphis D that wanted to hit him pretty badly, and that one sack was a result of him holding onto the ball for way too long. Bradley Sowell might be plenty serviceable after a few more games. I don't think it's time to do anything drastic until he starts totally blowing blocks. Speaking of missing blocks, John Jerry was sub-par today. Having never played offensive line, I can't imagine the cohesion necessary to have a solid pass-blocking line. This line will have to gel quickly, but I think we'll be alright, especially when we put Rishaw Johnson back in his starting slot. Having Brandon Green, AJ Hawkins, Bobby Massie, and others as subs makes me feel pretty good. We need to stay injury free, but those guys will all be decent reserves this year.

The defensive line... We saw their potential, but it was a little frustrating when it seemed like they were overeager to fly into the backfield for a sack, only to see the running back slicing through the rest of the defense behind them. A little discipline from the D line goes a long way against a spread team. Jerrell Powe looks possessed; he's going to be awesome. Lockett showed that the attention he got last year in Hardy's absence was totally merited. He did overpursue a few times, but he made it obvious that he'll be tough to block 1-on-1 all year. Marcus Tillman was more dynamic than I've ever seen him. He had 7 tackles and showed speed in backside pursuit of the Memphis running backs a couple of times. Lamark Armour played, and wasn't bad at all. Good to know that we have four tackles we can use, and a fifth when Justin Smith returns.

I wanted to see more big plays out of the linebackers, but I guess this wasn't the offense to do it against. DT Shackleford is headed towards a great career. He's instinctive and he can run and hit really well. He will continue to steal time from Cornell, especially if the arm tackles continue from the starters. Allen Walker had a few good plays in run support. Since he was recruited as a safety, I keep wanting him to make plays in the passing game like Ashlee Palmer did, but I haven't seen it yet. Patrick Trahan didn't look like an elite linebacker today. Too early to tell for sure, but for now, we have three solid SEC starters, at least two good SEC backups, but no stars at linebacker.

The defensive backs played with swagger. This was a great performance, and the play of Jeremy McGee and Marcus Temple was really surprising. Johnny Brown led the team in tackles with 15, though that's probably a bad thing. It's encouraging that the secondary was good without any huge plays from Kendrick Lewis. Cassius Vaughn had a stellar play against Singleton where he got a good read on the ball, made a nice jump, and kept his hands in Singleton's grill until the pass fell to the ground. A solid, solid play against a huge guy like him. Fon Ingram listened to Coach Kennedy (who was probably yelling at someone, somewhere), and Justified His Existence. A great (if lucky) read, and a fluid catch and return.

OK, Spirit readers, you got us. Andrew Ritter is really good. He kicked the crap out of it when he was supposed to, kicked it high for the coverage team when he was supposed to. He's good. There, we said it.

The officiating, which I usually gripe about, was consistent and fair. There was that one laughable pass interference call on a play where the ball had already hit the ground, and the Memphis receiver initiated the contact. That was pretty terrible. Other than that, the refs did a good job of not letting the game devolve into whatever limp-wristed, no-contact slap-fight that Georgia was forced to comply with at T. Boone Pickens stadium. Yes, Big XII, if we aren't allowed to hit you hard, you'll probably win. Congrats.

One last thing before I turn in for the night: Memphis fans, you are pathetic. After the Tigers scored to make it 24-14, a good section of your crowd near the north endzone started an "overrated" cheer... While down by ten, late in the game, knowing full well that you were going to lose. That's weak shit, Memphis fans. You're bitter, obnoxious, irrelevant, and small. By claiming that a team is overrated when they're beating you by ten in your own shitty stadium, when this is the most important game of the year to you, what are you saying about yourselves? Anyways, thanks for the win; I guess we'll play another soft game, then go on to some nationally relevant college football. Have fun doing whatever it is you do between now and basketball season.

That's all for tonight. Let me know what you think (unless you're an Arkansas fan), and don't miss the Roundtable tomorrow.

Goodnight, and Hotty Toddy.

REMINDER

Whiskey Wednesday — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:42:08 -0000

Now that I have your attention, please make sure you submit your RCR pool picks ASAP. Games start tonight. Click the Fun Office Pools widget and get 'em in or miss out like you did on all of the cool stuff in middle school.

The Cup Countdown: Number 5

Whiskey Wednesday — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 19:59:44 -0000

So I had every opportunity to go to the Florida game. And I didn't. A couple of my friends have ragged me about it endlessly, but I'm sticking to my guns. Sometimes, a man has to have some principles. I had reached the end of my rope with this Ole Miss team. I wasn't seeing the effort, the realization of potential that would have inspired me to drive 12 hours with Ivory Tower and his lame country music to watch my Rebels get waxed by the best team in the country. So I didn't go. I stayed behind and engaged in an athletic endeavor of my own. I played Ultimate Frisbee. I wrapped my broken left hand into a sweaty, medical tape club (Patrick Willis style) and vented my football frustrations by owning the shit out of some motherfuckers in flatball. It felt good; being trapped in the stands while you helplessly watch your team lose is pretty agonizing. I'm not a terrific athlete by any means, but it feels good for the actions and decisions to be your own, to feel the burn of a full sprint in your legs as you pull past another player and burn him on your way to the endzone. I was at peace...

When the Ultimate game ended, some guys from Tupelo that we played with (State fans, no doubt) mentioned that, hey, you guys aren't getting your asses kicked too bad in Gainseville. Shit, I thought. Not again. I had almost wanted to that the score was 28-0, Florida, shake my head in disgust, and move on with my day. No such luck. We all scurry to find a TV. A few hurried minutes later, I'm wringing my hands in front of a big screen at a bar. One of my friends bartends there, and opened up for business early on account of the game. So there we were, right after a Shene FG puts us within 7 just after halftime. Cordera Eason scores an acrobatic touchdown. McCluster squirts through the UF defense for 7 more. Somehow, we're up. At this point, it becomes obvious that Florida is Done Fucking Around. A big kick return and a quick score have the game tied up again. Ole Miss punts, then forces a punt, starting the pivotal drive of the game with 6:54 left on the game clock. Dex runs for 4. Bolden runs for 1. Third and five, most likely a passing down, and Snead has been inconsistent all day. Good thing for Kent Austin. Austin has noticed Florida's secondary creeping up on the run, sitting on short routes. Third and five. Game on the line.

Flash forward. May. New York city subway, 9:00 AM on Sunday morning. Ghost and I are leaving the sports bloggers' conference, bleary-eyed, surveying the riff-raff that usually occupies the tubes on a morning such as this. We're creeping along, stop after stop, when another train pulls up adjacent to ours. The doors clanger open, and a portly, poorly composed fellow stands up like a bolt. He darts his glance to the other faces on the train, and hiking up his cargo shorts, loudly proclaims "IT'S THE NUMBA THREE EXPRESS, (racial epithet excluded)!!!!!!!!!" He runs to the other train. Ghost and I follow. At some point, a month or two later, we're talking about the Florida game, and the conversation turns to that one play. Third and five. And Ghost pegs it. Shay Hodge. 86 yards for the score. The #3 Express.

Back to the barroom full of sweaty guys. Hodge blows by Major Wright. The room erupts. I high five someone. Hard. With my broken hand. Ow. But it didn't matter. The win was eminent. This one felt different. I want to say that it was at that point that I knew we had it. Thanks, Shay. That was pretty badass.

via media.commercialappeal.com

The Cup Countdown: Number 7

Whiskey Wednesday — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:05:21 -0000

Media Darlings: You know them when you see them. Some hot, upstart team gets an undue amount of air time, with various talking heads raving about this and that, pretending that, all of a sudden, Generic State University is somehow relevant or interesting. I remember how ESPN's guys gushed about MSU's cowbells back in the late 1990's. Not so much anymore. Maybe this year, they'll make a huge fuss about the Grove, The Walk of Champions, Chucky Mullins (all of which are cooler than cowbells, btw), though they could just as easily continue the party line of "Racism was invented in Oxford, Mississippi." But I digress...

Last year, Texas Tech had taken the media darling phenomenon to new heights. And why not? The only coach in America that Houston Nutt might describe as "a little off-kilter..." an awesome wideout who likes to say stupid things in front of cameras... A wide-open offense and a paraplegic defense, generating TV-friendly shootouts week after week... With the Red Raiders rolling to a 10-0 record, the media had no choice but to rain down the love on the Red Raiders. As a result, throwing tortillas on the field is cool. The bell ringer (no, I'm not linking the video) is cool...

Then, we start hearing about this guy:

I get it. I wasn't cool in high school. I had some friends that got tired of being not cool, and started wearing black, dying their hair, wearing funny make-up. I decided to keep being a dork, ride it out, continue being semi-normal, enroll at Ole Miss, and drink my way through a business degree. But I get it: attention-starved people will often go great lengths to be noticed, be it in a positive or negative light. It's best just to ignore them; shooting close-ups of them on national TV is a terrible idea.

So once this Brandon Carter lunatic gets some face time, and Tech continues to post dominant victories over mediocre Big XII teams, a couple of indulgent, homo-erotic fluff pieces come out, painting the entire Tech offensive line as some quirky, diverse hodge-podge of individuals who in no way suck at life, are starved for attention, or are beneficiaries of a quick-release offensive scheme and terrible defensive opponents. Meanwhile, Ole Miss, at 3-4 on the season, having officially missed the media love train, has decided to quietly start stomping mudholes in asses.

So after a month or three of this tom-foolery, the stage is set: the #7 Red Raiders must stoop to playing the newly-ranked Rebels in the Cotton Bowl. Rebel fans (and recent Ole Miss opponents) are confident, but the entire rest of the nation is convinced that this game is a beatdown in the making. Tech supporters, citing that our defensive line is our biggest strength, are quick to point out that their mutant version of the Insane Clown Posse, with their cute nicknames and CBS sportswire features, are going to totally dominate Jerry, Hardy and co., leaving Harrell and Crabtree free to play a leisurely game of pitch and catch while the Ole Miss secondary stumbles around helplessly, yakety sax playing mockingly in the background (PS-check this out, and this. You're welcome.).

Long story short: we have this guy (why haven't I seen this article before today? It's amazing), and as we all know:

I'll admit, the Tech offensive line did a good job against our defensive line. It just wasn't good enough. Sure, we didn't sack Harrell 8 times and force a ton of errant back foot throws. But Harrell, quite frankly, isn't used to being touched, and he was fairly well-acquainted with the Cotton Bowl grass by the end of that fair January afternoon. Growing more and more irritable about their inability to keep their QB clean, Brandon Carter and Stephen Hamby both lost it, ripping their helmets off, pushing around 190 pound Ole Miss players, and generally smearing their mascara in a manner not at all appropriate for aspiring professional wrestlers/fry cooks/Lubbock real estate agents.

And there is was: the #7 greatest moment from the 2008 Ole Miss football season. Media darlings exposed as pass-happy frauds. TTU fans and players exposed as the sorest losers in all of college football. The Rebels revealed as potential contenders in 2009 and beyond. Stay tuned for day #6, all the way up day #1, and the opener, when JUCO and I will help invade Memphis and ring in the new season. Happy Weekend, and Hotty Toddy.

Scrimmage Report: 8/15

Whiskey Wednesday — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 23:45:22 -0000

Holy God, was it hot today... Probably 1,000 people came to sit on the hill overlooking the practice fields today. After a long warm-up, the first full-contact scrimmage kicked off. The offense had a pretty good day, and though the defense held their own, most of the highlight-worthy moments were created by the offense.

Jevan looked to be in control today. Not making every play out there, but not making any bad decisions.

Nathan Stanley: same song, different verse. Great deep throws, still struggling on some underneath routes.

Clayton Moore: HE WAS AMAZING... just kidding.

Raymond Cotton: Cotton continues to get more comfortable. I still haven't seen the speed necessary to come in and play this year. There were times where I wished that he'd taken off running just so I could see what he looks like.

Early in the practice, Cordera Eason ripped off a huge a TD run, called back for holding, where he broke an arm tackle and outran everyone on the way to the endzone.

Bolden had some solid carries. He's very good, and they aren't making him prove himself too much out there, with so much competition going on below him.

Enrique continues to make some strong runs. He looks more decisive with his cuts this year.

Rodney Scott and Tim Simon: both still look very good. It's unfortunate for Simon that his style is so similar to Bolden's. Not say that he's as good, but they have a similar running style, which makes it really unlikely he'll see time this year. He showed the ability to make himself smaller and squeeze past tacklers today. He squared up and really popped a DB at the end of a long run. Simon continues to feel the wrath of the defense in retalliation for his big hit the other day. Despite this, he's still doing well.

Ben Benedetto, walk-on DT-turned fullback, knocked the ever-loving shit out of a couple guys after a catch he made today for a short gain. Unlikely to play this year with Hartmann and Davis there, but with that play, he made some people take notice. The sideline went crazy.

The young receivers were very good. Pat Patterson: remember when I said that Pat wouldn't be the 3rd guy this year? I was probably wrong. He's amazing. He had some really great catches today, including a deep ball over one of the freshman corners, where he made a leaping grab, shook off the corner, and high-stepped into the endzone.

Jesse Grandy had a ridiculous score on a reverse. It seemed like the D was about to run him out of bounds after a decent gain, but then he made an electrifying cutback and took it the rest of the way. If he can prove that he can hold onto the ball and understand the offense, he could very well play this year. McCluster is, of course, the total package when it comes to scat backs, but Grandy has speed that even McCluster can't equal.

Andrew Harris wasn't too good today. Melvin also turned in a mediocre day. Summers and Breaux were about average.

Sowell looked pretty good today, playing well even against Kentrell Lockett.

Massie moved around some on the line today, taking some snaps at both tackle spots. His first step and technique still need a lot of work. Alex Williams gave him a lot of trouble with his quickness and moves.

Brandon Green looks better than I expected at right guard. He's short, but very stout and aggressive. Rishaw may have more trouble earning his job back than I realized.

Gerald Rivers and Alex Williams both looked good today taking 2nd and 3rd team snaps. Those guys are both really athletic.

I didn't watch the linebackers much today, but noticed Kight still getting 2nd team reps.

Brumfield was back out today after spending a couple of days nursing an injured hamstring (I think).

The defensive backs lost some of their dominance today when the offense was allowed to open things up a bit. Still, they look like they'll be much improved over last year.

We watched Darius Barksdale at safety some today. He wants to make big hits, and today it cost him; he got lured in too fast on an outside run by Tim Simon, and ended up overpursuing and getting left in the dust.

Shene was money on his field goals today. He's an undervalued player, and his consistancy could be a big advantage for us against Bama or LSU.

That's about all we recorded today. The sun was frying our brains, I think. About to go grab a beer and a nap. Have a great weekend.

Practice Report: 8/13

Whiskey Wednesday — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 01:08:59 -0000

The weather is way too nice for August in Mississippi. Unfortunately, the 75 degree, shady afternoon brought out every douchebag from miles around. I found myself moving around not for a better vantage point, but to escape the yammerings of each successive idiot whose proximity I entered. I almost left. Also irritating today was the relative lack of offense. A buddy of mine who works for the team is really excited about the defense, and I guess I'd rather have the defense winning right now, but the offense needs to find some answers at tackle and some depth at receiver. More after the jump.

Snead and the other quarterbacks aren't producing the kind of highlight material we saw last year at times in practice. They're mainly just staring at blanketed receivers and shaky pocket protection. I didn't keep track of any passing numbers today. It was just too depressing. I know I'm supposed to like tough defenses, but dammit, I want to see some fireworks, too.

Raymond Cotton mishandled another snap. I hope it's the center. Cotton's passes are looking good, but he's just throwing it up to guys that aren't really open. No one is open. I don't know what's going on.

Brandon Bolden looks like he's in great shape. His balance and quickness are really showing out in practice now. I'm sure, like the linebackers, he can't wait to start knocking the snot out of guys.

Speaking of tough backs, Rodney Scott pissed off the defense today by trucking a 2nd team DB into next week. The defense has a hard time not laying guys out anyways, so when a 5'9 freshman lays the wood to them, they understandably take offense. It was a hell of a hit; Nutt could sense the 2nd team's aggravation at Scott, and he didn't take any more snaps against the 2nd team D.

If Ja-Mes Logan doesn't start pulling down some of these more difficult passes, he might not be a shoo-in (or a shoe-on, if you're Yancy) for early playing time, as I'd previously thought. His routes are great, his speed is great, but you've gotta bring in the rock.

Jesse Grandy is still fast as crap, and is still built like a 15 year-old on steroids and diruetics. Still, if Nutt is looking for a receiver who can get some separation and make guys miss, he may look to Grandy this year. Seriously though, if he's the 180 pounds he's listed at, I'll eat my hat. Dude is 160, tops.

Patterson was probably the 3rd best receiver today. He had a layout catch on a slant; it was a sweet catch, but the coaches wanted him to break the press faster and catch it in stride. He had a couple of catches on hook routes that he might have turned upfield for big gains, if the contact wasn't limited. The defensive coaches are instructing the DB's to respect Pat's strength and tackle-breaking ability.

Markeith Summers had a freaking terrible drop today on a wide open deep route. Come on, Markeith.

I started practice by watching the tight ends run a blocking drill. After his first few games, Gerald Harris never impressed me, but he's looking pretty sharp. He seems to be the best blocker we have at the position. If the LT position doesn't get more solid, Nutt's going to start taking Gerald to Mickey D's for breakfast every morning...

EJ Epperson had a pretty bad drop today. With his size, I wanted him to be super fast and a great receiver, but honestly, it looks like he blocks better and catches and runs worse than I expected.

Spirit posters, and Nafoomers (sorry, I don't usually group you together) DIVERT YOUR EYES. BELOW IS SOME NEWS THAT YOU WILL NOT LIKE. I'M SERIOUS, JUST SKIP FURTHER DOWN.

Z Mason may not be the athlete we were expecting. At least not yet. He's certainly huge, and has a great, lean frame. However, he's not exploding off the ball like he should be, both in blocking and receiving drills. His breaks aren't smooth or quick. He's looking borderline slow. Stanley put a jump ball in the endzone in Z's direction, and he made an awkward, unathletic bat at it with a much smaller man on him. Again, guys, I want Z to be awesome. I love kickass tight ends, but unless Z is sick (a simple cold can really kill your speed), out of shape, or hurt, he just doesn't look nearly as athletic as many of us were expecting.

NO BAD NEWS HERE!!! CERTAINLY NOT! WHERE WERE WE?!?!

The offensive line continues to try to hold their own against their defensive counterparts. Honestly, I don't envy that task one bit. The defense is hungry and mean right now. Sowell had another lovely session of grass drills following another false start. Dude needs to shape it up. I'm trying to learn more about line play. It seems like in practice, the left tackle usually doesn't just block the right defensive end, as you'd expect, and as NCAA Football on XBox has always taught me. It seems like the LT hangs more often hangs back and waits on a linebacker, or shifts right and helps contain a defensive tackle. I wish I knew more about these blocking schemes so I could tell you more about how the guys are holding up to expectations. Anyone can see that Sowell lacks some of the strength and killer instinct you want in an SEC LT though.

Massie didn't get any first team snaps that I saw today. Who knows if that's because a) they're satisfied with Sowell, b) Massie isn't performing great, or c) if they're wanting to give Sowell every chance to improve before they make a drastic move and plug in a true freshman at LT.

Brandon Green worked with the first team again, in place of Rishaw Johnson, who is apparently in the doghouse, for real. He was still with the 3rd team today.

The D line continues to look solid, though there weren't as many ridiculous plays from them as there have been the last couple of days. No one really stood out.

Didn't notice much out of the linebackers, either. Just solid. No huge mistakes that I noticed.

I hate to say it, but the defensive backs are beating the receivers right now, Hodge and McCluster excepted. They have a swagger I haven't seen in them before, and they're really harassing all the receivers. Cassius Vaughn did execute a pretty good pratfall in 1 on 1's against Dex. Dex shrugged his shoulders as if to say "I didn't touch him, wtf was that?" Cassius, stay on your feet. We don't need a revisit of Bryan Brown's fall that led to Danny Wimprine's 92 yard TD pass in 2003. Man, that still hurts.

Charles Sawyer got chewed out bad for giving up while a ball was still in the air in 1 on 1 drills. He's been great for a freshman, let's hope he takes it in stride and continues to produce.

Saw Andrew Ritter today. Wow, what a nice young man...

Sound bites:

"GET RISHAW!!! HE'S THE SELFISH ONE!!!" --Marshay Green, yelling at the 3rd team D

"Hey, 16 got no speed, don't worry about it. Play up close!" --Greg Hardy, talking shit at Markeith Summers

"(In a cordial, faux-British accent) Hellooooo kickers... punters and snappers. How are we today?" Patrick Trahan, while walking over to the Jackson Academy section of the sidelines.

I guess that's all I've got; stay tuned for JUCO and me double-teaming the practice report tomorrow. I'm making him watch the offensive line.

Practice Report: 8/12

Whiskey Wednesday — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 02:00:54 -0000

So the team came out in full shells today. I swear, I about foamed at the mouth when I heard the first good crack of the shoulder pads. And as you might expect in the first day of pads, the defense was on fire, talking trash, and generally taking out their frustrations on the white-clad offenders. I watched the offensive line intensely today, but as a 5’10, 175 pounder, my (limited) football experience occurred outside of the hashes, so I have a hard time telling exactly what’s going on in the trenches. That said, here are the notes for the day.

In scrimmage, Snead was something like 8/15 by my count, but it’s hard to keep track of who’s under center and where all the passes ended up when you’re on your tiptoes behind a bunch of much taller guys.

None of the other quarterbacks showed much today. Stanley again played more than Tapp, and Cotton had a mishandled snap that the defense ate up, as well as a few mediocre passes. Despite the poor results, his passes are looking a little sharper. I’d blame most of the quarterbacks’ struggles on a lively defense and very basic offensive playcalling. It wasn’t as if they were trying too hard to fool anyone.

I’ll continue to pimp Rodney Scott until I see reason not to. He’s shifty, and his vision and balance show promise. I want to see this kid play. Tim Simon also continues to impress me. It’d be a shame to pull an Antonio Turner on him and move a perfectly good back to the defense, especially when he’s busting ass out there like that.

The receivers are a unit that needs to step it up. Snead found Breaux settling in some zone pockets today, but other than that, open men were hard to find. Ja-Mes Logan had some chances to make amazing catches today, but didn’t bring down any of the tough grabs. Same could be said for Patterson, though he’s going up against the starters more often, so the competition is tougher. Overall, nothing the receivers did really wowed me except for a couple of layout grabs, one on a slant by Dex, another on a comeback route by Andrew Harris. Both were well covered, but both guys came down with it. Melvin Harris continues to impress me with his speed getting off the line, but I’m still waiting to see Snead throw a jump ball his direction. He did muscle by a corner playing inside man on him to make a nice catch over the middle.

Contartesi continues to catch a lot of balls. Maybe he’ll play. Sorry if that doesn’t excite me. I like height and size, not spunk and daughter date-ability.

Z Mason showed some tenacity blocking today, but the only pass I saw come his way was a low hummer from Cotton that the coaches thought Z could’ve caught.

Sowell had a much better day than he did yesterday. He seems like he’s pretty good at turning his man away from the play, but not so great at just blowing their shit up. He made me feel a little better, but I still want to see more strength from him.

Massie spent most of his time on the 2nd team today, but performed pretty well. I want to see him move a little faster to engage his blocker, and move to the second level.

Brandon Green took first team snaps at right guard today instead of Rishaw Johnson. Didn’t notice if Rishaw was playing on the 2nd team or not, or if he was just out for some reason.

The offense set up several halfback screens today, and most of the time, the line did a good job of getting downfield to block.

Gerald Pow got him a innerception!!!!!!@omgomgomg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Seriously though, Powe did make a sticky-fingered pick on a ball that was still moving pretty fast, and turned it upfield with an alacrity that had people’s jaws dropping, followed by uncontrollable laughter. Sorry Jerrell, you look hilarious when you sprint. The defense on the sidelines went nuts (NUTTS!!!!LOLOLOL) and rushed the field. I narrowly avoided trample-ation by the jubilant defenders.

I was impressed by Hardy at times today, but other times, it still looked obvious that he was taking it slow. Fine by me. Just get ready to destroy Stephen Garcia.

The linebackers are looking fast, and I’ve been excited about this group since the end of last year. People who think this will be a weakness are wrong. These guys can play. The freshmen will end up providing good depth by midseason. Kight looks really thick. He had a pass deflection that ended up being caught anyways, but he did a good job finding the ball in the air. Bad luck.

K. Lewis had a pick today, on a pressure by Kentrell Lockett. J. McGee added another on a pass that was left short by Stanley. Marcus Temple manned up well against Andrew Harris in a redzone situation. Harris could’ve caught it, but Temple got his hands in Harris’ face and wrenched it away.

Barksdale got in for a couple of plays today, but he was the only one not wearing pads, so he didn’t hit anyone. I’ll try to watch Johnny Brown some more as the scrimmages get more realistic; I’m interested to see how he picks up the defensive schemes.

Sound bytes from today:

"DON’T HURT HIM, BOBBY!!" -- another linemen, after Massie roughed up Emmanuel McCray

"This staff didn’t used to like little guys… Now they’re signing ‘em like… popcorn" –a friend of Yancy Porter’s, and fellow abuser of English slangs and idioms.

"Terry Price leads the SEC in cusswords per second, not even close" –Sideline observer

"Dexter McCluster is my friend!!! I know him!!!" –Greg Hardy, after a trick play converted by Dex

"Coach's gonna make us do up n' downs after practice. It's our reward/punishment. He don't like it when the D dominates. Kinda bittersweet... Like Sour Patch kids" -- defender who will remain unnamed, in the interest of not getting him in trouble. It was too funny to leave out.

That’s all I’ve got for now, tune in tomorrow, and don’t miss this weekend, when JUCO will actually show his face in Oxford and accompany me at practice.

Practice Report: 8/11

Whiskey Wednesday — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:09:24 -0000

So I caught some heat for yesterday's practice report being too negative... Get ready, Rivals and Spirit posters. I'm not about to tell you that everything's alright when it isn't. If you want to know who's playing well and what's going right, you need to occasionally hear who isn't, and what's going wrong, so you know that we're not just pumping sunshine. I think the team will be good. I don't think that the team is ready to strap up and play Alabama tomorrow. My apologies. Moving on...

Snead, I've decided, might just be testing out his new offensive players. Once, he threw to Patterson in triple coverage, and though Pat made a good effort at it (and maybe would have drawn the flag), I have to think that Snead was just seeing if Pat could get it.

Stanley probably took more 2nd team snaps than Tapp did. I don't know how indicative that it of of their depth chart positions, but I like seeing Stanley getting the work right now.

Cotton's passes were bit better today. I see where some people saw him running around yesterday, so maybe I missed that. Again, didn't see him running today. He looks athletic, so I'm watching for a big run from him.

Bolden hardly played at all today. I'm guessing that his position is pretty firmly in his grasp. Enrique ran with authority today, as did Tim Simon.

Rodney Scott, I forgot to report yesterday, is short, but in stellar shape. When a guy shows up built like that (like Dex was), you expect them to play early. Scott had a pretty sick catch and juke in the light scrimmage.

Z Mason is working pretty low on the depth chart right now, but with the tight ends, you can't tell much until the hitting starts. He's huge, but Gerald Harris looks to be improved and waiting to improve on his Cotton Bowl performance. If the other tight ends have done anything to separate themselves, I haven't seen it.

In scrimmages, I thought Sowell looked alright. Later, I looked over and saw him doing grass drills on the sideline until he looked sick. Something he did apparently really pissed off the coaches. He was really frustrated with himself. Again, I'm dying for the pads to go on, so we'll know how much of a concern he is.

Massie was moving well. The coaches were working him seemingly over half the time, so maybe they're trying to push him hard for early PT.

Receivers:

Shay is the clear cut #1. He's awesome. He had a hook route that left Marshay standing in the dust; he was there, then he wasn't. Shay continues to climb up my list of favorite OM receivers. He was already # 1. Now he's # -3.

Markeith had a solid catch or two today. Still waiting for him to grab the #3 spot. I have to think that he'll do it. His combination of speed and athleticism, as well as his blocking, should overtake Breaux on the depth chart.

The coaches keep testing Patterson. He gets lots of reps against the upperclass defensive backs. He had one sick catch that I noticed today, and several other great efforts. He throws his body around. He isn't Julio Jones yet, though, I in no way expect him to crack the top 3 by season's end.

Melvin Harris did something in drills, I missed it, that made the coaches and players go nuts. Wish I'd seen it.

Ja-Mes Logan continues to be solid and athletic. Jesse Grandy also showed awesome speed today, though he looks like 150 pounds out there. He took a reverse and blew by some fast guys on the way to getting edged out of bounds. He also had a juke that left one of the better DB's dead in his tracks. This kid looks bound for offense.

Hardy and Powe both looked really intense in drills today. Gerald Rivers looks beastly, if still a little thin. You can see that he's tall and athletic and light on his feet.

Corey Gaines and Craig Drummond were not on it today, it seemed. Gaines, especially, is freaking out of shape.

The coaches look pleased with Shackleford and Kight at linebacker. I saw more of them than of Jason Jones and Lekenwic Haynes today, though I didn't spend a ton of time on the linebackers. Jason Jones looks too big to play sideline to sideline. We'll see.

Darius Barksdale (I'll call him 'Tig' when/if he gets his shit together and does something on the field...) was dressed out in #14 today, but this seemed like an orientation session for him. He wasn't out there doing much at all.

Charles Sawyer was listed at safety, but he worked at corner today. He's big and physical and not slow, and I've heard that the coaches like him. I see him as a dark horse to get some real PT. His dreads are sick, too. That helps.

The ball kept gravitating towards Marcus Temple today. He had two seemingly lucky picks in the scrimmage. I hope he continues to get faster so he won't be stuck at nickel corner his whole career.

Overall, catching was improved today, and the secondary probably made fewer mistakes biting on fakes. Still, I worry about practices looking rusty, especially when the pads are still off. I'm optimistic, but I can't be too wooly until I see the offensive line actually block somebody.

Feel free to add some more observations, or let me know if there's someone you want me to look our for in the coming days of practice.

OLE MISS NATIONAL CHAMPS 2010!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Practice Report: 8/10

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:18:09 -0000

Holy Hell, football is here. Hopefully you'll recall our (wildly popular) practice reports from last fall. These will follow similar suit. Read, provide input, yadda yadda.

So Rh0d3$+@r and I attended the first practice with illicit beverages and some honest insight. Today, I mainly focused on the skill players. It's hard to tell how good the linemen are until the pads go on. More on that later.

Raymond Cotton -Good size and release. The buzz has been that he might get looks to play in some Kent Austin formations this year. He'll have to show more accuracy and zip before that happens. Quick, high-armed release, but often high and behind the target. Didn't get any gauge on his speed.

Clayton Moore - THE LONE RANGER... If I met this guy in a dark alley, he might run away from me...

Jevan Snead- good, but maybe not as good as you'd expect from a Heisman candidate. We didn't see much promise from the qb's at this point last year, if I remember. He'll be fine. Jevan operated exceptionally well under duress last year. He likes it when shit gets real. Today wasn't all that real. He did step aside when his turn was over at skeletons and talk to several of his players. Not coaching, just keeping communication lines open.

Stanley - already noted for his good deep throws, Stanley had some good completions to shorter routes today, as well as the ability to shorten his tall frame and tuck it for a run. He's quicker than I'd imagined, but again, it's hard to tell how effective a runner is until the pads go on...

Korvic Neat - really small and not in McCluster's freshman shape (Dex was ripped from day 1, if you recall); didn't see much. He looks quick, but he won't play this year, barring injury.

Patterson -I anticipated a bigger guy. He isn't huge or ripped, it seems, but he's taking 1st and 2nd team snaps and making the defense respect him. I want to see what he does as the qb's grow more accustomed to him and vice versa.

Ja-Mes Logan - long and quick. He ran a couple of good routes today. I'd say he wasn't significantly behind Patterson or either Harris. We'll see how he develops.

The receivers as a whole weren't good today. Austin, who usually works on technique and schemes, seemed like he was just frustrated at the lack of solid hands today.

Lionel Breaux -Lionel can snag the ball cleanly, but he doesn't have the range to pluck it out of the air like Hodge, Summers, or even McCluster.

Julian Whitehead and Demareo Marr -Not terrible. More on this as it develops... Marr was more flexible and physical than I remembered. Whitehead has always looked physical when close to the line, but gets burned because of his height/speed. Today, he had two layout D's, one on Patterson and one on GWH candidate Ricky Contardoesntmatterhowyoupronounceithewontplaytesi. Maybe he's in better running shape and can provide some depth this year.

Markeith Summers -Still looks big, fast, and strong-handed. Waiting for him to take the 3rd spot by the horns. Between him, Breaux, Patterson, and both Harrises, I think he's the best candidate for the 3 spot. He's just got to man up and take it.

Andrew Harris -He's always looked fast and rangy, but he has problems beating people to the ball, and catching everything that he should.

Charles Sawyer- We've heard that he's good, but didn't notice him at all today.

Terrell Grant -People aren't expecting much from him, but they sent him out there some today. He looked athletic, but didn't perform.

Dex - Worked with the RB's today, but performed admirably in limited skeleton work with the receivers.

Shay -wasn't impressive today. It games, Shay just wants it more and works harder to get it. He's always looked about as good as Summers in practice, but in games... you know.

Overall, coaches spent a lot of time with young guys today.

Powe and Hardy -both worked with the second team. Spirit boners remain flaccid until the pads come on, at least.

Hartman - big one-handed grab in the flat. Looks like a brick shithouse; hope he can cover ground quick enough to block for all the backs.

Melvin Harris -like the other receivers, didn't bring down the ball as well as he should have. Surprising quickness, but not much strength from a receiver his size. You can't come down with jump balls just because you're tall, and Harris doesn't have the heft to compete in the air yet, in my opinion. Hope I'm wrong, as this might alleviate the D. Brown/A. Jackson/M. Brown/etc. blue balls.

Z Mason, Bobby Massie, Bradley Sowell, etc.- Can't tell anything at all yet... The tight ends didn't work with the passing offense at all today, unless I missed it. Massie looked really exhausted at times, but he's still huge and imposing. Wanted to see more confidence in the face of Sowell, but seriously, judgements on the linemen are impossible right now.

Stop by practice if you get a chance; the team looks hungry, and so do the guys on the sidelines. Otherwise, we'll keep you updated as things develop.

Remember the "What's fer Supper?" Segment of Southern Sports Tonight with Max Howell?

Whiskey Wednesday — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:25:28 -0000

Well I do. One of the biggest crimes committed by the Internet was the killing-off of sports radio shows like this one. It was awesome. And the best segment, Ole Miss coverage be damned, was Max Howell's "What's fer Supper?" Well, I was so proud of my dinner last night, that I'm writing about it. It's still July, so I'll post whatever non-sports garbage I please, thank you very much. So press play on the video, and remember how appetizing a cathead biscuit could sound when Max was drawling about it over the radio... Recipe after the break.

Whiskey Wednesday's Better-Than-LSU's Jambalaya

Ingredients:

1 package of hot smoked sausage, a pound or so
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled, de-veined, drained

1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 poblano pepper
2 banana peppers (fresh, not pickled)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 large yellow onion
4 large cloves of garlic
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5oz), drained

2.5 cups of long grain white rice

2.5 cups of chicken broth/stock OR a few chicken bullion cubes (I used one can of stock and some bullion cubes mixed with water; that's all I had)
2 shots of vodka, bitch
2 cups of water

Louisiana Hot Sauce (or similar)
Ancho chili powder (farmer's market. it's the fucking bomb)
Salt, pepper
Oil: olive, veggie, whatever

Directions:

1. Crack open a beer. Start drinking it. Peel the skrimps and chop the sausage while heating some oil in a big-ass pot. Turn the stove burner almost all the way up, then throw in the sausage. Start chopping onions, peppers, and garlic. Let the sausage brown and sear pretty well, you want some charred residue on the pot.

2. Remove sausage, set aside, throw a tad more oil in (carefully) and turn the heat down to medium. Throw them skrimps in dat pot, playa!!!@ Stir the shrimp around, adding a coating of Ancho powder. Don't cook them too much, you'll add them back in the pot later... Remove the shrimp.

3. Add the chopped onion, take the burner back up to high heat. Spend about 10 minutes getting the onions pretty soft and clear, stirring to keep them from burning to the bottom. Add the garlic, then the peppers, then the tomatoes, taking a minute or two between each addition.

4. Add all of the liquid ingredients (and bullion, if you used it). Add salt, pepper, hot sauce, a good bit more ancho, and any other spices you might find interesting. Deglaze the pot. Get all that good-ass burnt shit off the bottom. Bring to a boil. Add the sausage and the rice. Stir it around a bit, reduce heat to medium, let it reduce to a decent simmer, then cover for about 15 minutes. Don't touch it. After 15 minutes, stir the shrimp back in, and try a bite of rice to see how tender it is. Re-cover the pot and cook for 5-15 more minutes based on how the rice is doing.

5. Crack open another beer (you're on your 4th now, right?). Get a bowl. Prepare to have your fucking mind blown.