This is a shameless plug for my friend's brand spankin' new preseason magazine, Mississippi Gridiron.  It has great coverage of all the college and junior college teams in the state as well as previews of each conference that includes a Mississippi team.  It contains extensive high school/recruiting coverage, including interviews with the magazine's All-stars, a list of the top 250 seniors, top 100 juniors, and top 20 sophomores, and write-ups about every high school region in each division.  It is packed with information and amazingly polished for a first-year effort.  It has been picked up by Wal-mart (will be in Wal-marts throughout the state on Monday), and is also available at Hibbett sports and many bookstores around the state (for the full list, see the Facebook page).

There is also a website with Mississippi football news, from recruiting to practice reports to games - available at http://mississippigridiron.com/.  There are only 2 more weeks until football season and I know you need something to tide you over until then!  Go pick up a copy, click the website, or become a fan on Facebook.  Support the efforts of a good Rebel!  Hotty Toddy!

When you hear the glorious notes of From Dixie With Love this weekend, get ready. You're going to have to take action or this will be the last time you will hear it on gameday. Look to your left and right. When the Battle Hymn portion of the song comes to an end, if either of the idiots next to you opens his mouth and what comes out is "The S...." PUNCH HIM IN THE FACE BEFORE HE CAN GET THE REST OF IT OUT. Also, if the person standing in your shoes says it, just go to the top of the Vaught and throw yourself off.

On a serious note, I have been a Rebel fan for all my 24 years.  I was lucky enough to grow up with Colonel Reb, Rebel flags, and From Dixie with Love.  When they got rid of the flags, I understood, and thought it was a wise move for our national image and recruiting.  Sure, I know that for me, that flag doesn't mean what people think it does, but I understand the outsider perspective.  When they got rid of Colonel Reb, I was firmly against it.  We need a mascot.  I don't think Colonel Reb is any more offensive than Chief Osceola, the Illini, or the Redskins logo.  Colonel Rebel will always be my mascot.  I'm just glad I got to be that excited little girl that loved to go up and hug him and get her picture taken with Colonel Reb while wearing her Ole Miss cheerleader outfit.  From Dixie With Love is my favorite Ole Miss tradition, and one that I thought would endure forever, even as the powers that be were chopping down our traditions one by one.  Until a few idiots decided to inject ignorance into a song that used to be history and tradition and loyalty and what it means to be a Rebel.  

If you screw up, students, just remember that you are ruining one of Ole Miss's best traditions for everyone.  The actions of a few drunk 20-year-olds will effect thousands of Rebels from 1 to 100.  What will we hear at the end of games, win or lose, to remind us that we are still Rebels and we still love Ole Miss?  There is no song the band could play that could capture that feeling.  There is no other song that would make me tear up at the first game of the year.

If you don't understand or don't care how much this song means to me and the majority of Rebel fans, you are not a Rebel.  You don't belong in my stadium, you don't deserve to wear red and blue, you're not good enough for that Hotty Toddy pin.  So remember that this weekend.  Try to live up to those colors.  Be a Rebel.

Alabama starting DE Brandon Deaderick was shot twice tonight in the Rivermont Apartment Complex in Tuscaloosa.  The incident occurred around 10 p.m. Monday night, and Deaderick was shot in the arm and hip.  By witness accounts the injuries are probably not life threatening.  From what we know, the assailant arrived with 2 others in a vehicle.  Deaderick and his girlfriend were getting out of their car at the apartment complex when the gunman got out of his car, approached Deaderick, demanded money, then shot Deaderick twice and ran away.  Deaderick and his girlfriend ran into a friend's apartment while a witness called the police.  Currently, there are search helicopters overhead looking for the gunman.  We still don't know whether the gunman fled on foot or managed to get back into the vehicle.

Alabama starting DE Brandon Deaderick was shot twice tonight in the Rivermont Apartment Complex in Tuscaloosa.  The incident occurred around 10 p.m. Monday night, and Deaderick was shot in the arm and hip.  By witness accounts the injuries are probably not life threatening.  From what we know, the assailant arrived with 2 others in a vehicle.  Deaderick and his girlfriend were getting out of their car at the apartment complex when the gunman got out of his car, approached Deaderick, demanded money, then shot Deaderick twice and ran away.  Deaderick and his girlfriend ran into a friend's apartment while a witness called the police.  Currently, there are search helicopters overhead looking for the gunman.  We still don't know whether the gunman fled on foot or managed to get back into the vehicle.