The race is on.

Kentucky AD announces the firing of Joker Phillips, effective season’s end, in an open letter.

If Kentucky decides to chase somebody like Bobby Petrino, can places like Auburn and Tennessee afford to wait?

Observations from the 45, Ole Miss edition

On a perfect Saturday afternoon, weatherwise, I watched a game in search of a motto:

“Out of chaos, order.”

“You thought Florida was ugly?  We’ll show you ugly.”

“Take a couple of Xanax, offense, and call us before the end of the first half.”

That second quarter was one of the most bizarre displays of football I’ve ever seen – a literal flurry of turnovers, the worst personal foul call I may have ever seen and the worst field goal attempt I have ever seen, just for starters – capped by an inept effort at clock management in the last minute that had the crowd turning ugly.  Yet Murray bailed his team out to give his team its first lead of the game, the Dawgs went into the locker room and made a series of halftime adjustments and came out in the second half to dominate Ole Miss on both sides of the ball.

On to the bullet points:

• Suddenly, there seems to be secondary depth.  Damian Swann looks more self-assured every week and Branden Smith played the game of his career as the nickel back.
• If Rambo got his mojo back against Florida, I think the same can be said for Alec Ogletree yesterday.  Aside from a couple of whiffs on the first Ole Miss drive, he was all over the place bringing the wood.  His interception was way downfield and as athletic a play as you could expect a linebacker to make.
• Another quietly excellent game from Garrison Smith.
• Speaking of quiet, maybe Jarvis Jones’ stats didn’t speak loudly, but he had the complete attention of Hugh Freeze’s offense.   He dominated the two plays that led to the safety and had an incredible tackle for loss when he engaged the blocker and took out the ball carrier with his legs.
• It took the defense a little time to adjust to Ole Miss’ pace, but you could see the comfort level rising by the end of the second quarter.  Once they figured out how to defend that pesky outlet pass, there weren’t any more bullets in the RBBs’ gun.  And the Dawgs continue to do a terrific job defending the read option.  Grantham has really stepped up the preparation level.
• My favorite Rambo moment came when Jeff Scott faced him in the open field… and flinched.
• The officiating?  The call on Williams was ridiculous – the ball carrier clearly ran into the defender – but I think yesterday was a new low in not calling holding.  It wasn’t just what Ole Miss did to Jarvis; Georgia’s o-line got away with quite a bit as well, especially in the first half when the linemen struggled with Mississippi’s blitz packages.
• Speaking of struggling, that’s a kind way of describing John Theus’ day.  He was nice enough to offer a helping hand to Murray after his guy sacked his quarterback, though.  The worst thing I saw was a play when he had a tight end lined up next to him, Ole Miss overloaded that side with a blitz and Theus missed his assignment and let both guys by.  After it looked like he was making progress against Florida, yesterday was definitely a set back.
• Marlon Brown was so much bigger than the guys defending him.  I hope the knee won’t turn out to be a big problem.
• Good game from Collin Barber.
• Once again, Todd Gurley shows he can grind with the best of ’em.
• The rooskie throw is going to get all the glory, but Murray’s three other touchdown throws were impressive.  Murray also made an effort to get his checkdown receivers the ball.
• It took Bobo a while to get there, but he obviously came out of halftime thinking, “screw it – if they’re gonna blitz and leave my guys in single coverage, I’m gonna throw it”.
• That doesn’t make up for the inexcusable waste of time in the last minute of the first half.  Although I have to say when they came back after the last time out, I had no idea what they were going to do.
• Loved the Zander Ogletree call for the touchdown.

The first quarter Georgia team looked much like what we saw against Buffalo and other teams when the Dawgs seemed to lack interest.  The team that played in the third quarter looked like a bunch that could play with any program in the country.  Maybe my 2007 vision won’t turn out to be completely far-fetched.

On to the Plains…

Advertisement

One sign you’ve had a dominant win.

Many were the voices who pointed out how Ole Miss came into yesterday’s game playing with confidence after securing its second straight conference win.

The tune was strikingly different afterwards, though.

“We were sitting on the sidelines with 20 seconds left telling each other, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get better,” Wallace said. “Maybe we’re not as good as some people thought we were…”

No, it’s not THAT trick play…

but it’s pretty cool nonetheless.  I haven’t found yesterday’s rooskie call on YouTube yet, but check out what Cincinnati pulled off against Syracuse:

(h/t Smart Football)

Last night’s “oy, vey” award goes to…

Really, I’m having a hard time deciding who’s the bigger douche nozzle:  do I go with Bobby Hebert for getting kicked out of the press box for excessive cheering, or Nick Saban for bringing SEAL Team Six into the mix on his team’s win?

Tough call.