By Dan Harralson
The Ole Miss Rebels are the most intriguing team for the 2010 SEC season. We have learned today that Jeremiah Masoli will play for the Ole Miss Rebels. Masoli brings experience, a Pac-10 championship, Rose Bowl success, but most importantly: A second chance. It seems like Ole Miss is the center of quarterback re-treds lately. Brent Schaeffer, Jevan Snead, and now Jerimiah Masoli. The Rebels lose a lot on the offensive front, but have a favorable SEC East schedule. October 30th will be the deciding game if 2010 is a success or a failure. The winner of the Auburn/Ole Miss game should have a great chance to record a 9 win season. The Rebels can't replace Dexter McCluster, but they can find different variables that work around Masoli. Masoli envisioned a tough game at Neyland Stadium, but not knowing it would come on November 13th. Other tough road tests include Alabama, Arkansas, and LSU. Then "The school from the North" hosts the annual Egg Bowl November 27th. Before the Rebels can defend their back-to-back Cotton Bowl trophies, Ole Miss has to avenge the Egg Bowl loss and add to their 60-40-6 overall record against State. Look for Ole Miss to record 8 or 9 wins this season. Below is a quote that I asked Coach Nutt regarding his tenure at Boise State:
Q. Boise State was brought up. It was used in the same sentence as moving that game to Atlanta possibly. It's a true testament to yourself that Boise State is the team that it is, that we've seen this past decade. Talk about your experience at Boise State and do you think you pretty much laid the foundation to get that thing going?
COACH NUTT: No, I appreciate Gene Bleimeyer, the athletic director that gave me a chance. I was at Murray State. They had just moved up to Division I. When I went out there for the interview, I knew they had real passion. The people, the fans, they love football in Boise, Idaho. Beautiful place, mountains, everything. Yes, they do have blue turf. It was an awesome experience.
But as far as us having that much to do with it, Boise State, if you check the record, they've won a lot of games, even when they were in 1-AA. I don't know if we had that much to do with it. I think we did maybe help with a few things. I just had one year there. Pokey Allen did a very good job. He had passed away when I got there. They had a bad season the year before. Then they make that move to Division I. Gene Bleimeyer added seats to the stadium. So the atmosphere was just awesome. You could see it. You could really see this thing is going to be very special. You could see it coming. Coach Peterson has just done an awesome job.
