Just thought you USM fans might enjoy reading this, from today's Birmingham Post-Herald...
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Football in Mississippi falls to an embarrassing level
Easy Writer by SCOTT ADAMSON
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD
The Thanksgiving holiday will be winding down Saturday, Nov. 27, and what better way to cap it off than by taking a long, comfortable snooze. I'm guessing he best way to do that will be to tune in to the Lay-An-Egg Bowl, formerly known as the Egg Bowl and more commonly known as the Ole Miss-Mississippi State football game.
What looked to be an intriguing matchup before the 2004 season began is shaping up to be the biggest waste of time since Dennis Kucinich decided to make a run at the Oval Office.
Let's face it — the Rebels and Bulldogs are absolutely awful. Not just bad, not just very bad, but simply terrible.
By the time the regular season comes to a close, these old rivals will likely have at least 18 losses between them — if not more.
Remember how those of us in Alabama used to say "Thank God for Mississippi?" The joke stopped being funny when Biloxi became a resort and gambling casinos cropped up all over the state.
But now, all Ole Miss fans can say is "Thank God for Vanderbilt" while the mantra in Starkville is "Thank God for Tulane."
When Eli Manning graduated, I don't think many of us expected the Rebels to make a run at a BCS bowl this year. But I certainly couldn't imagine Ole Miss being this bad.
Nothing against Wyoming — it's a beautiful state that inspired my middle name, Laramie, as well as a TV series by the same name starring the lovely, talented (and late as of 1971) Spring Byington, but the Cowboys have no business beating an SEC team.
Unless, of course, that SEC team is Vandy, whose prospects are about as good as those of a pork chop at a fat farm.
But consider this — the Rebs had to beat the Commodores in overtime — overtime in Oxford, no less.
A program that won 10 games in 2003 and made it to the Cotton Bowl is already dead in the water with a 1-3 mark.
On the plus side, David Cutcliffe's charges racked up 567 yards in total offense against a weak defense. But Mississippi turned the ball over five times and suffered 14 penalties for close to 100 backward yards.
"We shared the loss across the board," Cutcliffe said. "I'm really disgusted with the penalties. We are not that kind of football team."
I hate to break it to you, Dave, but you are that kind of football team — at least for the moment.
Yet Cutcliffe — who wisely signed a lucrative contract extension before Manning packed his bags for San Diego — er, New York — can take some solace in the fact that as bad as the Rebels are, the Bulldogs are even worse.
After topping Tulane in the season opener, it appeared Sly Croom might be able to work a miracle or two with his woefully inept team. But apparently there's only one miracle per customer in 2004 and it was wasted on the Greenies.
Since the win in his head coaching debut, Croom has watched State get manhandled by Auburn, embarrassed by 1-AA Maine — Maine! — and Saturday LSU walked through a 51-0 victory that could've been triple digits if Nick Saban had wanted to unleash his horses.
Keep in mind that MSU forced five Tiger fumbles and recovered four of them. Yet the Dawgs could merely sniff the LSU end zone. By the end of the day State had a paltry 130 yards in total offense and there's no silver lining in sight.
"I told the players that I never dreamed that we would get drummed like that," Croom said. "We had a good week of practice. We thought we had good plans, but right now we don't execute very well."
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs aren't doing anything well right now.
Really, it's a sad situation.
My brother went to Ole Miss, so I've always wished the Rebels well. And Croom is a fine man, so I was hoping he could do the improbable this year in Starkville.
But it's quite obvious that Mississippi's SEC teams are going to spend the season battling it out for the cellar in the SEC West.
What does this mean?
Just this — football fans to our west need to start shouting, "Thank God for Southern Mississippi."
The Golden Eagles are, after all, 2-0, and the Rebels and Bulldogs might be hard-pressed to win two games apiece.
Until one meets the other, of course.
Maybe we should bring back ties for that one ...
Easy Writer appears every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the Birmingham Post-Herald.
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Football in Mississippi...
