On Saturday, College Football Odyssey is excited to return to Oxford for the first time since 2009. For anybody who has had the great fortune to tailgate at the Grove, the experience is unforgettable.
For Ed Orgeron, he returns to Oxford for the first time in a decade as a head coach, this time for the visiting Bayou Bengals. For Rebel fans, they do not need to go to the cinema to see Stephen King’s “It” to be terrified. All they have to do is recall the ill-fated, three-year period from 2005-07 when Orgeron was Ole Miss’ head man.
Orgeron’s SEC record was a hideous 3-21 and underscored just how ridiculous the Ole Miss administration was in their sacking of a quality head coach in David Cutcliffe. As horrible as 3-21 was, Orgeron easily saved the worst for last. In 2007, the Rebels held a 14-0 lead with less than 13 minutes to go in the Egg Bowl against their archrivals in Starkville. Ole Miss had a 4th and 1 on their 49.
At this point, Orgeron made one of the most disastrous calls in college football history. He went for it. Never mind that the Bulldog offense had been inept through 3+ quarters. After a fateful 3-yard loss, the crowd, with next to nothing to cheer about all day, could almost be heard in Tupelo. The momentum shift was seismic. Adam Carlson’s 48 yard field goal provided Sylvester Croom’s MSU team with a stunning, 17-14 comeback victory. If there was ever a fitting metaphor for a coaching legacy, Coach O had found it.
Orgeron was again assumed to be coaching roadkill 3 weeks ago after LSU did a faceplant against Troy in Death Valley. However, upset wins over both Florida and Auburn have brought both Coach O and LSU back from the dead. The Auburn victory was especially impressive as the Bayou Bengals spotted a quality War Eagle team a 20-0 lead.
On paper, the matchup favors the visitors. Ole Miss’ potent passing game is the one hope for the home squad. Shea Patterson and a corps of highly skilled receivers, highlighted by A.J. Brown, hope to compensate for a flawed Rebel defense. Will LSU’s usual stable of skilled defensive backs be able to contain Patterson & Company?
LSU was held back earlier in the year by health issues for two of their stalwarts, DE Arden Key and running back, Derrius Guice. To the extent that both are at or close to 100%, advantage LSU.
The Bayou Bengals deserve being a 7-point favorite. However, if the Rebels pull off the upset, a lot of longtime Ole Miss fans will happily be wondering why their Deep South rivals ever hired Coach O.
rickro51
Do you think LSU is a much better team when Derrius Guice is healthy? His 285 rushing yards provided an emphatic answer.
Ole Miss’ negligent run defense never rated to shut down LSU’s run game. For the Rebels to have a real shot at the upset, Ole Miss needed to tally a lot of points. In Shea Patterson, the Rebels had a skilled QB capable of doing so. Unfortunately, one of his receivers, DaMarkus Lodge, consistently came up short. Lodge dropped a perfectly thrown bomb in the first quarter, another end zone pass later and a third ball when the game was still in doubt. The LSU strategy was to double team leading Reb receiver, AJ Brown, and hope none of the other Ole Miss receivers would go off. The strategy worked.
To make matters worse for Ole Miss, Patterson suffered ligament damage to his right knee late in the second quarter and was never the same. In a forgettable season for the Rebels, news got worse today when the severity of Patterson’s injury was diagnosed. The main reason to watch the Rebels will be shut down the rest of the year. The ever passionate Ole Miss fans are not going to have much to look forward to in the balance of 2017.
As for Guice, remarkably, last night’s latest star turn was the third game in which the speedy RB amassed at least 250 rushing yards. Leonard Who???