Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

[Goat Grindin]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

I think overall they had better players during their run of '08 and '09 than we did '10 and '11, thus the bigger expectations, etc. but the trends remain similar. I think they had an easier schedule, but alas.<div>
</div><div>Both are considered losing programs, finish the previous years strong. Get a bunch of undue hype. Both lose a few key players to the NFL that both fanbases underestimate. Both get slapped in the face on the road in their first real road test, both games they should have won (Carolina and Auburn). Both get worked at home by their first real elite SEC team on the schedule (Alabama and LSU). Both are doubting their offensive line and QB, who had excelled for them a year earlier. Both suffering from the same disease: Not dealing well with success. And both had UAB at a crucial point in the season. And what's even stranger, the other team had a great recruiting class the February before the other one had their year of expectations.</div><div>
</div><div>Nutt and Ole Miss made some changes (namely McCluster to tailback) and got back on track, and ended up rolling up some SEC teams and finishing decent, albeit losing to us, and getting to a bowl game. Won his home games, lost his road games. They figured out they weren't as good as Herbstreit told them they were, and got their heads back on straight.</div><div>
</div><div>Will we match that? Or will the cycle continue? Will Mullen make the changes necessary? We've got a chance to break the cycle if we take care of business, especially in the Egg Bowl.</div><div>
</div><div>As for the future, you have to hope our classes since that '09 classes can fill the void and not just completely suck like Ole Miss' '08 and '09 classes did, leading to their past two disasters. Not to mention all the internal turmoil going on with them.</div><div>
</div><div>Either way, feel free to flame away. I just thought the situations were eerily similar...</div><div>
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[gravedigger]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

1. a guy who earned a heisman consideration for the year before
2. the allsec wr
3. the all world defensive line
4. the preseason #4 ranking
5. the previous year runner up in the west
6. the previous year victory over the #1 team in the nation on their field with the heisman trophy winner.

Other than that....the similarities are mind boggling.

We arent as good as we'd like to be. Ole Miss blew the chance of a lifetime with that talent. AT a minimum they should have made Atlanta and a BCS game.

A better comparison would be their 2009 football team to our 1983 baseball team.

 

[Goat Grindin]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

dipshit.<div>
</div><div>And blew the chance of a lifetime? What the hell. They got beat up and down the field by Alabama, Auburn and MSU. Only other game they should have won was South Carolina, just like we should have beaten Auburn. So I guess 10 wins is a chance of a lifetime to you?</div><div>
</div><div>Oh, and let me add, both teams lost a dominating LT, and a dominating defensive lineman. And both saw the effects the following year. If I remember right, I think they even had some injury problems on the line. May have been last year.</div>

 

[gravedigger]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

the similarites dont do much for me.

They blew the chance of a lifetime because with the talent they had, they played like crap. Good grief man, they were beaten up and down the field bya 4-8 team. It didnt make them untalented. It made their talent unforgivably culpable. ****, they beat the **** out of Texas Tech in the cotton bowl only months before losing to SC. Sports Illustrated thought so little of them they got a cover.

Theyhad every ability to win every single game that year if they not crapped the bed. Yes, it was the chance of a lifetime to prove that the paper ******** championships they talk about from 1959 mean something. They didnt even win the western division. Had they even come in 2nd to Bama and played to their potential, they could have been in a BCS game.

THey lost a dominating LT from 2008 to 2009 and that has some 17ing meaning? For God's sake they kept Powe and SEVERAL other talented defensive players from 2008 to 2009. That is in addition to the offense that was the basis for the preseason picks.

We lost the CORE of our defense. We lost a defensive coordinator that at the very least had a positive effect. We lost the CORE of our offensive line. We never had a game changing WR to begin with like they possesed in 2009.

Hell the similarities are just token. The differences are enormous.

 

[Goat Grindin]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

I still think their team from '08 was only about 7 points better than our team in '10.<div>
</div><div>Ole Miss 31-30 over the eventual national champs. +1</div><div>MSU 14-17 over the eventual national champs. +3.</div><div>
</div><div>I'll give them another +3 points for beating Florida in the swamp.</div><div>
</div><div>The trends are identical. Hopefully, so is the ending except for the Egg Bowl beatdown.</div>

 

[BillFremp]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

gravedigger wrote:

THey lost a dominating LT from 2008 to 2009 and that has some 17ing meaning? For God's sake they kept Powe and SEVERAL other talented defensive players from 2008 to 2009. That is in addition to the offense that was the basis for the preseason picks.

We lost the CORE of our defense. We lost a defensive coordinator that at the very least had a positive effect. We lost the CORE of our offensive line. We never had a game changing WR to begin with like they possesed in 2009.

Hell the similarities are just token. The differences are enormous.

But I think you're trying to say that you lost more from 10 to 11 than we lost from 08 to 09? You realize we lost a first round DT who was easily the best player on our team in 08, too, right? I think its safe to say Peria Jerry was the "CORE" of our defense, as you are suggesting you lost. Also, I'm not sure if you're trying to say Shay Hodge was a gamechanging WR, but if you are, that's a bit of a stretch. He was a great WR for us, sure, but definitely never changed any games.<div>
</div><div>It's probably fair to point out, too, that in that "bed shitting" of an 09 season, we won 9 games and the Cotton Bowl. Do you see your season ending like that?

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[tcreb]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

We were 3-2 headed into the UAB game, while you are at 2-3.

We won 5 of the next 6 before losing to you all. That was the year I accused Nutt of hiding McCluster till the Arkansas game. We played them right after UAB. If you look at his carries that year it's hard to think otherwise. I remember making a post about it on Nafoom at the time.

Both of our offenses dropped off from one year to the next (I know you all have a lot of games remaining, so it's really too soon to tell where you will end up). Even with some key losses, our defense actually was better the second year, while yours doesn't appear to be as good.

I differ on the schedules being that much different. OOC we both played Memphis both years. You all had Alcorn State, Houston and UAB last year. We had Wake Forest, Samford and La. Monroe in '08. This year you have La. Tech, UAB and Tenn-Martin. In '09 we had SE La, UAB and N. Arizona. Not much difference there. You conference schedules combined the past two years might be a little tougher than ours were back then, but not by much.

An interesting comparison though.

 

[prettygooddawg]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

but the cycle appears as a cut off triangle...both teams struggle to the top, reach the cut off and drop quickly down the loser side and flounder along the base yet, again, to begin the long climb back. Currently, both Rebs & Dawgs sliding quickly down to the base. But programs of success as LSU, Bama, Florida..their cycles are much like therolls of asea, easy up riding along a crest, easy down, justgentle little depressions, not harsh, no-survivor dives like Rebs, Dawgs.

 

[RebelBruiser]

Hate to compare us to Ole Miss 2009, but the similarities make it worthwhile......

We were preseason No. 8 and No. 10 in the polls. We climbed to No. 4 and No. 5 by beating Memphis, taking a week off, and beating SELA while other teams lost.

We were never that good. I think we had the talent to be a Top 12-15 team that year. I was calling for 9-3 or 10-2. Alabama and LSU both had more NFL talent on their rosters than we did in 2009, so I don't see it as blowing an opportunity.

That's what many of our fans don't seem to get. Even when it appears we have some of the best talent we've had in years, there are still at least 3 or 4 SEC teams that have as much, if not significantly more talent.

And yes we did lose a good number of key defensive players. As mentioned, we lost Peria Jerry, our best DT by far. We lost Tony Fein and Ashlee Palmer, two of our better LBs. We lost our best tackler at DB, Jamarca Sanford. We also lost one of our few corners off the 2008 squad, Dustin Mouzon. I'd say our defensive losses were fairly similar.

Of course, on offense, much like your 2010 team, our 2008 team had a roughly 6 man rotation on the OL. We lost 3 of those 6, including the best of the bunch (Oher). You lost 2 starters off your OL that wasn't all that deep in 2010, including your best (Sherrod). We both lost steady fullbacks, you losing Hanrahan last year, us losing Cook off the 2008 team. We did have the loss of Mike Wallace, our best receiver. You didn't have anything comparable.

When you really look at our 2009 team, they weren't nearly that talented as people made us out to be. Saying we should've made it to Atlanta or a BCS game is laughable considering that Florida returned nearly everyone from a national title team, basically locking up one BCS slot, and Alabama was national championship good in our own division. Pre-season we thought we had an outside shot at Atlanta, but given the teams in our league, we had zero shot at Atlanta, or a BCS game no matter who our coach was.

ETA: I thought you'd be in the 8-4 range this year. That's still possible, but your offense is struggling more than I thought it would, Relf in particular. I figured your defense would take a step back, but not enough that you couldn't overcome it and win 4 league games. That's looking like a long shot now, and it's now looking more like you're on the path to 6-6, and I would expect that 6th win to come over us in an Egg Bowl that will be uglier than I expected it from both sides preseason.