Gutcheck!!!

It's the morning after Ole Miss was proved to be out of place in the discussion of the best teams in college football. I hope that this is one of those scenarios where, when I look back to this post I will laugh at how wrong I was... However, I doubt that will be the case. Rooster 16 Ole Miss 10.

Where to begin? There are no excuses, none! Ole Miss was out-performed in every aspect of the game. Stephen Garcia(half-injured) looked more like a heisman candidate than Jevan Snead. Hell, Nathan Stanley carrying a clipboard on the sidelines looked more like a heisman candidate than Snead did. I saw Jevan make 1(yes, count 'em) decent pass last night and really it was even kind of a lucky throw. Personally, I'm sick of hearing about how everyone had the flu and missed practice, etc.. That was the week after Memphis(bye week,) so everyone should be 100% healthy from that epidemic. Snead deserves a ton of criticism for this loss, but its not totally his fault. I hope that he hasn't made any big plans to get drafted next April, his draft stock took a major hit last night.

Next subject... Let it be known that after last night, I will admit that the most important part of anyone's football team is their Offensive line. To be more specific, the left tackle. Drop back after drop back last night, you could see the pocket begin to collapse over on Bradley Sowell's side of the line... Not every time, but most often. Where is the Massie kid at? Does he not "grasp" the offense? At this point, I'd rather stick him in there as a freshman and let him learn on the fly. Or maybe, he just hasn't lived up to the hype of being as highly touted as a recruit as he was... Which is one way he should fit in perfectly at Ole Miss. Our O-line last night didn't bother doing a halfway decent job at run-blocking either. This of course was covered up a bit by the way McCluster ran around the SC defense in the 4th. He made our rushing stats look a little bit better. Now, that brings me right into my next area...

Dexter McCluster. I have a question for the coaching staff. Why can we not get Dexter the ball at least 25 times a game? Do you guys not see that as being very important? I don't want to hear that he's only 170 pounds, or its 5'8" or whatever... Play him until he can no longer physically be on the field anymore. He(and not Snead) is basically our whole offense. If you let him burn a team, then other teams will key on him and will open up other options for our offense... It seems so simple, right?

Ok, now its time for me to complain a little bit. I appreciate the deal between the SEC and ESPN to basically broadcast every SEC game. However, I HATE ESPN!!!!! I've hated them for a while, but after their total disrespect in every aspect of broadcasting last night, I wish I could say that I will never watch their programming anymore. Their biased reporting in the sport of baseball is why I've developed a hatred for them, but thats a whole different story. Mark May = Trev Alberts.

I'm not going to bash our defense too bad. They got put in a few tight spots and performed admirably in those spots. Really, the only complaint I have was Nix allowing himself to get beaten by dialing up too many blitzes early in the game. Lockett, Tillman, Powe, and Hardy all played well, they get plenty of pressure on the opposing QB by themselves... Meaning we don't need to blitz very often and leave our secondary to man coverage. That is our weak link. Vaughn and Green both deserved to be benched last night, but we don't have anyone else we can run out there. I'm hoping that we may actually start to recruit defensive secondary players, instead of moving WR's to CB's.

The "koolaid." Yup, I drank it. I believe that we have a good football team, but I let hype get in the way of my better judgement. I truly had it tempered for a while, but the exaulted expectations I heard from everyone got me to believing. That was my mistake. In the end it doesn't matter what anyone says about us, we are still Ole Miss. Overblown expectations always lead to disappointment and thats something that our head coach knows far too much about.

Coaching disappointment... Not much to say here. Nix performed decently, NUTT and AUSTIN didn't, simple as that. Terrible play calling and not focusing on our strengths lead to our ultimate demise.

And finally(I had to cut this down in length, I could really get long-winded here.) Mississippi State fans... Can I ask you a question? Why do you care so much what Ole Miss does? I following college football closely every week, but never do I search to find out how the Bulldogs are doing. I could care less actually. We play each other every year at the end of the season. I will always believe that Mississippi State would rather see Ole Miss lose a game than watch State win one. Why does it matter so much where Ole Miss is ranked or what the Rebel fans are saying about their team? Worry about what Mullen is doing and Lee, etc. Talk your smack the week before the Egg Bowl... You can rejoice that Ole Miss lost last night and you can rejoice that yet another team for Mississippi failed to live up to their expectations, and everytime that happens it gets a little bit harder for us to get into the national spotlight... And yeah, that affect you too Bulldogs. Thats not just in football either. The nation hates to spotlight a team from Mississippi.

So, in closing... yeah, Ole Miss lost and yeah there are actually folks out there still delirious enough to claim that, "oh, its just one loss." Nope, its just a loss to South Carolina and if we play that way against Alabama, Auburn, LSU, and Arkansas, we will end up with 5 defeats. Suffice it to say that we haven't looked particularly sharp in any game this season. BCS dreams may end up in Independence Bowl nightmares, lets stop getting the cart before the horse.

The Mid-Summer Classic!?!?

We have reached yet another midpoint of a major league baseball season. Tonight, is Major League Baseball's Allstar Game. I can remember growing up and really looking forward to watch all of my favorite players competing against each other in one BIG game. However, it is not nearly important to me as it used to be. That has got me wondering why I feel this way??? I still love baseball and I devote a certain amount of my life to it every year... Yet, somehow I just don't get the spark that I used to. Well, ok, maybe the actual Allstar Game itself, I might be a little hopped up for... The other festivities have lost their appeal. As a life-long Cubs fan, I was trying to make myself feel better last night while watching the Home-Run Derby by thinking that the reason I wasn't enjoying it was due to the fact that is was being held in St. Louis. However, that is sadly not true. The Home-Run Derby just simply lack its flare... I was bored!!! Baseball and boring is never supposed to find themselves in the same sentence as it pertains to me. I do not believe that I am the only one who feels this way.

Baseball and Bud Selig needs to do something to liven up the whole proceedings. The players involved in the HR Derby were just not appealing, great ball-players, but boring. Last year, all the hoopla over Josh Hamilton and his return to baseball after battling a drug addiction raised the appeal of the Derby for me. The key thing about last years Derby is that Hamilton delivered! The show he put on in Yankee Stadium was amazing and fitting since that was the last year it was open. I was praying when they interviewed him last night about how he felt watching it from the "sidelines" that he might bounce up and grab a bat and take some hacks. He mentioned that it was tough for him to sit there and watch it. As soon as Selig heard this, he should've ushered Hamilton up to the dish with a bat in his hand. That would have made for great tv and truth be told he probably would have won. Sadly, we were left to watch Brandon Inge not get anywhere near the fence, Albert Pujols(hometown favorite) not sniff the finals in St Louis, Adrian Gonzalez hit a couple out, and so forth and so on.... Nelson Cruz vs Prince Fielder in the finals??? I think both are great in their own right, but not a lot of tv value there... Neither are what I would call "blessed with great personalities." I was truly so bored that I didn't actually watch the whole Derby. Its sad that I was mildly more entertained by the Legends/Celebrities Softball game. Although, the Mike and Mike angle is getting a little tired. Nice to see Bobby Knight last night in the game.

So, let me offer some solutions instead of continuously complaining.

1. Force guys who "decide they don't wanna mess up their swing" actually take part in the Derby. I get so tired of hearing that every year... Its the same in comparison to why Lebron James doesn't play in the Slam Dunk Contest... Get over yourself and take part in it. It takes place once a season and fans want to see it. If you have a swing that has carried you to the majors, you won't "forget" how to do it.

2. Get a couple of pitchers involved. Yeah, thats right!!! Ask a Carlos Zambrano or a Micah Owings to get in on the action. How much smack talk could be had if one of those guys actually made it to the final, yet possibly win it.

3. Ok, if the pitcher angle doesn't suit you... Ask a couple of guys who have recently hung it up to dust off the bat and swing for the fences. I know its sensitive right now with the most two intriguing guys being suspected steriod users... However, ask Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa to see how they do off of the PEDs. Of course, thats assuming that they have stopped taking them.

4. This idea is a little more far-fetched... Ask a couple of guys from another sport to try to smack a couple of bombs. Maybe, a couple fo guys who have some baseball backgrounds. I'm sure somewhere there is an NFL player that think, "eh, I could hit more homeruns than those guys." Well, put up or shut up.

Ok, now aside from my suggestions on how to improve the Derby... I think they need to re-do this whole, "this game counts nonsense," it shouldn't. The NL has sucked so bad for the last few years in this game that its almost an automatic homefield advantage for whatever AL team makes the World Series. I know they are looking to get the players to take it more seriously, but c'mon this should have nothing to do with homefield advantage. If players continuously turn down the honor after the fans have voted them in, then maybe the fans will eventually stop voting for them. Or take fan voting away in general and have the players/coaches select who should be allstars.

Anywho, I will tune in tonight for the showdown. I feel like the NL has their best shot at winning in quite sometime. Great young pitching that should be enough to snap this losing streak. Maybe they will, maybe they won't, but rest assured for me... I can't wait til Thursday when the games that really count, start back up.

PS: This is a first entry. I hope I will stick with this, if for nothing else than to hear myself talk, er.. watch myself type, I dunno. I doubt I will do it daily, but for the most part it will be sports related and I will be pissed off about something. Maybe you, yeah thats right you, will learn something or enjoy the read. I'm not going to proofread these things too much, so try to see beyond my grammar mistakes and sentence structure errors. If there is a problem big enough to email me about, then please feel free. Otherwise, don't be a douchebag and start something. You won't win, I assure you that... ;)

Good day.