2015 Common Opponents Preview: Ole Miss

As we grow closer and closer to the 2015 football season it’s time to start looking at the schedule. There are seven teams on the Tide’s schedule that they faced in 2014, thus creating our common opponent breakdowns. The seven teams that the Tide will play again this year are the same teams we’ll see every year for the foreseeable future; Ole Miss, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Tennessee, LSU, Mississippi State and the barn. The other 5 teams that Alabama plays this year are Wisconsin, Middle Tennessee State, Louisiana Monroe (seriously, who thought this was a good idea?), Georgia and Charleston Southern. From the East, Alabama drops Florida and picks up Georgia, and the main out of conference game this year will be Wisconsin instead of West Virginia.

The first common opponent Alabama will have in 2015 is the Ole Miss Rebels; which happens to be the only team the Crimson Tide lost to in the regular season last year. So basically what I’m getting at is our first shot at revenge comes early!

2014 Recap:

Thanks a lot Ole Miss.
Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

As I mentioned earlier Ole Miss delivered Alabama their only loss of the 2014 regular season; the game was in Oxford and Ole Miss won 23-17. This was a terrible game in many ways as it was responsible for Kenyan Drake being lost for the season and the Katy Perry fiasco. This was Ole Miss’s biggest game in a long time and they even hosted ESPN’s College Gameday for the first time. Kind of sad if you ask me that a week 5 regular season game can be one of the biggest in your program’s history, but keep in mind we’re talking about Ole Miss here.

(Dr.) Bo Wallace pulled a Stephen Garcia and by that I mean Alabama let a completely average quarterback look like Tom Brady. We are good for exactly one of these a season. Ole Miss got out to a 3-0 lead then Alabama scored 14 unanswered as Cyrus Jones returned a fumble for a TD right before the half and no, there was most definitely, 100% no facemask on that play. Alabama actually took a 17-10 lead into the fourth quarter and then proceeded to forget how to adequately football. Ole Miss scored the tying TD with 5:29 left in the game; then Christion Jones fumbled the kick and Ole Miss scored the go ahead TD a couple of minutes later.

Blake Sims tried to get the Tide downfield to score the game winner but threw an interception in the end zone with about 30 seconds left. Ole Miss then did what every other program that beats Alabama does and rushed the field; further confirming what we all know, that Alabama is definitely superior to all programs (especially those that rush the field). Apparently the parties were legendary but keep in mind; real programs do the celebrating in January, not October.

2015 Look Ahead:

The Ole Miss Rebels will visit Tuscaloosa this year on Saturday September 19^th and the game is currently scheduled for an 8:15 central kick on ESPN (I could not be more excited for this!). Getting the Hotty Totty Rebel Black Bears and the Crimson Tide fan bases together for an extremely late kick is always an awesome idea and I can’t see where anything could possibly go wrong.

Key Losses/Returnees for Ole Miss:

Nick Saban and Hugh Freeze will meet again in Tuscaloosa on Saturday September 19th.
Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

Ole Miss does lose some talent, but a whole lot of it is sticking around as well; thanks in large part to an extremely sketchy 2013 recruiting class. The aforementioned Bo Wallace is gone, as are key defensive guys DT Shackelford, Senquez Golson and Cody Prewitt. The Rebels do return a lot of guys in that 2013 class though including Laquon Treadwell, Robert Nkemdiche and most likely Laremy Tunsil. I say most likely because Tunsil was involved in some off the field step father punching this off-season.

Alabama has a game against Wisconsin and Middle Tennessee State to get ready while Ole Miss continues their timeless tradition of pathetic non-conference scheduling; they’ll play UT-Martin and Fresno State prior to the Alabama game (other non conference games for Ole Miss: New Mexico State and Memphis). This squad won’t be too much of a new look for the Rebels although much like Alabama they will be replacing their quarterback.

Historically Alabama has dominated this series with a 47-10-2 record and they’ll more than likely be favored to win in 2015. Alabama is 9-1 in “revenge” games since Saban arrived in Tuscaloosa and he’ll have an early opportunity to pad that record in 2015 when the Rebels come to town.

Here’s hoping he gets to 10-1 my friends, Roll Tide!

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