Ole Miss – Hugh Freeze – ‘No Mo’
The last three months of 2016 and all of 2017 have been a nightmare for Ole Miss football. The September 5 game against FSU was a foreshadowing of what would come.
Against FSU, Ole Miss led 21-3 with 9:42 to go in the second quarter. Ole Miss fans were jubilant. For the rest of the game, Ole Miss scored 13 points while the Noles poured on 42. It was a classic football collapse.
In Oxford, Ole Miss fans whistled in the dark warding off fears of the NCAA boogeyman. Limping along with only one more loss to Alabama, Ole Miss got to October 15 with only two losses.
Then it got ugly, really ugly. Thanks to Georgia Southern and a slumping Texas A&M, Ole Miss only lost five of its last seven games. The last loss was an embarrassing Egg Bowl defeat to Mississippi State in Oxford.
What made the losing season more painful for Ole Miss faithful was fear of a greater defeat imposed by the NCAA. How bad does it look for Ole Miss? We will not rehash it now. Bama Hammer has already written about it twice, How to describe the trouble Ole Miss is in? and Ole Miss really does not want to pay the Fiddler.
Moving past the NCAA gloom and doom, Ole Miss will play football in 2017. Hugh Freeze will still be the head coach, though how long is in doubt. The Rebels/Black Bears have a dynamic young quarterback, Shea Patterson who some compare to Johnny Manziel.
How long can Ole Miss football keep whistling in the dark until the football team succumbs to despair? Ole Miss fans think 2017 can be a good year on the field. After that, no one knows. Any football success is almost assuredly false momentum.
Ole Miss may have to live with ‘No Mo’ for a long time.