Alabama Football: 2019 season week five preview Ole Miss

Alabama football will welcome an offensively and defensively revamped Ole Miss Rebels to Tuscaloosa the last Saturday in September.

Alabama football fans take note of the heading above. Until now in sentence two, we did not poke fun at the team for whom its nickname is a running joke throughout the SEC. Is Ole Miss the Rebels, the Black Bears or the Landsharks? Apparently, it is all three, qualifying as the oddest branding in college football.

Or maybe the branding is a clever ruse to deflect attention away from the team’s nearly perpetual mediocrity. The doubt over the team’s identity is ironic. Rest assured, the most famous citizen of Oxford, MS (more famous than Archie Manning), William Faulkner never struggled to define his identity. A masterful writer of world-renown, Faulkner reportedly never gave a damn what anyone else thought of his work.

Not since the legendary Johnny Vaught has Ole Miss had anything resembling such backbone.

In 114 seasons of football, Ole Miss has won 10 games only seven times. And never more than 10 in a season. Between 1955 and 1962 Vaught led Ole Miss (they were unabashedly Rebels back then) to four of those seven 10-win seasons.

Even before Vaught stepped down after the 1970 season, Ole Miss had grown accustomed to mediocrity. In 2012, the Reverend Hugh Freeze was brought in to be the savior of Ole Miss football.

Like any good snake-oil salesman, the Reverend talked a good game. When Ole Miss took down the Alabama Crimson Tide in back-to-back seasons in 2014 and 2015, some Ole Miss followers thought they had experienced the Second Coming. Freeze turned out to possess considerably less talent and way more human frailty than had been imagined.

An Ole Miss program, which apparently had no one actually in charge, tumbled suddenly. When the NCAA finished with the school, 28 victories, over a seven-season period were taken away. Many Alabama football fans, along with fans of other schools, believed the NCAA punished Ole Miss too lightly.

In fairness to current Ole Miss head coach, Matt Luke, none of the above matters now. Ole Miss has again assumed its customary mediocrity and Luke has the massive task of escaping it. Last season in Oxford, Alabama football demolished Ole Miss 62-7.

What has changed for Ole Miss in 2019? The biggest change is two former head coaches, Rich Rodriquez and Mike McIntyre are the offensive and defensive coordinators. It is fair to ask if one or both are potential head-coaches-in-waiting for a probable dismissal of Matt Luke. Ole Miss is 11-13 in two seasons under Luke. To hang on for a fourth season, he probably needs six wins in 2019.

It will not be easy. Last season Ole Miss had arguably the worst defense in the SEC. Mike McIntyre enters with nine returning starters and a new 3-4 scheme. The 2019 defense could be better and still be pretty bad.

Rodriquez brings legitimate offensive sizzle if Ole Miss has the personnel to deliver it. Unproven gunslinger, Matt Corral could be an effective trigger man. But the inexperienced QB will not be throwing to D.K. Metcalf, A.J. Brown and DaMarcus Lodge.

Ole Miss will have a tandem of two quality running backs now that former 5-Star, Jerrion Ealy was not chosen in the MLB Draft. Ealy and Scottie Phillips could pack a solid punch if the offensive line can open enough holes. That too could be a problem, since Ole Miss must replace its starting left tackle, left guard and center.

Rodriquez will attempt to spread out defenses and confuse the opponent as frequently as possible. He can probably gin up some points and maybe Mcintyre’s defense will not be the sieve Ole Miss was last season. None of which will stop Ole Miss from again being mediocre on Sept. 28 in Tuscaloosa.

Check out the earlier Bama Hammer, 2019 season previews. Week 1 Duke Preview; Week 2 New Mexico State; Week 3 South Carolina and Week 4 Southern Miss.