Chad Morris won’t be coaching for his job Saturday in Oxford, but Ole Miss coach Matt Luke just might be doing that.
Such is the jumbled mess Arkansas will be going into when they play the Rebels at 6:30 p.m. in a game on ESPN Arkansas 95.3 in the River Valley, 96.3 in Hot Springs and 104.3 in Harrison-Mountain Home.
You can also listen to the game online here at HitThatLine.com with Arkansas GameDay kicking things off at 1:30 p.m. with John Nabors and Tommy Craft.
How bad is the mess in Oxford these days?
Well, attendance from students was so bad they created a special experience in the new north end zone there … and, reportedly, the fire marshal refused to sign off on it when one of the legs of the deck fell off during inspection.
Now they will have funeral home tents for the students to stand under before they leave early, headed downtown for the ritual parties that start on Friday night and last to the wee hours of Sunday morning.
As far as the football team, a lot of people are discounting Ole Miss because they lost to Memphis last week. Historically, that means absolutely nothing.
When the Rebels were winning 10 games with first Eli Manning, then Chad Kelly at quarterback … they lost to Memphis. Yes, in 2015, Ole Miss lost to the Tigers and Arkansas, but nobody else.
Now an Arkansas team that put up just 20 points on Portland State has people thinking that’s the key to a matchup for what most consider the cellar in the SEC West.
I don’t think so.
The key to this game is going to be the Razorbacks’ defense against an Ole Miss offense that struggled mightily in the opener, primarily because redshirt freshman quarterback Matt Corrall kept forgetting to send guys in motion, according to some down in Oxford.
Dwell on that a minute. The starting quarterback, in his second year in the program, forgot to send folks in motion … in an offense that depends on that.
No, offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez didn’t forget how to coach, but apparently the quarterback forgot what to do.
The other issue with the Rebels’ offense is the thin offensive line.
What I’ve heard is Ole Miss is going to try and get freshman running back Jerrion Ealy, a top three recruit by ESPN last year, out on the edge as often as possible.
Reportedly, they don’t feel confident they can pound it up inside against the Hogs and want to keep the interior defensive line chasing him all evening.
If they can do that, then depth in the defensive line behind McTelvin Agim and T.J. Smith is going to put the spotlight on Isaiah Nichols and Jonathan Marshall, who may be called on early and often.
The guess here is Ole Miss has bigger problems.
Arkansas 28, Ole Miss 10
We do have some fairly easy picks this week and Peter Morgan has already started the season a game back. Okay, I gave him a shot in the opening week.
Easy Pickings
Missouri (14.5) over West Virginia, South Carolina over Charleston, Mississippi State (17.5) over Southern Mississippi, Alabama (55.5) over New Mexico State, Georgia (48.5) over Murray State, Florida (44.5) over Tennessee-Martin, Auburn (22) over Tulane and Kentucky (15) over Eastern Michigan.
I may quit this if we have some more stunners like last week.
Vanderbilt at Purdue (7)
Normally I wouldn’t go against an SEC team, even on the road against a Big 10 middle-of-the-road team, but it is Vandy and I’m not ready to start ringing that bell they have. While Derek Mason is a good coach, he’s still at Vandy and you are what you are.
Purdue 31, Vanderbilt 24
Texas A&M at Clemson (17)
I almost put this one in the Easy Pickings, but decided to go ahead and talk about it a little. I’m not buying into the Aggies’ hype machine as I put Jimbo Fisher in a dead heat with Gus Malzahn as the most over-rated college coaches … in other words, they do less with more. The Aggies just are, well, the Aggies and they’ll find a way to screw up any success.
Clemson 42, Texas A&M 17
Brigham Young at Tennessee (3.5)
The Vols embarrassed everything associated with the team for generations in a loss to Georgia State last Saturday. Even Smokey tried to hide. They’ll rebound this week against the Fightin’ Mormons, who aren’t doing a whole lot of battling these days. It still may not be pretty.
Tennessee 28, BYI 24
LSU (6.5) at Texas
The Tigers roll into Austin and it’s a good bet the Longhorns’ faithful will be out in rare force with new yell leader Matthew McConaughey now a full-blown professor. Oh, wait, that’s A&M that has yell leaders, but I’m too lazy to change it and don’t really care. LSU will win this game and we won’t understand a thing Ed Orgeron says later, but they have more players than the Longhorns.
LSU 31, Texas 14
