Peach Bowl - Ole Miss Updates

If you’ve read anything I’ve written about college football you know it is a schizophrenic mix of Ole Miss fever and football-is-the-most-stupid-sport-ever. I’m making a larger point that to be a college football fan is in fact an exercise in double-think if you have any brain at all. You’re talking about a game that lasts about four hours, but averages only 12 minutes of actual gameplay. Think about that. Plays last five second tops, between commercial break, timeout, this-play-is-under-further-review, commercial, commercial, commercial. It’s mind-numbing and stupid. I can list off at least ten more reasons why football is stupid, but let’s talk about college becoming an explicit minor league for the NFL, because at no time is that clearer than during bowl season in which every single team experiences its best players sitting out so they can be healthy for the NFL draft, and now we have the transfer portal, which opens, I’m sure for some good reason, during bowl season, so every team also has players who are leaving the team to join another one. Of course, that college football is the NFL minor leagues has been going on for many years, but at no point has it been more explicit, and I guess that has to be a good thing, as opposed to all the deals going on under the table. At least now you can see it. We decieve ourselves into believing that we are cheering for the old state U, but really it’s just big-business minor-league football. It’s a fiction, but it has its uses.

Ole Miss is experiencing it’s biggest moment in college football in program history right now. Never has the team been more publicized and more hyped. I want to call attention to it and document it. It is all because of Lane Kiffin, who I have always disliked because his teams don’t play with heart, but he is a big-time Hollywood coach, and there’s just no doubt about it. The stars have aligned for the Ole Miss Rebels as Kiffin is able to attract the top-tier players that Ole Miss has never had a shot at ever before. Kiffin has a buzz around the program, and these players are tranferring into the program because next year looks to be the year for Ole Miss, the year that they can make a hard run at a conference championship and a playoff appearance. Pretty much everybody from this year’s squad is returning, notably Jaxson Dart, Quinshon Judkins, and the receiever corps. Add to it the number one player in the transfer portal, a defensive lineman from Texas A&M, and a host of other top-notch players, and next year’s Ole Miss squad looks every bit like a powerhouse. Again, this is the first time in program history that Ole Miss has had this kind of exposure. If Kiffin can solidify the offensive line, and I believe he can, it could be a singularly special season for Ole Miss in 2024, and I have already circled Nov. 9 on my calendar because that’s when the Georgia Bulldogs visit Oxford, and I’m probably going to attend that game because I would love nothing more than to see Ole Miss kick the living dogshit out of Georgia, and I think it just might.

If Ole Miss defeats Penn State this Saturday in the Peach Bowl, look for the Rebels to enter the preseason ranked in the top five. I think this is a winnable game for Ole Miss, but it is going to have to show some damned heart, and Kiffin needs to prove me wrong about the heart thing. They need to go out there and play like they want to win this first-ever meeting against the child-rape team from Pennsylvania. They need to punish this team. That’s what needs to happen.