Playing at Fayetteville Pregame Mind Rot

The Ole Miss versus Arkansas series has some good history. Arkansas holds a 37-30 advantage, but I think a couple of those are actually vacated wins; this series is close. Going back to the Ole Miss win at Oxford in 2019, the home team has held serve. Ole Miss is going to have to steal one if it hopes to remain a suitor to the playoff. A victory sets up a grand home tilt with Georgia.

The running game, and guess the play of the offensive line by extension, has been the inconsistent question mark on offense. Jaxson Dart can’t complete all these deep balls he keeps slinging around all willy-nilly. It’s insane. I keep thinking about Bentley ripping off that 50-yard scamper at LSU, and then against Oklahoma Kiffin got right back to his old antics by using an ostensibly healthy Robert Parrish, so you tell me. Parrish was fine. He’s great, actually. Ole Miss just needs to find itself in more third-and-two situations compared to third-and-eight situations, so if that needs to be those quick arials to a streaking wideout, or those snappy handoffs to a determined halfback. I don’t care which, but that short game needs to get greased up. If Ole Miss can find its ground game early on at Arkansas, it can win a game like this going away, something like 38-14. If it can’t, Dart can help in two ways. He can get the ground game geared up himself, or he can be ultra-sharp with his precision close-quarters passing. I think Dart hasn’t looked the part a lot of Ole Miss fans had believed they’d see from him this season, and I’d certainly count myself among them. I remember talking to my friend Chris about Dart before the season launched, and I asked him if he thought Dart was the best ever, and he said that he believed he very well could be. For sure, Dart is going to end up breaking just about every Ole Miss record that matters when it is all said and done this season, assuming he plays all the rest of the games. Now would be the time to start playing like that Dart people saw glimpses of last season, is what I’m saying. That running game has got to get oiled up, is what I’m saying.

Speaking of insane behavior, is it just me, or do you want your running backs all feeling like they’re getting to lather up at the goal line? I know if I was a running back I’d find it objectionable if those choice goal line carries were going to some lumbering defensive end. That’s all I want to say about it, but it does raise the question, and I wonder if that’s what got Bentley in the doghouse in the first place, because he called bullshit on Pegues getting those touchdown carries. Obviously, I am speculating. I thought putting in the big homegrown product Pegues was sort of fun early on in the season, but I guess I feel a bit weirded out about it here in the second hald of the season. I mean, come on. Let the running backs get those scrappy touchdowns, coach. Let’s play some real football here. I don’t know. Am I being weird? Touchdowns are touchdowns, right? I’m just saying give the opportunities to the kids who’ve earned those carries. I think it’s actually bizarre to continue to run Pegues on the goal line unless its using him as a decoy.

Last thing: I noticed that LSU took the ball first, and that’s remarkable because Ole Miss always takes the ball first if it wins the coin toss, while most teams defer to the second half. That means that for most football games it plays, Ole Miss starts the game on offense. That was not the case with LSU, which won the toss and elected to go on offense to start the game. I’m just making a note of it, so you can do with that whatever you’d like.