Wednesday SEC Commentary

Class

What I would like to write about today is CLASS. While watching an unbelievable game between Ole Miss and Florida this weekend, I had the pleasure of seeing Class epitomized. I don’t think there is anyone in this country who can argue with me when I say that Florida head coach Urban Meyer is a real class act. He certainly was upset at the end of the game, but in his press conference he gave credit to the Ole Miss team for playing hard. He said he didn’t want to take nothing away from the team they were playing. I would expect any other coach in the nation to harp on the turnovers, or the busted coverage’s, but not Meyer. He is truly an ambassador for the SEC and he is only getting started at what he will accomplish at the University of Florida.

A True Fan

Being an Ole Miss fan, I was one of the happiest people in the country when we hired Houston Nutt at the end of the ’07 season. I had witnessed what he had accomplished at Arkansas and I knew he would be able to recruit. Until this weekend though I just figured he was a head coach who would do his best for you because it was his job. For this opinion I owe him an apology. This past weekend I may have imagined it, but I swear I seen tears when he witnessed the team he coached defeat a top 5 opponent. No matter if there were tears or not, anyone could see how happy he was. I got the feeling though that the happiness wasn’t for himself. It was for his kids, the team that he believed in before they believed in themselves. I now know that coach Nutt is an Ole Miss fan, not just the head coach. I am looking forward to the rest of this season.

Once again, CLASS is the word that comes to mind when thinking of coaches like Houston Nutt, and Urban Meyer. I know I may be a little on the bias side when talking about Houston Nutt, but that is why I write this blog. I can be biased and call them like I see them.

This past weekend, the stop of Tim Tebow on 4th and 1 at the end of the game between Florida and Ole Miss is nominated for the Pontiac Game Changing Performance Award. I encourage all Ole Miss Fans to go and vote for this play. Here is the link to go do so:
http://promo.espn.go.com/espn/contests/pontiacgcp/

The nature of being in the SEC is that having to play each other, it is almost impossible to keep so many of our teams in the top 10. With Ole Miss upsetting Florida and Alabama defeating Georgia, that allowed the Tide to catapult into the #2 spot in the AP poll. LSU moved into the #3 spot. In all I think the poll is about as good as we could expect at this point. Alabama received 21 first place votes as well, so somebody is noticing. And if you look at the top 25 as a whole, wow! 6 of our squads are in the poll. No other conference at this moment can boast of 50% representation. I am not sure what is up with the USA Today poll, they have LSU in the #2 position, I can handle that but Alabama is in the #4 position behind a #3 Missouri. I don’t understand how this happens since Alabama received 2 first place votes, LSU received 1 first place vote, but here is what I don’t understand. Missouri didn’t receive any first place votes, yet they are ranked higher than Alabama. Maybe someone else can explain it to me.

Finally, one other high note. The Ole Miss Rebels will grace the cover of Sports Illustrated. This issue features a great picture of DE Greg Hardy going after Tim Tebow of the Gators. The only thing I hope is that the SI jinx doesn't get us. We will need to play with great intensity against the Gamecocks this next weekend. Superstitions are part of any sport. We as sports fans MUST respect them. I just hope we can avoid the SI Jinx.

Come back on Friday as I will run down the weekends match ups in the SEC and give my predictions, maybe every now and then I will put a pick or two out of the conference, if it has direct implications to the SEC.