A Win Is A Win

It was not pretty, but we got it done. Ole Miss defeated Memphis State tonight 10-6, in a game that was very tense. First year head coach Ed Orgeron, who looked really nervous at times, picked up his first win as a head collegiate football coach. Neither team had the game locked up as a win for the entire game.

Thoughts on Memphis:

Tried too much to not focus on De'Angelo Williams, and swing the game a different way by running a majority of plays, in which De'Angelo was not a real factor.

Made a bad play call on their last possession by throwing into a crowd instead of giving it to one of the best running backs in the nation.

Are an o.k. team will be lucky if make it to a bowl, but then again they are in Conference USA.

Thoughts on the Rebels:

We have a ways to go.

Defense looked real good at some times, especially in the second half. Gary Pack had an excellent game as well as Patrick Willis. The secondary is the same old secondary I have watched Ole Miss play for many years, which is bad thing. The D-Line played well but I honestly expected more. I feel like McKinley Boykin did not play as much as he should, not sure if there was some health problems there or not. Pack is my Defensive Player of the Game, although it was a toss up between a couple of players.

The offense is still not in groove. If Spurlock was on key, the receivers were off key and vice versa. Espy and Hill missed several key passes that hit them square in the hands. Spurlock is definitely the QB for now. It is my believe the staff had pre-determined to play Robert Lane at least two series in the game, so that is the reason he came in. The running game is miserable, with the exception of several sweeps to Mico McSwain. Jamal Pittman did not impress me. A big reason he did not look good is because of the offensive line. The O-Line has some major problems, and some holes that need to be filled extremely fast. I will give the Offensive Player of the game to Michael Spurlock, who scored the only touchdown of the night.

Other Thoughts

THE KICKING GAME IS ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE. No one can make a field goal, nor can we punt. The only thing we can do is kickoff.

We definitely have a problem with clock management, several times tonight we had delay of games that should be uncalled for.

One of the most shocking moments of the night came at half time when the Ole Miss team did not come back on the field until the clock had expired. The Rebels preceded to get a delay of game penalty. I guess Coach O was giving a pretty fired up speech at half time.

Thumbs up to half time adjustments the new coaching staff made at half time. I believe they tweaked a few things that helped us come away with a win.

For the game, I am not disappointed. I feel like we played o.k. Yes we made mistakes, but that has to be expected in the first game, especially with a new coaching staff. It is satisfying to know, we have two weeks off until our next game. It is two weeks we really need to watch film and correct mistakes. Overall, a good win that the Ole Miss family really needed.