LITTLE ROCK — The 14th and last in a series previewing SEC football teams
South Carolina Coach Steve Spurrier was asked about having an open date before playing Arkansas this season, but he turned the answer into an Ole Miss zinger.
“You think I make the schedule?” Spurrier told a room full of reporters at SEC media days. “If I made the schedule, Georgia would be playing LSU and we’d be playing Ole Miss.”
Spurrier drew big laughs, but it wasn’t amusing to first-year Ole Miss Coach Hugh Freeze, who spoke to the media two days later and was asked about Spurrier’s comment.
“I guess my thought would be, in 2013 they’re on our schedule,” Freeze said of Spurrier and the Gamecocks. “We’ll circle that date and maybe change his perspective about what he thinks about Ole Miss football.”
The Rebels don’t need South Carolina on their 2012 schedule considering they’re already facing nine teams that played in bowls last season - including a nonconference match up with Texas. It also figures to take Freeze some time to rebuild a program that went a combined 6-16 overall the previous two seasons with a 1-15 SEC record.
After it was announced with three games left in 2011 that Houston Nutt would be fired as the Rebels’ coach at the end of what turned into a 2-10 season, the Rebels lost to Louisiana Tech, LSU and Mississippi State by a combined 110-13 margin.
“I don’t think anything could be harder than that,” sophomore receiver Donte Moncrief said.
The Rebels carry a 14-game SEC losing streak into the season, which prompted Spurrier’s joke at their expense.
“It motivates you in way, but it’s also our fault, because we’re the ones that were losing and not taking care of business,” junior linebacker Mike Marry said. “It’s really our job to earn back respect from all the other SEC teams.
“We’ve got to give them a reason to respect us right now.Once we get this thing turned around, then we’ll see what they have to say about us.”
Freeze, 42, led a big turnaround in his one season as Arkansas State’s coach last year, when the Red Wolves won the Sun Belt Conference championship and were 10-2 before his hiring at Ole Miss. He began his coaching career at Memphis Briarcrest High School, then was an Ole Miss assistant in 2006-2007 before becoming Lambuth College’s head coach and then serving as offensive coordinator at San Jose State and ASU.
“It’s humbling to be here,” Freeze said. “My track is not the normal track to get to this point. I recognize that, I’m a realist.”
Freeze said he’s also realistic regarding expectations for the Rebels this season. They’re picked to finish seventh in the SEC West.
“Our program is in a spot that none of us are happy with,” Freeze said. “I get that. I’m very, very anxious about starting the process and the journey to get us out of being where we are to back to where it’s been in years past.”
Freeze, whose Rebels open the season against Central Arkansas on Sept. 1, said he’s excited about having a core group of players “to lead us out of this wilderness, so to speak,” and back into contention for an SEC title. The Rebels aren’t that far removed from success, going 9-4 with Cotton Bowl victories in 2008 and 2009 during Nutt’s first two seasons as coach.
“The last four years, Ole Miss has gone 2-2 with LSU and Arkansas,” Freeze said. “People tend to forget that real quick.
“How did it get from there to where we are today? ... I wasn’t there, don’t know the reasons why, but there was a lack of personal accountability and chemistry.”
Junior safety Charles Sawyer said the Rebels didn’t give up last season, but that practicing and playing well became increasingly more difficult as the losses mounted, especially after Nutt’s firing was announced.
“I know it was hard on the coaches, because they were saying to do this or do that over and over and over again, and the players weren’t responding,” Sawyer said. “But in the spring, players actually wanted to practice.
“It wasn’t like, ‘I’ve got to go to work,’ it was more like, ‘I want to go to work.’ It was like practice was too short, because you wanted to be there.”
Sawyer said the positive attitude will carry over to fall camp and that players are ready for Freeze to lead them out of the wilderness and back to SEC civilization.
“Slowly but surely, I feel like Coach Freeze is in front, and we’re all walking behind him,” Sawyer said. “We’re not out of the woods yet, but we can hear some cars out there. We know we’re near the road we need to be on.”
About the Rebels
LAST YEAR 2-10, 0-8 SEC West RETURNING STARTERS Offense 7, Defense 6, Specialists 2 SURE THING Linebacker UNSURE THINGS Quarterback, receivers, defensive line OFFENSIVE MVP Running back Jeff Scott DEFENSIVE MVP Lineback Mike Marry
SEC TITLE SCENARIO Ole Miss needs to focus on winning an SEC game and put title hopes in the background for now.
Unfortunately for the Rebels, Kentucky - the only SEC team they’ve beaten in the conference while going 1-15 the previous two seasons - isn’t on the schedule. First-year Coach Hugh Freeze led quick turnarounds at Lambuth and Arkansas State, but he needs time and more talented players at Ole Miss to get the Rebels back in SEC contention.
Sports, Pages 15 on 07/31/2012