A question to the more "seasoned" Rebel fans

[bigtreydaddy]

How far back can you remember with regard to Ole Miss football? If you can remember the 50s or 60s, I have to ask: what's it like to have a team you can be proud of consistently? All I've got is the Eli era and just a little bit of the Tubby era. I honestly want to know what having a team and being able to brag about it was like.

[Jimbo]

I saw Ole Miss beat Texas in the 1958 Sugar Bowl in old Tulane Stadium. For the next several years, Ole Miss was feared by the other teams in the nation. Whenever you would mention Ole Miss, you were talking about either a champion or a champion contender. These days will return at some time. I know we are improving, but we have to recruit and have coaches with ties to Ole Miss traditions. kent Austin will probably be our next coach when Nutt leaves. I think we should be undefeated right now, but with having to shake the losing tradition entrenched in Oxford and with a team that has players wanting to be heroes on every play, it will take time. Dexter has won us two games, but has lost us two games with his fumbles. These turn-overs have killed us. We have killed us, and that will slowly change. Just hang in, greatness will return and only the die hard fans will appreciate it to their core.

[rewalters]

These days will return at some time. I know we are improving, but we have to recruit and have coaches with ties to Ole Miss traditions. kent Austin will probably be our next coach when Nutt leaves. I think we should be undefeated right now, but with having to shake the losing tradition entrenched in Oxford and with a team that has players wanting to be heroes on every play, it will take time. Dexter has won us two games, but has lost us two games with his fumbles. These turn-overs have killed us. We have killed us, and that will slowly change. Just hang in, greatness will return and only the die hard fans will appreciate it to their core.

Well said!

The expectations need to be tempered just a bit. We are a team that does not know how to win, they are learning but it will be a bumpy road on the way.

The inconsistency proves that point, we have talent and we have good coaches, things will come together in time. This team has a chance to win each and every week, I don't think that could be said the last couple of years.

In a couple of years, IMO FWIW, we will be expected to win each game and it will be worth the pain.

Remember we have a team that was 3-8 last year with NO SEC wins, we have a QB that has played in six freaking games (BTW I thought he played an excellent game today), give this thing some time, it will get better, that I have no doubt!

Hotty Toddy and keep looking forward!

[rebeljim]

These days will return at some time. I know we are improving, but we have to recruit and have coaches with ties to Ole Miss traditions. kent Austin will probably be our next coach when Nutt leaves. I think we should be undefeated right now, but with having to shake the losing tradition entrenched in Oxford and with a team that has players wanting to be heroes on every play, it will take time. Dexter has won us two games, but has lost us two games with his fumbles. These turn-overs have killed us. We have killed us, and that will slowly change. Just hang in, greatness will return and only the die hard fans will appreciate it to their core.

Well said!

The expectations need to be tempered just a bit. We are a team that does not know how to win, they are learning but it will be a bumpy road on the way.

The inconsistency proves that point, we have talent and we have good coaches, things will come together in time. This team has a chance to win each and every week, I don't think that could be said the last couple of years.

In a couple of years, IMO FWIW, we will be expected to win each game and it will be worth the pain.

Remember we have a team that was 3-8 last year with NO SEC wins, we have a QB that has played in six freaking games (BTW I thought he played an excellent game today), give this thing some time, it will get better, that I have no doubt!

Hotty Toddy and keep looking forward!

I don't know where to begin with your post. Snead didn't have a good game today. He's now thrown something like 10 or 11 int's so for this year. Threw one today. Also fumbled today. Our coaches are getting out coached almost every game. Was u there today? Did u see how we quit doing anything in the 2nd half that worked in the 1rst? We'll be lucky if we win 6 and go bowling. We've now lost 2 straight league games at home. Inexcusable.

[rewalters]

These days will return at some time. I know we are improving, but we have to recruit and have coaches with ties to Ole Miss traditions. kent Austin will probably be our next coach when Nutt leaves. I think we should be undefeated right now, but with having to shake the losing tradition entrenched in Oxford and with a team that has players wanting to be heroes on every play, it will take time. Dexter has won us two games, but has lost us two games with his fumbles. These turn-overs have killed us. We have killed us, and that will slowly change. Just hang in, greatness will return and only the die hard fans will appreciate it to their core.

Well said!

The expectations need to be tempered just a bit. We are a team that does not know how to win, they are learning but it will be a bumpy road on the way.

The inconsistency proves that point, we have talent and we have good coaches, things will come together in time. This team has a chance to win each and every week, I don't think that could be said the last couple of years.

In a couple of years, IMO FWIW, we will be expected to win each game and it will be worth the pain.

Remember we have a team that was 3-8 last year with NO SEC wins, we have a QB that has played in six freaking games (BTW I thought he played an excellent game today), give this thing some time, it will get better, that I have no doubt!

Hotty Toddy and keep looking forward!

I don't know where to begin with your post. Snead didn't have a good game today. He's now thrown something like 10 or 11 int's so for this year. Threw one today. Also fumbled today. Our coaches are getting out coached almost every game. Was u there today? Did u see how we quit doing anything in the 2nd half that worked in the 1rst? We'll be lucky if we win 6 and go bowling. We've now lost 2 straight league games at home. Inexcusable.

You might not know where to begin but I do...

1) 10 or 11 int, what does that have to do with today, yes he threw one on the last drive trying to make something happen. It was a bad pass no doubt, but has nothing to do with his overall performance.

2) Yes Snead did fumble, and if you read my other comments I believe I pointed out that he needs to secure the ball better when scrambling. However I will say when the ball was stripped he was trying to pass/lateral, but agree no excuse.

3) No I was not at the game, but what does that have to do with the price of tea in China. However I did watch the game, and I do have this wonderful tool called DVR and was able to replay plays over and over again, so I am pretty comfortable in what I saw. Are YOU?

4) The rest of you comments what does that have to do with Snead, I believe you have more of a problem with the coaching staff not the QB.

5) What I do know, Snead was 65% on the day, not to shabby. He hit his mark all day long and look very comfortable scrambling and in the pocket. The o-line broke down on several occasions and a couple of passes were dropped that I guess counts against the QB.

Before you start I know he missed an open reciever once, he had a bad sack, and he threw a bad interception. But for Christ sake he has played all of 6 1/4 games as a D1 QB, from what I seen today he represented well!

[RichmondVAReb]

Those were great days indeed. The Archie years did not compare because we never did win as consistently then as we did in the late 50s and early 60s.

Now, as to what it was like? All I can say is that it was a great feeling. There was such tremendous confidence in both our offense and defense. We only had 21 points scored against us in the entire 1959 season. That was the greatest team in the history of college football I believe. Look at our record in this link, and notice our national rank in the far right column following each game (we were never lower than #5 in the nation). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Ole_M ... tball_team

We did lose to LSU 7-3 that year (our only loss) on Billy Cannon's run, but we got our revenge by beating LSU 21-0 in the Sugar Bowl. That was such a terrible game because we dominated them the entire game. They had negative yardage as I recall on offense for the game excluding that one run (that is based on memory, so someone correct me if my memory is bad).

It is hard to describe the atmosphere all over Mississippi. Signs for the Rebels were everywhere, and Ole Miss stickers were on cars all over the state. At football games we would chant "We're #1" near the end of each game where we were the victor. I believe that the vast majority of Mississippi residents adopted Ole Miss as their team because we brought a lot of pride to the state during some dark days as far as our state's image went.

Naturally everybody in the conference hated Ole Miss because we won every game just about. We were the #1 game on every team's schedule, and every team was gunning for us. There was just a lot of pride in our team and especially in Coach Vaught. Trips to Memphis were great because of the pep rallies in the Peabody Hotel. Boy was it loud in that lobby when we would give our hotty toddys. And the Commercial Appeal loved us. I remember Carl Walters writing wonderful articles about our team. Of course games were played in Crump Stadium in mid-town which only seated I believe around 30,000 (about the same as the Ole Miss stadium at that time I believe). Needless to say, as students we lived and breathed football. Great numbers of students went to all away games, and the trips to those foreign campuses were great fun. We'd decorate our cars with all kinds of Ole Miss stuff and had loads of fun interacting with people everywhere. Lots of great memories.

[rewalters]

So what happened, I know people have brought up falling behind after intergration and Vaught leaving or the game passing by, but why the fall.

My first game was `75, so my Ole Miss life has always been the same. Some years we would rise up to be 9-4 or 10-3, but nothing that was ever sustainable.

So what initated the fall to mediocrity?

[RichmondVAReb]

I've been gone pretty much full time since I was in school there in the early 60s, so others who have been there full time will be much better qualified than I am to answer your question.

We Ole Miss students had a lot of pride in our football team, Miss Americas (in my graduating class we had two former Miss Americas from Mississippi and North Carolina, plus Miss Missouri, Miss Tennessee and Miss Mississippi) and our school image believe we had more Rhodes Scholars at that time than any other school--could be wrong there, but I remember that our number of Rhodes Scholars was something that Ole Miss constantly bragged about). And Mississippi was proud of Ole Miss, and that gave us a prominence within the state that was unusual. I remember the state legislature passing numerous bills praising our football team for the good publicity they brought to the State of Mississippi.

I remember Coach Vaught's stated goal was to have as many Mississippi boys on his teams as possible, so they were almost all from Mississippi and thus playing for state pride during a period when Mississippi was under attack image-wise from the north in particular. I believe that gave our players an intangible and greatly heightened desire to do their best because they felt like they were playing for the state as well as their school. And also I remember that Coach Vaught would not allow any of his players to be married----he felt that was a diversion that would distract them from doing their best.

What happened? Several things. First, I believe that the SEC went to having separate offensive and defensive groups of players instead of players that played both ways as they did when Vaught was our coach, so that changed the game dramatically. Further, of course, integration occurred which changed the dynamics of the team and the prevailing attitude toward state government--quite different. Seems to me that the game and atmosphere that existed in the late 50s and early 60s is gone forever and cannot be duplicated.

[bigtreydaddy]

Thanks for the responses, Rebel veterans. I've been a Rebel all of my 24 years, and I've never waivered in my faith, though it has been tried seemingly every season since I really became a sports fan (c. age 12). It just makes me feel better to know that at some point maybe we can become great again, and then, like someone mentioned above, the Rebels that have stuck it out through thick and thin will be the most satisfied. Just needed a little history lesson and "revival," thanks.

[unclereb]

what happened? Money, lots and lots of money.
Media exposure happened as well. If you were a young player, had you rather play for a N.D., Fl, or U.S.C. where your chances of playing on T.V. would be much greater than playing at a O.M., Ark, or S.C.?
It sux, but thats just the way it is.

[bbqit]

I remember when Fla was whipped every weekend. Then Spur came. I remember not to long ago before saben came to lsu. There were 11 years of lsu football that had 7 losing seasons. Yes when I was a kid we had some great teams and the time with archie was magic. Not nc great but magic. Then kinard. Not good. The sloan years were bad. Just bad. The years with brewer were not bad years. Tub did well with the problems we had when brewer left. Cut did ok with recruits that were not his but never did anything in november. (in football fans remember what you do in november) Then came o with cut recruits. That was the worst years I can remember. (there have been some bad ones but those hurt) Now Nutt is here. Been here for only six games. We are competing cause we have been in every game. That is something we can not say about the last four years. (3 with o 1 with cut) This week off will do wonders for this team. I don't expect them to beat bama but look for a good game. Also we have won 3 games so a lower tier bowl game is still not out of the question. I understand how some of ya feel. I hurt yesterday too. I understand Vandy is having the year we dreamed for. Take their good fortune and know we can do it too. Just not this year. Their coach has been there with his assistants for much more than six games. We got better than we have had in a long time with a good coaching staff. It will turn around. No I didn't look it up but feel sure I'm right. The 11 years before saben lsu had 7 losing seasons.

[parrotreb]

have coaches with ties to Ole Miss traditions

We have had a coach with familiarity of those traditions. He got us the worst probation you can get outside of the dath penalty. I'll pass.

Austin will likely be our next head coach within the next 4 or 5 years, assuming Boone is gone. I don't mind having an alum as head coach assuming he is qualified for the job, but it isn't even close to a deal breaker. We need a new will to win that isn't derived from something that happened 45 - 50 years ago. Let that develop whatever traditions it does.

[rebelliousb]

Scholarship limits and other restrictions and NCAA investigations are two things that changed the landscape a bit.

[nlreb54]

We beat the # 4 team in the nation at their home field and we could not fill the stadium yesterday. The crowd was quiet and just never seemed to get into it. Even when the defense was playing well the crowd did not respond too much. You got to support the team and they will play off the support.

[AR~Rebel]

I remember the early 60s teams. I've lived in Arkansas all my life but my dad was a (1936) Ole Miss alumni. I was six when I began to follow the Rebels with my dad and they were awesome. I do remember the 1963 Sugar Bowl game (against Arkansas) in New Orleans. My dad and grandmother bought me back a pendent from that game that I have to this day. My memory of those days has faded over the years but I do still remember how great those teams were! All my friends at school were Razorback fans so naturally I got teased quite a bit, but I didn't care. I knew who was best. I later became primarily a Razorback fan but the Rebels have always been there first in my memory.