Earlier this week, Ole Miss’ sophomore linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche tweeted, “Thursday’s game is the biggest of the season.” He’s right. In fact, it’s the biggest game of Rebel head coach Hugh Freeze’s career, at least so far.
Sure, some will say it’s just one game. Others will plead that last year’s win over Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl or the BBVA Compass Bowl win over Pittsburgh were “bigger” wins because they helped propel the Rebels into a unanimous top-10 recruiting class.
There’s no denying those were important, but no, the season-opener against Vanderbilt in Nashville tonight is the most important.
Think about it. Ole Miss has one of the toughest first seven game stretches in the country with road games against Texas, Alabama and Auburn and home contests versus Texas A&M and LSU. That’s brutal.
So if Ole Miss goes into Nashville and losses, how does their record look after those first seven games? It won’t be pretty. They need the win tonight to boost them into the gauntlet stretch.
What if they rebound after the first half of the season and take advantage of a very winnable last five games? That would be great if it happened, but starting off rough would leave the Rebels in a win or bust type of mentality, and that’s hard to play with.
You’d probably lose a game or two that you should win and all of a sudden you’re staring at a losing season.
All of a sudden, all that momentum that was built at the end of the 2012 season, it’s gone.
At that point, who knows what happens to the 2014 recruiting class. Who knows what happens to the fan base’s confidence in Freeze’s program. Heck, who knows what happens to the team’s confidence in themselves. It simply cannot happen.
The solution? Win tonight. Continue to build that momentum. End Vanderbilt’s recent domination of Ole Miss, because yes, losing five of your last six to a team is domination.
With that said, I expect Ole Miss to come out on top tonight.
The Rebels were on the verge of blowing out Vanderbilt last season, but inconsistency in the red zone, missed assignment on defenses and an awful spot by the referees gave the Commodores the comeback win.
This year, Ole Miss returns virtually everyone on both sides of the ball, and there’s no doubt that they’ll be ready. Junior quarterback Bo Wallace will have a solid performance. The offensive line will open holes to actually have a running game against Vanderbilt. And the defense will create some turnovers.
All of that results in an Ole Miss win and a relaxing weekend of watching everyone else in the college football world play Saturday for the entire Rebel fan base.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss football, follow @DavidLCollier and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
