Jackson Jambalaya

How about continued success against LSU though?

With the exception of the Manning years (father and son), Ole Miss football has been mired in mediocrity since 1964. 1964! There's a temporal association between desegregation of the SEC and the decline of Ole Miss football. It's not hard to believe that large numbers of really good African-American football players wouldn't want to attend a school where fans cling to Rebel flags and Colonel Rebel, and the student body defiantly sings "the South will rise again". (The first line of this saying is "Save your Confederate money, boys...".) The Clarion Ledger is full of letters to the editor from the "Surrender? Hell!" crowd who won't let go of their cherished "traditions" of a racist past. While the rest of the SEC has moved on into the 21st Century, Ole Miss is stuck in the plantation mentality of the segregated past. I love Ole Miss, but its football fortunes won't improve until it moves on.

Or money. Compare what MSU and Ole Miss spend on athletic programs to the rest of the SEC. Not pretty.

Please spare us 11:42 from your broken record self. Take your whiny bitch crap over to the JFP where that shit plays 24/7/365.

You might get a different result if you run this poll now, considering the results of Saturday's efforts.

Ole Miss just needs to accept their situation and try to move on. The best they can hope for is continued mediocrity if they don't.

I realize Ole Miss and its fans are nowhere near as culturally advanced as Alabama, Auburn, or LSU, but we have already squelched the "Rebel" flag, Dixie, From Dixie with Love, Colonel Rebel, and within the next ten years the "Rebel" team name altogether (just wait...), so it begs the question "WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT??!!!".

(of course, I know the answer to the question....11:42 and the like have as much love for Ole Miss as I do Poison Oak. It reminds me of when politicians of one party tell the other party what they "need" to do to win elections.)

As far as the team goes, the Mississippi Bears are a middle to low-end SEC team and always will be. Over the last 10 years or so, we have had the good luck of having one or two NFL-caliber players on the team each year, who have single-handedly been able to make the team look better than they really are. The 2003 team (I think..) was a 3 win team with Eli Manning, who led them to the Cotton Bowl.

Firing Nutt, Nix, changing mascots or any other attempt to "Rebrand" Ole Miss can't change the current realities of college football.

If you want a real solution to narrow the gap between us and the big boys, combine the 3 large universities in the state. Even then you would have a university that would still be smaller and poorer than Bama and LSU. Since that will never happen, accept 6 wins and a Liberty Bowl and be proud we are not Southern Miss.

Please, 11:42. How do you explain how Ole Miss was able to sign Michael Oher and Patrick Willis, just to name two black players who could have gone anywhere they wanted? Never mind all the black players who are on the team today and have been on the team through the years. KF is right - the lesser programs in the SEC aren't ever going to compete until they start spending the kind of money that big boys do. Bill Billingsley

I wouldn't put Auburn with Alabama and LSU. The only way they can have success is to pay the big bucks to their players (or their parents).

Ole Miss didn't even get an indoor practice facility until a few years ago. When Saban was at LSU, he used mention some figures on how much the top tier schools spent. Was astounding.

More like pray for a Liberty Bowl birth and hope Southern Miss isn't there waiting for you. Don't really understand the snarky comment regarding Southern Miss. We readily admit we play in a no-name conference and don't have near the money and facilities Ole Miss does. Yet they would rather lose to a Division II school than play us. Face it, they haven't won a SEC championship in 50 years.....co-champs of the Western Division in 2003 is no real accomplishment. They haven't won a national championship in the era of desegregation. They are the Vanderbilt/Kentucky of the SEC-West....minus the academic prowess/basketball team.

The bears also need some fans who are more interested in supporting their team than being seen in the Grove.

1:42, You made my argument for me. I have nothing personal against USM, but like you said, they are in a no-name conference and don't have the money/facilities of Ole Miss.

As bad as Ole Miss is right now, they are on television every Saturday regardless of whom they play, they are guaranteed a decent bowl game if they win 6 games, and they have the money to throw at I-AA teams to come to Oxford and lose (well...most of the time).

dude, i am not a huge KF supporter, but you are a total moron.

KF's identity is one of the more poorly kept secrets in the blogosphere.

and you still missed it.

I'm the 11:42 commenter. I attended Ole Miss for 7 years, undergrad and law school. I worked in the athletic department business office for 5 of those years, 1967 to 1971. Don't ever doubt my love for Ole Miss. I grew up in and have lived all my life in Mississippi. My family has lived in the south since about 1730. My family's slaves are buried just outside the fence at my family's cemetary in Madison County. So don't talk down to me like I'm some liberal wingnut. I'm just sick of the so-called fans who won't give up the Lost Cause. We need to move on. Our last 2 Chancellors have been the best things that have ever happened to Ole Miss. Thay have tried to move us out of the 19th Century, where so many of the haters still live.

The bears are on every Saturday because of SEC contracts with the networks that require that SEC games be televised. Do you honestly think they'd be televised if that wasn't the case?

You have 1-AA teams come to town because you can't afford to have any decent opponents come in. Live in the real world. You're just hanging on to the rest of the SEC's coattails.

2:37. Boise State's coming to Oxford to play next year or in 2012. That a good enough team for you?

Think it's 2012. Next year is Texas? Or I may have it backwards.

2:37, Would Ole Miss be be on TV every Saturday if they were in the Sun Belt? Not a chance.

Paying decent opponents to come to Oxford? The reason you pay smaller schools is to compensate them for the loss of a home game, since the Bears nor any other larger-conference teams will play a Home-Home series with II-A schools. Plus, most of the time it is a guaranteed win.

Hanging on the rest of the SEC's coattails? Absolutely! But don't think for a second every other school in the southeast wouldn't love to be hanging alongside us.

There is plenty of parity in college football. Scholarship limitations and revenue sharing help level the playing field. Also, what 5 star running back recruit would go to AL or SC, to be a bench warmer? With good coaching and 5 star recruits that perform at a 5 star level any SEC team has a chance at 10 to 12 wins. Anyway, Nuttsack can't reasonably be fired until next year!