No. 3 Ole Miss improved to 7-0 with a 34-3 drubbing of Tennessee, setting up this weekend's showdown with No. 24 LSU in Baton Rouge. Alabama looked like a world-beater in a thumping of Texas A&M, Florida's Will Muschamp pushed his time in Gainesville to the precipice in a disastrous loss to Missouri and the Big 12 had a horrific Saturday. My thoughts on those stories, the World Series and more follow here, thanks to Oxford-based RE/MAX Legacy Realty agent Harry Alexander.
1. There were rumblings during fall camp in August that Ole Miss' defense was dominating the Rebels' offense to the point of pure frustration. Many of the practices were closed to the media, so we had no way to know, but the rumors were incessant.
On Saturday night, shortly after No. 3 Ole Miss whipped Tennessee, 34-3, the Rebels' offensive coordinator, Dan Werner, confirmed those preseason rumblings, saying there were times during August when the Rebels' offense could do nothing against their defensive counterparts.
Did you know they were that good, Werner was asked?
"I hoped so," Werner said with a smile.
Two months later, now Werner and the rest of us know. Yes, it's that good. It's downright dominant.
It's so good that Hugh Freeze has quickly adapted his team's personality to revolve around the defense. Ole Miss was conservative Saturday night, playing pretty vanilla on offense. Bo Wallace threw two touchdowns and no interceptions, the Rebels had no fumbles and just one penalty and still scored on six of its last nine possessions.
"That's music to my ears," Werner said.
Tennessee managed zero --- as in less than 1 --- yards of rushing offense and a mere field goal against Ole Miss' smothering defense. The Rebels sacked the quarterback, Justin Worley, seven times and came up with three interceptions.
It's Ole Miss' recipe for a championship, and while it might not be the spiciest concoction one can find, it's proving to be awfully filling.
The Rebels travel to No. 24 LSU Saturday as a 3-point favorite, needing a win over the Tigers to set up a huge national showdown with No. 5 Auburn in Oxford --- likely with ESPN's College GameDay show back on campus --- on Nov. 1. Win that one and the Rebels essentially have a four-week break --- Presbyterian, open date, at Arkansas --- before possibly the Egg Bowl of all Egg Bowls on Nov. 29.
Much will be made this week about Tiger Stadium, about crowd noise at night, etc. However, unless the Tigers can figure out Ole Miss' stifling defense, none of that will matter. Defense wins championships, per the old cliché, and seven games into a season, Ole Miss appears poised to ride its defense into unchartered waters.
2. It's finally getting a bit easier to sort out the Southeastern Conference. There is still plenty of maneuvering to do, obviously, but the hierarchies are being clearly established.
1. Ole Miss --- Again, it's all about defense. The Rebels' is simply dominant.
2. Mississippi State --- The Bulldogs were idle Saturday, but something tells me they had one eye on Tuscaloosa.
3. Alabama --- Speaking of, did you see the Crimson Tide Saturday against Texas A&M? Wow. If Alabama plays that well consistently, it's the best team in the country.
4. Auburn --- I thought about Georgia here, and the Bulldogs get the Tigers at home next month, but for now, I'll give the nod to Gus Malzahn and Co.
5. Georgia --- Quietly, Mark Richt is doing his best coaching job yet. Without Todd Gurley, the Bulldogs finally look like a complete team.
6. LSU --- The Tigers play host to Ole Miss Saturday in Baton Rouge on the heels of a narrow win at Florida and a blowout of Kentucky in Tiger Stadium. Quarterback play will have to improve to beat the Rebels.
7. Missouri --- The Tigers disposed of Florida in impressive fashion (there's a theme developing in Gainesville), and improved their bowl standing in the process.
8. Kentucky --- Oh, we're just guessing now. The Wildcats were their own worst enemies in Baton Rouge. Mississippi State awaits, but Saturday night was a disaster for UK.
9. Texas A&M --- Three physical challenges, three resolute failures for the Aggies. How good was Johnny Manziel? Now we know.
10. South Carolina --- I wonder if Steve Spurrier would think about returning to Florida to finish his career and bring some stability to the Gators' program. It won't happen, I'm guessing, but there are worse ideas.
11. Tennessee --- The Volunteers aren't good up front on offense, a recipe for disaster against teams like Ole Miss (34-3 loss Saturday) and Alabama (this Saturday in Knoxville). Against ordinary teams, however, the Vols have a shot.
12. Arkansas --- The Razorbacks have blown chances to do something special this season, losing a one-point game to Alabama and then getting hammered Saturday in Little Rock by Georgia. Mississippi State and Ole Miss still loom on the schedule. It's a tough league, Bret.
13. Florida --- If you're Jeremy Foley, this has to end. And hey, Foley deserves some heat, too. There was a time when this was one of the two best jobs in the country along with Texas. That's no longer the case, and I'm not as convinced as others that Foley can get anyone he wants. By the way, the following quote is from Foley, circa 2012: "I'm a big believer in the saying that if something needs to be done eventually, it needs to be done immediately." Interesting.
14. Vanderbilt --- I'm hearing the rape trial involving several former Vanderbilt players will be explosive, so the Commodores' fans have that to look forward to in addition to a return to the basement of the SEC.
3. Here's the weekly it's-too-early-to-take-these-seriously disclaimer, but with a caveat: Things are taking shape.
Allstate Sugar Bowl --- Ole Miss
Rose Bowl --- Alabama
Discover Orange Bowl --- Auburn
Chick-Fil-A Beach Bowl --- Mississippi State
TaxSlayer.com Bowl --- LSU
Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl --- Georgia
Outback Bowl --- Missouri
Belk Bowl --- South Carolina
Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl --- Kentucky
AdvoCare V100 Texas Bowl --- Texas A&M
4. The SEC released its 2015 schedule last week, and I'm apparently in the minority in thinking Ole Miss got a favorable draw. The Rebels open with UT-Martin and Fresno State at home before traveling to Alabama Sept. 19. Following the trip to Tuscaloosa, the Rebels host Vanderbilt, travel to Florida, host New Mexico State and venture north to Memphis over the next four weeks. A 6-1 start isn't a reach.
Yes, the end of the schedule --- complete with back-to-back games against rivals LSU and Mississippi State --- is rigorous, but all in all, I thought it could have been much worse.
In an ideal world, I guess, LSU would be on Ole Miss' October schedule, leaving Auburn or Arkansas or someone else in the slot the week prior to the Egg Bowl. However, the Rebels --- a team that should be salty on defense and much better on the offensive line and deeper at wide receiver --- will have some time early in the season to break in a new quarterback and get into a flow before an October/November stretch that includes dates in Oxford against Texas A&M and Arkansas and a trip to Auburn.
5. I'm going to combine a thought or two here, both on college football. First, as Ralph Russo of the Associated Press pointed out Sunday morning, the SEC very likely has a trump card over the Big 12 now that Baylor has suffered a loss and Kansas State has beaten Oklahoma.
As Russo wrote, "Auburn's victory at Kansas State in September is looking a whole lot more valuable after the Wildcats pretty much eliminated Big 12 preseason favorite Oklahoma from playoff contention on Saturday.
"Here's the scenario that could play out: Auburn at 11-1, without a conference championship or Kansas State, with a Big 12 title. Who does the selection committee pick? The Wildcats lost 20-14 last month at home to Auburn. There's a long way to go of course, but those are the type of choices Arkansas athletic director and committee chairman Jeff Long and his 12 colleagues on the panel could face.
"The SEC West still has plenty of time to sort itself out with the two Mississippi schools and two Alabama schools still having to face each other, plus Auburn has to play at Ole Miss and Mississippi State goes to Alabama. But a one-loss team from the strongest division in college football that doesn't even play for a conference title should have a good looking resume. Add in West Virginia's 41-27 upset of No. 4 Baylor and the Big 12 is now a conference without an undefeated team. Another check mark in the SEC's column: Alabama beat West Virginia the first week of the season.
SEC Nation broadcasted from Oxford over the weekend. That meant former Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow and former LSU/NFL star Marcus Spears were on hand to talk about the Rebels. Both, as you might expect, gave the Rebels high praise during interviews with the Clarion-Ledger's Hugh Kellenberger.
"It's the heart that they play with, offensively and defensively," Tebow said. "Everybody talks about the landshark defense and the way they fly around, it's guys like Jaylen Walton fighting through tackles. It's just heart. They play together. They play as a family. After spending the day yesterday with coach Freeze and the team you could really see that."
Tebow said what he likes most about Wallace is "the courage and leadership and a little bit of 'it' factor he has. Like on that third-and-nine last week against Texas A&M, he knows where the sticks are, fights through the line of scrimmage and dives over a defender to get the first down that ultimately led to a touchdown. He has a little bit of that that you can't necessarily teach."
Spears, predictably, was focused on the Rebels' defense.
"You're talking about one of the best safeties in the country," Spears said. "(Tony) Conner has been ballin'. People talk about (Cody) Prewitt, but Conner has been ballin' and killing people. Nkemdiche and his brother. There is six or seven first-round draft picks on this defense right now. (Robert Nkemdiche) wins with leverage and he wins with tenacity. He has it all. He can be a d-end or a d-tackle in the NFL. That poses for a lot of problems for an offensive line. ... More than anything I just like his attitude and the way he plays."
6. The Green Bay Packers look like a Super Bowl-caliber team right now. Aaron Rodgers is terrific, the running game is clicking and the schedule is setting up for a run that would send the NFC playoffs through Lambeau Field. Of course, the Detroit Lions aren't exactly rolling over, as evidenced by their 24-23 win over the New Orleans Saints Sunday. The NFC North should be quite interesting. Other thoughts from around the NFL Sunday:
A. It's repetitive, but there's no team more disappointing this season than New Orleans. Sunday's loss was disastrous, and Sean Payton's belligerence with reporters post-game bore that out.
B. The Bears lost to Miami, 27-14, on Sunday, and reporters could hear a lot of angry screaming emanating from the locker room afterwards. Players reportedly had to be removed from the room. Given the presence of the Lions and Packers in the NFC North, the Bears are running out of time to find a groove.
C. Andrew Luck passed for 344 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the Colts' home win over Cincinnati to improve to 5-2. Just saying.
D. Colt McCoy replaced Kirk Cousins and led Washington to a comeback win over the Titans in Nashville. It's Robert Griffin III's job when he returns, but McCoy's play creates a mini-controversy in the nation's capital in the meantime.
E. Seattle fell to 3-3 with a loss to St. Louis Sunday, a reminder of just how difficult it is to repeat in the NFL. Give Jeff Fisher credit, too. His fake punt call late in the fourth quarter Sunday was gutsy, to say the least.
F. Dallas won again, beating the Giants in Arlington. The Cowboys are proving to be for real, in large part because once-embattled quarterback Tony Romo is playing exceptional football. The Giants, meanwhile, simply must make wholesale change after this season. If I'm Eli Manning, I'm wanting a change of scenery for the twilight of my career.
7. As a kid, I was a big fan of Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett. I met Brett on Saturday afternoon on the home sideline at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. I introduced myself, told him how I was excited to see him play a few times back in Arlington, Texas, as a kid and how I was a big fan of his career. He didn't seem particularly impressed. In an attempt to make conversation, I said I was sure Kansas City sure was excited about the World Series, which begins Tuesday night in Brett's city. "Oh, yeah," he said, not all that enthusiastically. It was a feeble attempt on my part.
Anyway, I know no one who had Royals-San Francisco Giants in the World Series before the season, though the Giants would be a safe pick for anyone given their surplus of pitching. San Francisco catcher Buster Posey is the new Mr. October, a fixture in baseball's postseason over the past half-decade.
It would be a great story if the Royals found a way to keep winning, but I think San Francisco's arms will be too much for Kansas City's bats. I'll take the Giants in six games.
8. Kobe Bryant's career may well be winding down, but he's not going quietly. For example, Bryant had strong opinions last week about the NBA's new nine-year $24 billion TV deal, one that has drawn fierce reactions from top players concerned about the league trying to suppress big contracts.
In an interview with the Orange County Register, Bryant elaborated on a tweet he posted a week earlier, saying "You're supposed to do what's right. Business is business. I think people get that confused very easily and understanding that players should take less than their market value, substantially less than their market value in order to win championships. It's very easy to look at the elite players around the league and look at the amount of money they get paid and compare that with the average. But we don't look at what the owners get paid, how much revenue they generate off the backs of these players. Now you have a TV deal that comes out and you look at it almost being a billion dollars up over the previous one. And this is coming off the back of a lockout, where the cap is not a hard cap but it's pretty close to being a hard cap. And now it will be interesting to see what happens in this next labor agreement, because my understanding is that this TV deal kicks in in the last year of this current agreement, so I'm sure they'll try to lock us out again and try to harden the cap even more. I think as players you've got to hold your ground a little bit, not be afraid of what the public perception is. Instead try to educate the public a little bit and understand its not about complaining about how much you're making. Because that's ridiculous. We are overpaid. But at the same time, so are the owners, and you have to fight for what your market value is."
The NBA's current labor deal expires at the end of next season, and many analysts are forecasting a long, heated lockout.
9. One of the topics that will likely be debated during the next collective bargaining will be the length of the NBA season. Michael Jordan, now the owner of the Charlotte Hornets, told ESPN.com last week he was surprised and a bit bewildered to hear LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki suggest earlier in the week that they'd like to see the NBA's 82-game regular season shortened.
"I love both of those guys, but as an owner who played the game, I loved playing,'' Jordan told ESPN.com. "If I wasn't playing 82 games, I still would've been playing somewhere else because that's the love for the game I had. As a player, I never thought 82 games was an issue.
"But if that's what they want to do, we as owners and players can evaluate it and talk about it. But we'd make less money as partners. Are they ready to give up money to play fewer games? That's the question, because you can't make the same amount of money playing fewer games.''
The NBA is also experimenting with a 44-minute game, cutting four minutes off the current game length. James and Nowitzki said they'd prefer a shorter season to shorter games.
"It's not the minutes, it's the games," James said before the Cavaliers' preseason victory over Indiana. "The minutes (don't) mean anything. We can play 50-minute games if we had to. It's just the games. We all as players think it's too many games. In our season, 82 games is a lot.''
Nowitzki said he'd recommend that the season be cut from 82 games to the "mid-60s.''
Jordan agreed with the current players, saying he didn't believe it was a serious consideration.
"I would never shorten the game by four minutes,'' Jordan said in the interview with ESPN, "unless guys were having physical issues. It's not like football. We don't really have to worry about concussions and some of the physical damage that football players deal with after they retire. I can understand football players wanting to play fewer games from a physical standpoint. But basketball's not the same. I'm not diminishing the fact that we go through a grueling season. But I wouldn't want to shorten the game or play 15-20 fewer games.''
Both James and Nowitzki said they understood a shorter season would cut the league's revenue and therefore the players' salaries.
"I think you don't need 82 games to determine the best eight in each conference," Nowitzki said. "That could be done a lot quicker, but I always understand that it's about money, and every missed game means missed money for (all) parties -- for the league, for the owners, for the players. I understand all that, and that's why I don't think it's going to change anytime soon."
10. I dedicate Thought No. 10 to my friend and colleague, Jeffrey Wright, for no one I know loves his cable subscription more than he. So here's the good news, my friend, per Esquire.com:
In 2015, you'll be able to subscribe to HBO by itself, without a cable subscription. As Esquire.com reports, "It's just one announcement, but it's had more of an impact in one day for the takedown of the cable oligopoly than any other single action to date. And companies like Netflix have spent the last half-decade trying to do only that.
"Those companies, Amazon and Google's YouTube included, have made incremental gains in chipping away at a $100-plus billion cable oligopoly that --- with the impending merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable --- might become even harder to break down. But this was a wrecking ball."
Besides sports programming providers, HBO is the most valuable single network entity on cable, and maybe all of TV content creation. The New York Post wondered in July if HBO alone was worth more than Fox's $80 billion bid for all of Time Warner. It might be. And now you can watch it --- and Game of Thrones and True Detective and John Oliver --- without cable, or breaking the law. That unbundling means that the inflated price of cable --- even basic cable, which has increased 176% in price since 1995 --- is about to go down, or cable is about to die altogether.
As Esquire.com wrote, "This is arguably the Waterloo for the concept of the big bundle, the telecom industry's cash cow that lumps together expensive cable packages with limited choices and often ties them to Internet and home phone service. One study believes that if cable subscribers were allowed to choose their stations one by one, or even in smaller groups, the telecoms would lose $70 billion of revenue (about 50 percent of the industry) in a year. HBO just took the first step toward that new reality."
