Ole Miss began preparations for the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl over the weekend, the Rebels lost in hoops at home for the third time this season and the early signing period is upon us. Thoughts on those topics and more follow here, thanks to RE/MAX Legacy Realty agent Harry Alexander.
1. Ole Miss football practice will be open to media Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Rebels, who began practicing over the weekend in closed-to-the-media sessions, will break for the Christmas holiday before convening in Atlanta on Christmas Day. Ole Miss will practice in Atlanta for the first time on Dec. 26. Players and assistants will be available to media beginning Dec. 27.
We should get some injury updates this week on Aaron Morris (out for the Peach Bowl due to knee surgery) and status updates on previously injured players such as Laquon Treadwell and Denzel Nkemdiche.
It'll be interesting to see the offense adjust without Treadwell and now Vince Sanders at wide receiver. It will also be fascinating to hear from backup quarterbacks Ryan Buchanan and DeVante Kincade regarding the Rebels' recent commitment of junior college quarterback Chad Kelly.
2. The bulk of the "news" relating to Ole Miss football this week will come Monday when athletics director Ross Bjork releases updated plans and goals for the expansion of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. With steel now going into the Pavilion at Ole Miss, adding revenue streams and some seats to Vaught-Hemingway is the next logical step in building a perennial contender in Oxford. The press conference to update those plans is Monday at 10 a.m.
3. There's been a lot of talk about Hugh Freeze's decision to take Kelly, who was dismissed from the Clemson program in April. I understand the idea that taking Kelly is a risk, but I'm not really sure I see it that way. I watched Kelly in Biloxi last Sunday, and he reminded me a bit of a Texas A&M version of Johnny Manziel (yes, I saw Manziel's disastrous start for Cleveland Sunday; #PrayForJeffrey). He was poised in the pocket, athletic enough to make plays in the open field and competitive to an absolute fault. With Bo Wallace gone after the Peach Bowl and Ole Miss down to two unproven sophomores-to-be, the decision to give Kelly a chance seems like a no-brainer.
Chemistry will be important to watch, of course, but that's the case for every team. It's not like Kelly can afford trouble, either. The nephew of NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly wants to follow his uncle's footsteps, and he can't do it with another misstep at the major-college level.
4. Speaking of recruiting, I expect Ole Miss to have a pretty big day on Wednesday. In addition to signing Kelly, I look for Ole Miss to add his East Mississippi Community College teammate, four-star defensive tackle D.J. Jones. The Rebels will also add Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College cornerback Tony Bridges, Northwest (Miss.) Community College linebacker Terry Caldwell and quite possibly Butler County (Kan.) Community College linebacker Duvon Durant in the early signing period.
Sunday at midnight marked the beginning of a dead period in recruiting, one that will last until Jan. 14. Ole Miss still has a handful of targets out there, and there will be news from the various all-star games, but recruiting will slow down a bit starting Thursday.
Ole Miss' big recruiting weekend is Jan. 23-25.
5. Ole Miss lost its third home game of the basketball season on Saturday afternoon, blowing a 17-point lead in a loss to Western Kentucky. The Rebels have been rough at home, and that's putting it nicely. There's really no explaining it, and Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy didn't try to spin it afterwards.
"From the naked eye, I think that we are in the ultimate make-plays sport," Kennedy said. "You have to make plays. Shot clock, there's no running out the close. You've got to continue to make plays. First half, I thought we were really aggressive. I thought we were making shots. We had 11 assists, and I see we finish with 15. We shoot 24 percent in the second half, and you guys can look at the numbers as well as I can. It's not just any one guy, but we're just not getting the production we need to be as competitive as I had hoped."
6. I hesitate to write this here, for it's far too early in the season to even acknowledge it. Still, there's fan unrest regarding Kennedy and the direction of the Ole Miss program. The Rebels play host to Coastal Carolina on Thursday and travel to Southaven next week to face Southeast Missouri. A trip to Dayton on Dec. 30 and a Jan. 3 home date against Austin Peay are then all that's left in the non-league slate before Ole Miss begins SEC play at Kentucky on Jan. 6.
The Rebels still have plenty of time to turn things around, get on a roll and make themselves part of the conversation in late February and March. However, and this is stating the obvious, there's no room for many more losses like the ones Ole Miss has suffered against Charleston Southern and Western Kentucky. Those kill resumes, derail fan excitement and kill program momentum.
The decision moving forward for Bjork and the powers that be at Ole Miss won't be an easy one. How attractive is the Ole Miss job? Is the money in place to pay a buyout and then attract a quality replacement? Does Kennedy deserve a year in the new arena after enduring almost a decade at Tad Smith? Those are all valid questions, ones that Bjork will have to answer. I'm sure he's hoping Kennedy answers them for him by going on a run and making the NCAA tournament.
7. One thing Kennedy could use is a commitment from Jackson, Miss., five-star guard Malik Newman. I'm not betting on it, mind you, but Newman's father, Horatio Webster, told Zagsblog.com that his son likes Kennedy and the direction of the Ole Miss program.
"He said he is signing late, that is all he told me," Horatio Webster told Zagsblog.com. "Even my wife even asked me as late as last (Thursday) night, she asked, 'Where do you think he is going?' I said, 'I don't have any idea, we haven't even talked about it.'"
The 6-foot-4 Newman is projected as the No. 5 pick in the 2016 NBA Draft by DraftExpress.com. He has said he won't announce until after the deadline for college players to declare for the NBA in April. Newman is considering Kentucky, Kansas, UConn, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and N.C. State, among others. He's had home visits with Kentucky's John Calipari, Kansas' Bill Self, N.C. State's Mark Gottfried, Mississippi State's Rick Ray, Kennedy, UConn's Kevin Ollie, Texas A&M's Billy Kennedy and Samford's Scott Padgett, his father said.
Most college basketball recruiting insiders expect Newman to sign with Kansas. For what it's worth (nothing, by the way), I do, too. However, Webster told Zagsblog.com Ole Miss is in play.
"I think he liked Coach Kennedy's style of play, but he also liked Coach Ray's style of play so, both of them are upcoming programs," Webster said. "They're both upcoming programs."
8. Auburn hired former Florida coach Will Muschamp as its defensive coordinator over the weekend, paying him some $1.6 million per year. That's more than than 60 FBS coaches earned this season, per ESPN.com's Chris Low, and it's a sign that the cost of playing defense is skyrocketing in this offensive-crazed age.
As Low wrote, in all four of Auburn's losses this season, the Tigers gave up at least 34 points. Under Muschamp, Florida was the only team in the SEC to finish in the top 10 nationally in total defense each of the past four seasons. The Gators allowed just 4.45 yards per play this season; only four teams in the country were better (Clemson, Penn State, Stanford and UCF).
As Low wrote, "The challenge for Muschamp will be incorporating his style of defense into (Gus) Malzahn's hurry-up, no-huddle system on offense. As a rule, the two don't always go together, and one of the tricky parts is being able to find the right balance on the practice field, where, as a defensive coach, you feel like you're able to be physical enough to keep your edge.
"One of the reasons Muschamp was comfortable with signing on as Malzahn's defensive coordinator was that Malzahn, for all the talk about his being a spread coach, believes deeply in running the ball. The Tigers are not one of these spread teams that's going to throw it on every down.
"It's an offensive world right now in college football. Every game is on television, and the people who write the checks love points and love being entertained.
"Most of the marquee head-coaching jobs are going to offensive guys right now. That's no coincidence.
"But it's also no coincidence that the teams winning national championships are also playing championship defense. Only one of the past 10 BCS national champions (Auburn in 2010) has finished outside of the top 10 nationally in total defense.
"The game's changing, no doubt, but not to the point where defensive coaches of Muschamp's ilk are devalued.
"As Auburn showed us Friday night, people are still willing to pay top dollar to get them."
9. Are you looking to eliminate some of the stress in your life? Esquire.com has a suggestion: Stop checking your e-mail so much.
A new study in Computers and Human Behavior examined a group of workers for a two-week period. One group of workers was instructed to only check their email three times per day and to turn off all notifications, while a second group was told to keep checking email as often as possible with all notifications left on. After a week, each group switched patterns, and the workers were asked to report their stress and productivity levels. As Science of Us notes:
"Overall, "limiting the number of times people checked their email per day lessened tension during a particularly important activity and lowered overall day-to-day stress," the researchers write, and was associated with various other positive measures of psychological well-being. Those who checked their email a lot also didn't perceive themselves as any more productive than those who were on an email diet."
10. Good news for dog lovers: Pope Francis, in a recent papal address, promised dogs --- and all the rest of "God's creatures" --- can make it to heaven.
In an effort to console a grieving boy whose beloved dog died, the Catholic head declared, according to a translation from the Italian newspaper Resapubblica, "Paradise is open to all of God's creatures One day we will return to see our animals in the eternity of Christ."
The declaration opened the possibility that dogs, cats, horses and the rest of the animal kingdom could end up at the pearly gates alongside their people. In a 2008 sermon, Pope Benedict XVI explained that not all creatures "are called to eternity" and when non-humans die, their deaths mean "solely the end of existence on earth." The move seemingly barred pets from paradise.
As Barstool Sports noted, Pope Francis did not say if dogs could go to hell, too. The website noted that Pope Francis' "puppy pardon is the latest move in his campaign to make the Catholic church more inclusive and tolerant."
