John Macon Gillespie
Ole Miss and Alabama will meet on the gridiron for the 64th time on Saturday, and, historically, the series has gone the way of the Crimson Tide.
Alabama officially leads the all-time series 51-10-2. The Rebels’ wins over the Crimson Tide have been so rare that, when the Rebels topped the Tide in 2014 (a win that was later vacated due to NCAA sanctions), fans stormed the field and tore down the goal posts to parade through the Square.
Earlier this decade, this rivalry was defined by ESPN’s College GameDay visiting campus,SEC West prominence and the national spotlight. Now, however, after the Ole Miss program was crippled with NCAA penalties over the last few years, the Rebels have no real shot of competing with or knocking off the Crimson Tide any time soon.
For Ole Miss, this Saturday’s game in Tuscaloosa is less about trying to win and more about trying to come away with a respectable final score. The last two meetings in this series have been 66-3 and 62-7 finals in favor of Alabama, and those scores are very detrimental to Ole Miss’s perception, a perception that is still damaged due to a less-than-stellar on-field product after the NCAA made its presence felt on the program.
Alabama is clearly the more talented team and Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral is injured, so the focus of Rebel fans should be less on winning and more on staying healthy and not being run out of the stadium prior to a winnable game against Vanderbilt.
Matt Luke and Rich Rodriguez would be smart to rest Corral on Saturday to avoid further injury while giving useful snaps to backup quarterbacks John Rhys Plumlee and Grant Tisdale.
While some fans are clamoring for Plumlee to take over the starting job after his performance late in the game against California, it would be wise to pump the brakes on that stance until we see Plumlee in some extended action.
No teams had any real film on Plumlee prior to Saturday, and, if we’re honest, he came into the game in a favorable situation against the Golden Bears last week. California was playing soft coverage defending against the pass and trying to work the clock, which opened up the possibility for Plumlee’s long run and short passes.
As more film becomes available on Plumlee and other Ole Miss backups, defenses will be better prepared for their skill sets. Add in the fact that Corral is just a redshirt freshman with sky high expectations from the fanbase, and I believe fans should wait and see what Plumlee and Tisdale bring to the table before making up their minds that Corral needs dumping.
Regardless, Plumlee and Tisdale will likely be thrown to the dogs in one of the toughest environments in the nation this week, and fans shouldn’t expect any miraculous outcome, but it will be interesting to see how they are able to shoulder the load against the SEC West favorites.
Ole Miss probably won’t win this week, but next week, the meaningful season gets back underway against the Commodores, and the Rebels desperately need to win that one if they hope to keep their season afloat.
