Vols Hope To Mirror Ole Miss Success
The Tennessee Vols hope to mirror Ole Miss’ Football program success sooner than later. That seems funny to even think, little less say with regards to these two programs. The once proud Vols are looking up to the Rebels and their number three national ranking.
The Vols hold a 44-19-1 edge overall against the Rebels. If Tennessee had played them every year, it would be way worse than that for the Rebels. Honestly, in my lifetime, Ole Miss was just a place you went to school if you didn’t have the grades to get in Tennessee, and was more than likely an easy win on Saturday. You were impressed however with “The Grove”, the game day fashion, the campus, and the Miss Mississippi’s that seemed to be everywhere. That was it though. You certainly weren’t impressed with the football team. That has changed.
Head Coach Hugh Freeze came to Oxford in December of 2011. He took over a program that was decent, but had fallen since long time Tennessee Volunteer offensive coordinator David Cutcliffe had left in 20o4. Ed Orgeron had two terrible seasons, but some great parodies (google Ed Orgeron Colonel Reb and laugh your butt off) in his two years. Houston Nutt came in and did a decent job, but Ole Miss had been given a taste of success from Coach Cut, and wanted more. Ole Miss had only won 2 games in 2011 and had lost 13 straight SEC Conference games.
Enter Freeze. Freeze did not have time to get a recruiting class together for the 2012 season. His class barely made the top 50. That is much like Coach Jones first recruiting class. He didn’t have much to recruit after Dooley was fired, but did a little better than Freeze. The real issue at Tennessee was that Dooley had no recruits in the pipeline at all, and the cupboard was bare from Kiffin’s debacle, and from Dooley’s inept and non existent recruiting efforts.
But here is the main difference. Freeze won with what players he had in 2012. He took the Rebels to a bowl game in his first season. He went 7-6 in his first season. As a matter of fact they won that bowl game against over Pittsburgh in the Compass Bowl.
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Freeze made headlines following the 2012 season by signing many of the players that the Vols will see on Saturday. Many of those are Tennessee kids. That hurts bad. As donkey said to Shrek, “you cut me real deep”. That signing class not only resulted in signing the number one player in the country which is Robert Nkimdiche, but ended up the 2nd best recruiting class in the country.
In his next season, Freeze guided the Ole Miss Rebels, with a gangly Pulaski, Tennessee quarterback that actually wanted to be a Vol to another bowl win with an 8-5 record. He had another great recruiting class last season, but it was not a top five class. The Rebels now sit at the top of the toughest division in the toughest conference in College Football after back to back wins against Alabama, and Texas A&M. Of course their Rivals share that SEC West Lead.
The Rebels are ranked #3 in the country. They have the #1 ranked defense in the country, and one of the best passing offenses in the country. It will be tough on Tennessee this Saturday, but I will go over that later.
Unlike Freeze, Butch Jones has not won…yet. He led the Vols to an upset victory over South Carolina in his first year which shows promise. He lost to Georgia in overtime on a fumble by Pig Howard at the pylon. He lost to Vanderbilt in the last seconds of their game in his first season last year. He played Georgia close this year, and had Florida beaten before the hapless Gators scored 10 unanswered in the final 8 minutes to win 10-9. He is close.
Like Freeze, Jones is building the program back by recruiting fast and furious. He is getting the best of the best to buy into Tennessee. The Vols are on the rise, and on the rise fast. Jones had a top 5 class in his first full recruiting season and has a monster class coming in next season if it keeps together. Overall Jones is out-recruiting Freeze if you go by Rivals class rankings. However Freeze is killing it in Tennessee, and has the top player in Tennessee committed as of now.
So the purpose of this whole article is to give Vol fans a little encouragement. The Rebels went from zero to hero in three years. The Vols are just now in year two. So give Butch time, and this team time. I would love for Butch to have had back to back bowl seasons as Freeze. It would be great to get to a Bowl this year.
Most Vol fans keep looking for those 6 magical wins on the schedule. The Vols sit at 3-3. At the beginning of the year most Tennessee fans penciled in Ole Miss as a possible win. I’m not sure about that now. After Ole Miss, Tennessee gets Alabama, South Carolina, Missouri, Kentucky and Vanderbilt. Finding 3 “gimmees” in that group is not easy.
Again, this will be a game that the Vols will be able to measure their progress, and see where they may possibly be in another year. It happened in Oxford, it can happen in Knoxville.