Another low point in a season of low points

Just when things seem like they can’t get any worse, they do. That’s not to say it won’t get even worse because it can with unanimous No. 1 LSU and in-state rival Mississippi State coming up to finish out the Houston Nutt era in Oxford. 

This past Monday, Ole Miss (2-8, 0-6 SEC) fired Nutt but also announced he would coach the remaining three games. 

All week, the players talked about playing the last three games to send their coach off on a good note. Saturday’s 27-7 loss to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs (6-4, 4-1 WAC) was probably not what the players had in mind. 

With the loss, the Rebels are moving toward their first two-win season since 1946, as well as the program’s first-ever 10-loss season.

“This is a very difficult situation,” Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt said. “We were up at the beginning; we felt good about that with 7-0. After that, it just went down. I thought our defense played extremely hard and gave us a chance, but you have to score points. Randall Mackey was not at his best tonight. We need for him to be at his best.

“It was just bad. It was a bad deal.”

Junior quarterbacks Randall Mackey and Zack Stoudt both struggled, the offense turned the ball over three times, including two returned for touchdowns, and Louisiana Tech freshman walk-on running back Hunter Lee gashed the defense for 127 yards on 24 carries. Things were so ugly in fact, that at one point, Rebel the Black Bear couldn’t stand to watch and put a large cardboard box over his head.

“It is a mascot; they do goofy and dumb stuff to get kids and others laughing,” said Michael Thompson, senior associate athletics director for communications and marketing. “Rebel, being the young bear that he is, made a poor decision. Will he do that again? No.

“Look at the positives and all Rebel is doing. Remember the number of hours he has put in, while being a student. He has put a lot of sweat into that costume, literally. Night in and night out, he is the ultimate superfan.”

As has been so often the case this season, Ole Miss jumped out to a 7-0 lead when Mackey found senior running back Brandon Bolden for a 34-yard touchdown in the first quarter. However, those would be the only points Ole Miss put on the board.

“That was a living nightmare right there,” offensive coordinator David Lee said. “I’m embarrassed. Our offense is embarrassed. Early, we had big-time pass protections, but there was one guy we couldn’t block. Randall is a guy that if he doesn’t get into a rhythm then he may struggle, and he struggled. And it all went downhill from there.”

On the next Louisiana Tech possession, freshman defensive end C.J. Johnson, who led the team with nine tackles in his first career start, forced a fumble that was recovered by freshman safety Cody Prewitt to give Ole Miss great field position, but it would do no good. Despite two 15-yard penalties by the Bulldogs, the Rebels’ drive stalled in the red zone and junior kicker Bryson Rose missed a 36-yard field goal, which ended his streak of consecutive field goals at 17. With a successful field goal, Rose would have tied the SEC record.

Louisiana Tech junior kicker Matt Nelson missed from 40 yards and then 35 yards before junior quarterback Colby Cameron scrambled to found senior wide receiver Taulib Ikharo behind four Ole Miss defenders in the back of the end zone for a 21-yard touchdown pass to tie the game, 7-7.

With under a minute left in the half, Lee broke a 48-yard run to move the ball into Ole Miss territory. Nelson capped the five-play, 63-yard drive with a 43-yard field goal to give the Bulldogs a 10-7 lead.

Midway through the third quarter, Rose missed his second field goal of the game, a 52-yard attempt. Then, on Louisiana Tech’s next possession, Cameron threw a screen pass to junior wide receiver Myles Nelson for a 47-yard gain to set up a 35-yard field goal from Nelson to extend the lead to 13-7.

The next Ole Miss possession resulted in Mackey’s second fumble of the game, this on the quarterback-running back exchange, which was recovered and returned for a touchdown by Louisiana Tech junior defensive back Chad Boyd to take the lead out to 20-7.

The Bulldogs were driving once again early in the fourth quarter, but Cameron was intercepted by freshman cornerback Senquez Golson, the first of his career.

“I was very proud of Senquez Golson,” Nix said. “He’s learned from some things, and he will be a heck of a football player before he leaves here. With all the scrutiny he took against Alabama, to see him go out there and compete the way he did tonight just speaks volumes about that kid and his character.”

Two plays later Stoudt, who replaced Mackey, threw an interception that was returned for a touchdown by Louisiana Tech junior safety Javontay Crowe to make it 27-7, which is where the embarrassment would end.

The search committee, co-chaired by legendary quarterback Archie Manning and FedEx vice president T. Michael Glenn, have a monumental task ahead of them – not only rebuilding the football program from the ground up, but also restoring its credibility and energizing the fan base.