Ole Miss Football: Grove Grinder, Learn To Face The Change

Over the years for Ole Miss football fans ‘change’ is something which has more or less been forced upon us, but change isn’t always bad.

Over the years Ole Miss football fans have seen their share of change. Just in my lifetime I have seen 12 different coaches, numerous athletic directors, a few chancellors and three mascots. Like most Ole Miss football fans I have had little control over any of the above other complete and total acceptance. I mean really what other choice do we have other than simply accept whatever the University doles out?

Now this is by no means about athletic directors, chancellors or even mascots. It definitely isn’t a call to action to boycott the University of Mississippi. What it is a positive approach to what we have to accept. Like most Ole Miss football fans I have never once questioned where my die-hard heart lay. Amid all the turmoil which the University has been thru over the years most Rebels, like myself have been more dedicated to the school and the athletics programs.

Change may not always be what we want or expect and at times it can even be disappointing. At some point though it eventually becomes better. Change happens to all of us and while we may not agree with the circumstances it doesn’t have to be bad. Change can be good for us in many cases and it is usually made bad because of our own doing. Not all the changes we’ve seen may have been what we wanted but now we have to make the best of it. Regardless of how you feel about all the other changes we do need to give the three new coaching changes a chance.

Changes Can Be Needed

Ole Miss Rebels

I can rewind to the exact spot I was at and who I was talking to when I learned Hugh Freeze had been forced to resign as head coach at Ole Miss. I was just arriving to the 2017 Neshoba County Fair when I got the call and needless to say I was shocked like most Ole Miss fans.

Of course, the following week was pretty rough at the NCF being a Ole Miss football fan. I took all the jokes and insults secretly hoping inside I would have the last laugh on Thanksgiving and I did. Now I can admit Matt Luke was not my first choice for head coach until that moment.

I can also remember how I watched as a former basketball coach quit on his team last season. Just like the situation with Hugh Freeze, I have no idea why AK did what he did but I do know it bothered me more than it should have I guess. I had once worked for Andy’s dad and had seen him grow up in the game of basketball. Once again I was shocked.

Then we have the Ole Miss women’s basketball team. Like many Ole Miss women’s hoops fans I really wasn’t at all shocked by the departure of Matt Insell. He actually made the program worse than it was when he was hired and how a coach can do that in the SEC in this day and age is beyond me. We all point at a coach and say we could do a better job and in this case it is an absolute truth. But hey we aren’t here to hammer on former coaches.

Changes Can Be Good

So after 7 games Ole Miss football coach and former player Matt Luke has the Rebels sitting at No.4 in the SEC with a 5-2 record, the only losses so far coming to No.1 and No.5. Luke now has an overall record of 11-8 and has one of the most exciting offenses in the nation. Right now we were supposed to be a 3-4 team at best in a rebuilding year as a result of an obsessed TSBU writer and overzealous NCAA investigator. Apparently the Luke and the Rebels didn’t get that memo. Tomorrow we face Auburn and I have faith in Matt Luke and this team.

This past week was the SEC Tipoff 2018 which is basically the basketball version of SEC Media Days. Naturally, it was the first trip to SEC Tipoff for the new Ole Miss basketball coach Kermit Davis. We will have a piece coming out soon about last weeks visit to Birmingham for Davis, Terence Davis and Bruce Stevens. For now I will say this, this hire is the very best decision which could have been made going forward for the Ole Miss basketball program. Kermit Davis is a proven winner with a great philosophy and despite him being an MSU grad he was absolutely my first choice.

I have been tough on AD Ross Bjork but the hiring of Yolett McPhee-McCuin could be one of the best moves he has made as AD. Coach McPhee-McCuin comes from a basketball family and has been through the grind of intercollegiate women’s basketball. She coached at Jacksonville University where she turned around another program in shambles and it is believed she will do the same at Ole Miss. I’ll admit I had never heard of her although I had heard of her father ‘Moon’ McPhee who is a legend in the Bahamas. After doing the research she may have not been my first choice but she can’t go anywhere but up with the Ole Miss program.

Changes Can Be Exciting

Sometimes changes can be exciting even when we aren’t really sure what to expect. I’ve really tried to limit the change in my life as I have gotten older hoping to leave nothing to pure chance. I mean we all love the constants in our lives and when change comes and it involves the unknown it can seem a little sketchy. At Ole Miss we’ve become accustomed to change whether we like it or not and when it comes to coaches it is really no different.

Yes coaches may be a part of change we didn’t really want but it was what was needed at the time for each of the above programs. While we obviously have little say in the choices made at the University of Mississippi we do have a responsibility to voice our displeasure, I know I certainly have and will continue to do so when it borders being ridiculous. Sadly there has been a lot of that concerning the Flagship University over the past number of years.

When it comes to whoever is at the helm of the sports programs at Ole Miss they deserve our support. When it comes to these three coaches, they could care less about mascots, all they want to do is win games and that is exciting. That should be good enough for all of us. I know it’s good enough for me. Give us something good on the field and on the court and mascots really wouldn’t matter. Good luck to Kermit Davis and Yolett McPhee-McCuin in their upcoming seasons and good luck to coach Matt Luke as the Rebels face the Auburn Tigers Saturday. Hotty Toddy!