Ole Miss Football: Grove Grinder, The Hunt For A New DC

Well Ole Miss football may be sitting at home for bowl season but there is a major focus on finding a new defensive coordinator.

The 2018 Ole Miss football season was over two weeks ago but there is still a lot of talking among Rebels fans about the program. There is no doubt this was a tough season and in the end many of us knew changes would need to be made in the major area we were lacking and that being the defensive side of the ball.

Coach Wesley McGriff was relieved of his duties as defensive coordinator the Friday after the Egg Bowl and we all knew a search was coming. Now after two weeks there have been quite a few names dropped left and right and Ole Miss football still has no defensive coordinator. So now many Ole Miss fans are beginning to expect the worst and we have good reason given our history of Ole Miss football failures in the past.

Not An Easy Search

Ole Miss Rebels

First, if we begin to look at the focus on finding a new DC and not being any closer to making a hire after two weeks then it raises even more doubt and more questions for Rebels fans. Sure, over the past two weeks Rebels fans have been expecting something better from Matt Luke and the Ole Miss admin but we are still at zero.

Rebels fans aren’t happy about the current state of affairs within the football program but Rebels fans are very opinionated and very impatient. We’ve all been waiting for some glimmer of hope from this admin and we haven’t seen it as of yet.

However, Rebels fans need to remember this won’t be an easy process for a number of reasons. There are issues which Matt Luke, Ross Bjork and Rebels fans all have to deal with and this process has to play out.

The Search Is A Process

The 2018 edition of Ole Miss football ended on Thanksgiving night. We already knew what our outcome for the season would be regardless of the outcome of the Egg Bowl might be. The final score had no impact on where we are now than other to know we are now looking for a new DC. So why do we not have a new DC yet you ask?

Well the search is a process which isn’t easy for anybody included. We know where we are as a football program because of everything which has happened over the last six years. Besides that issue we also had our season come to an end. Our season may have ended on Thanksgiving night and there are still teams playing which have DCs who still have games to play. Can we honestly expect to see a new DC within two weeks? Not really.

While we are still sitting at home watching other teams over the next month there will be DCs looking for a move up. The process of finding the best replacement for the Ole Miss football program is difficult because of what we’ve addressed and yet made harder by the fact there is still football left to be played in 2018. In the search for a new DC the longer we wait the better the end result may be.

Lots Of Rumors

Naturally as with any coaching search there are favorite candidates and then candidates which raise concerns and questions. If you’ve spent anytime on social media then you have seen quite a few names dropped. Of course, this has fed the rumor mill which is spinning wildly. So after two weeks what is truth and what is really fiction?

What we do know is who is being considered for the DC position. We do know Pete Golding from Bama is high on the list despite what we’ve heard of him declining the job. For now Pete Golding is the favorite for the job and as far as we know Ole Miss is the only job he truly is interested in. Then there is Mike MacIntyre from Colorado State. MacIntyre has ties to Ole Miss and it is widely known he is interested in the job.

For what it’s worth we would be good with either or and would be significantly better on the defensive side of the ball in 2019. After all that is the plan and Matt Luke knows this DC hire needs to be not just good but great for him to expect to stay as HC at Ole Miss. While neither of these coaches may have been on our wish list we know either would be a great hire.

So for now we continue to wait for a hire amid the rumors and slivers of what we can decipher as truth. While many of us may want a specific name on mentioned when the hire is made we do know it couldn’t get much worse than what we’ve seen on the field defensively and any hire has to be better for the Ole Miss football program. Yet still we wait. Hotty Toddy!