Tough Road for Ole Miss
The SEC schedule makers were not kind to Mississippi. After coming off of a very disappointing 4-8 campaign in 2010, the Rebels could have used a break. This is a good team that should be able to dominate on the ground with Brandon Bolden and a bevy of big, talented linemen leading the way. Yet, to reach the six win mark they will have to win some games on the road.
The Rebels four conference home games are against Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas and LSU. To many, those are the four best teams in the Southeastern Conference. The Rebels are definitely capable of pulling off an upset or two out of that run at the friendly confines Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, but they will not be favored in any of those games, barring a surprise or two along the way.
The road games are the winnable ones. Trips to Vanderbilt, Auburn, Kentucky and Mississippi State are not too daunting. But the road is the road and teams like Auburn and Kentucky will be looking at that game as a winnable contest that can help them reach the six win plateau.
Mississippi and Coach Houston Nutt start off the 2011 season with a couple non-conference home games. The first is against BYU. That will be a very interesting game that could set the tone for the rest of the season for both the Rebels and Cougars. Following that is what appears to be an easy victory over FCS opponent Southern Illinois. However, SIU is a very good FCS team. To see how good they are, keep an eye on CollegeSportsMadness.com’s FCS Top 44 rankings. And this is an Ole Miss team that lost to Jacksonville State last season, which is a comparable squad to Southern Illinois this year.
The other non-conference games are against a couple favorites in the WAC. Surely the WAC is not as strong as it was in the past, but going to Fresno State is never easy. Better teams have gone to Fresno and come away with a loss. Louisiana Tech will be a tricky game too. With LSU looming the following week, that may be a game the Rebels inadvertently look past and by November we should know how big of a mistake that will be.
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