And you know you won't have biased commentary when the former assistant to the athletic director/ "Executive Director for Rebel Sports Marketing" for one of the schools and now TeleSouth Communications Vice President is your color commentator. Interesting rumor going around. ESPN wanted the game but on Sunday afternoon. Rebels refused to move the game to Sunday.
Ole Miss and Memphis are complete opposites other than the fact that both had horrible seasons last year. Memphis is coming off a season where they were embarrassing on defense. The Joe Lee Dunn era came to a crashing halt as he was fired mid season. Ole Miss on the other hand had one of the worst offenses in the SEC. If you watched any of the games stats are not needed to prove that point.
The top returning tacklers for Memphis are Mississippi products Heath Grant and Quinton McCrary. Which is not altogether surprising since Memphis has 21 Mississippians on the roster. Oddly though Heath Grant has been replaced during fall camp at middle linebacker by redshirt freshman "Stone" Bowens. The Memphis defense also packs a little Ole Miss flavor since three players and two starters are former Ole Miss players. Former Ole Miss linebacker Dontae Reed (who actually drew a start in Ogerzook's first season) will start at strong safety for the Tigers. Corey Mills and Jada Brown are one and two at left side defensive end. The Tigers hope this group has improved from last years defense which gave up 230 passing yards a game and 178 rushing yards a game. Even Ole Miss saw its highest offensive out put last season against the Tigers scoring 28 points. 
On the other hand the Tigers return a pretty strong offensive team. The Tigers passing game
was particularly solid group that could get plenty of yards running the spread offense. (Which Ole Miss has had trouble defending since it was invented.) Quarterback Martin Hankins returns after throwing for 2550 yards at 59.9% for 18 TDs with only 13 Ints. All-Purpose "Scat" back Joseph Doss returns after rushing for 910 yards last year and 205 receiving yards. (Topping the Predators all purpose yards 1115 to 1043) Memphis also returns a deadly group of receivers lead by Duke Calhoun who had 681 yards last season. They all have good size as well as Memphis has 5 receivers in there top 6 who are listed as 6'3" or taller. (Including one who is 6'8")This spread offense will be a big challenge for a relitively green Ole Miss defense. The only linebacker returning from last year's team is Jonathan Cornell. And Cornell is apparently nicked up and wearing a yellow "no contact" jersey in practice this week. Expect the Tigers to also try to exploit Ole Miss's starting true freshman 282 pound middle linebacker Chris Herring Strong in the passing game as well. The strong side linebacker Ashley Palmer has never played linebacker before. Instead his background as a safety in junior college might prove helpful in stopping this vaunted passing attack. Jamarca Sanford and the defensive backfield will need to have a solid day in order to keep the Rebels in this game.
On offense expect the Rebels to have some growing pains in the passing game as well with first time starter Seth Adams. Luckily for the Rebels Seth shouldn't have to do to much. The Rebels offensive line should be able to control the relatively small defensive front. The Tigers also like ideal speed at the linebacker position. Therefore the Predator should have a pretty good day running with the football. With the Rebels controlling the ground game Seth shouldn't have to do to much and just keep from giving up the costly turnovers that will kill a team. Just ask Hening. I'm expecting a lot of offense in this one as both defenses start the game looking sloppy. Could come down to which offense doesn't self destruct. Of course I predict that so expect another 3 to 0 game like the last time I went the Liberty Bowl.
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