The Official Sports Wookie Cause

(picture from Ole Miss Sports.com)

The Sports Wookie wants to use his page to reach some sort of greater good. While we've had numerous other "unofficial" causes; most notably the removal of a previous football coach. But with all the exposure the site gets between its three viewers it can help spread the word for some noble cause. While there are plenty of great causes from restoring wildlife, protecting the environment, or assisting less fortunate children and youth. But those are causes better suited for promotion by specific groups.

However one thing that has been on the mind of the Sports Wookie for years is the great injustice that the University of Mississippi has done to former Rebel running back Deuce McAllister. The Wookie has had the opportunity to meet Mr. McAllister on a few occasions and has been blown away with how friendly and engaging he is. But its more than that. McAllister is know for his charity work, post-Katrina work and the work of his foundation. He also truly cares for his fan as anyone who read his ad thanking his fans for their support after his season ending knee injury could tell. He is a better ambassador for Ole Miss than the university could ever dream of having.

Which is why it's past time the University named the Football Indoor Practice Facility after Deuce. McAllister personally donated a million dollars toward the construction of the facility to give back to the football program that had given him the boost to the National Football League. However the University at the time refrained naming the building with hopes that naming rights would bait another booster into making a significant donation to pay off the facility. Which never happened. Instead now the building is virtually paid off and still remains nameless.

To this day McAllister has given the largest public donation to the University for the construction of the facility. It is high time the university rights its past wrongs and officially declares the building, "The McAllister Indoor Facility."

If the SEC was a Sandwhich

If each head coach was a Sandwich chain, here is how I think it would shake out.

Subway = Bobby Johnson. Quality Sandwich at a quality price but you know you could get a little better and its facilities has no appeal.

Lenny's = Nick Saban. Pretty good sandwich but you know you're overpaying for it. No matter how good that pepper relish is you know you could almost enjoy a cheaper sandwich without it.

McAllister's = Phat Phil Fulmer. The facilities are cheesy, the sandwich sucks and is overpriced but they've been marketed well and are known throughout the country now.

Newk's = Mark Richt. Decent sandwich just slightly overpriced. Has other good items on the menu so can do some other small things well that makes up for it. The better ingredients make you over look some things.

Quiznos = Bobby Petrino. Some how the second largest sub franchise in the country. Decent sandwich but way overpriced and having to deal with bad publicity as to how it handles its franchisees.

Blimpie = Steve Spurrier Pretty good sandwich at one point but times are starting to pass it by as the competitors are getting bigger cutting into its funding and its struggling without quality ingredients.

Obie's = Sly Croom. Decent sandwich and the problem isn't really the over priced as the tiny portions. With so little to work with you wonder if it can make it against the other sandwich chains.

Boston Market = Urban Meyer. Real up and comer in the sandwich world but not a pure sandwich shop. Doesn't really fit in because of its menu but you can't deny its food.

Firehouse Sub's = Tubberville. Pretty good sandwich that is always flying under the radar. You can't figure out what you're craving and you talk yourself out of it but after dismissing other sandwiches its still there in the end and looking a lot better.

Panera Bread = Rich Brooks. Never see it around anywhere so you have to wonder if its about to go out of business. Old people seem to love it though and keep it going and claim it has great bagel sandwiches.

Steak Escape = Les Miles. Sells a decent amount of sandwiches but you'd think it would do better with a captive market in a shopping mall.

Arby's = Houston Nutt. Great roast beef sandwich at a great price that's been around for a while. Some will disrespect for it failing to create a non roast beef sandwich and desire something greater. And you can't figure out what to make of the horrible oven mitt ads.

Honorary Mention

Cap'n D's Fish Sandwich = Ed Orgeron. Terrible quality fish that smells bad that only coonasses seem to like.

Weekly Theme Music

Merry Christmas to all. And my present to my three readers will hopefully be the 2007 football awards. Stay tuned.

Sports Wookie Exclusive

Many are wondering what former Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron is up to after being fired. It appears he's not unemployed as this Sports Wookie exclusive seems to confirm his current whereabouts somewhere in the Mississippi Sound.

Coaching Changes

The Rebels have a new coach in Houston Nutt whose a prove winner in the SEC. Nutt has his flaws. A little texting scandal involving an unattractive news reporter and difficulty developing a passing game. But he's a coach that's won in the SEC, more importantly the SEC west getting to Atlanta a few times. And while Arkansas has more money thanks to some high profile boosters the state of Arkansas doesn't produce the talent that Mississippi does. So its a pretty even situation. He's also always had dominate running games. The Reverend Nutt's a solid recruiter but not spectacular. He does a great job of developing the talent he brings in. And his players loved to play for him. Which wasn't the case for his predecessor in Oxford. But then if I wrote everything he was better at then Eddie I'd run out of room on the blog.

He's also a little crazy. But CRAZY LIKE A FOX! Which is fun. And the Red Fox is the state mammal of Mississippi so that has to be a good sign.

The true test is how does he compare with the rest of the SEC. Because beating the pants off of Eddie doesn't mean anything. High school coaches, err church league coaches could do that. I hate to do a 1-12 ranking of the coaches because its really more of a tiered approach. If you have a flaw your relatively equal to another with just one different but single flaw. The only easy thing is that Fat Phil Fulmer is 12th. No one in the country gets less out of more than Fulmer. He's the anti-Jim Grobe. He can recruit and Cut calls a solid game offensively. But this is what makes the SEC so tough because the leagues worst coach has won a title.

I made this graph to illustrate the coaches respective rankings.(click to enlarge)

In the same spirit I researched into the respective wives of the SEC coaches and created the SEC Coaches Wives Index seen below. The idea spawned from Deep South Sport's rankings of the top five wives a few years ago. I couldn't find a picture or even evidence that Jeri Croom actually exists. So I'm operating under a theory that she really is Jeri Ryan and is never around during football season because she's in Hollywood filming Shark with James Woods. Have to say some of the coaches, ahem Saban, that came in low on the index really surprised me. Especially ones that are know as great recruiters, ahem Saban. The Coaching changes in the last couple of years also really hurt the index because Mike Shula's wife would have easily come in second behind Jeri Croom-Ryan. Vicky Fulmer gets a little bump for having an attractive daughter and older pictures. They last few years have been rough in Vol nation.

(click to enlarge)

State Recap

Well the Egg is back in Oxford but the Rebels were the big winners Thanksgiving weekend. What is funny now is to see how fast the Eddie apologist, including our friend from Canada, now say he needed to be fired.

(Pictures from The Clarion Ledger)

THE GOOD

For three quarters the Rebels whipped the Bulldogs. They showed they had the players to win. They have a lot of returning talent for next year. Some of the young players stepped up and had a really good game like freshman safety Johnny Brown. Next year the Rebels will have a lot of holes but have enough players that with good coaching they can win some games next year.

The game also saw the end of the Eddie Era after he blew a 14 point lead late in the fourth quarter. Of course it all worked out in the end because he was fired in less than 24 hours. So to all my State friends and acquaintances, including the fine chap who introduced me to the Lady Wookie, thank you for making this happen. Rebel Nation can't thank you enough.

THE BAD

After playing well for three quarters and pitching a shut out the Rebel defense let it slip in the fourth. A lot of this was because the momentum clearly shifted after Eddie's disastrous call to go for it in his own territory on fourth down. Predictably the call didn't work and State managed to see their first offensive production of the game and marched down the field to score.


The Rebels also had plenty of chances to hold onto the game due after allowing State to score. If the Rebels could have achieved a few first downs they could have run out the clock to win. State even tried to give it away when their true freshman quarterback Wesley Carroll threw a redzone pick on their second to last drive. However the Rebel receivers could not hold onto the ball and make the big catch when they had to make it. If the receivers make these crucial third down catches the Rebs win the game easily.

THE UGLY

As it has been through out the Eddie Era special teams were the Rebels final undoing. After appearing to lock up the game with Ashlee Palmer's interception the Rebels allow a punt return touchdown to tie the game. Besides from the lack of coverage the most hideous thing was the punt itself. Needing to back the bulldogs up as much as possible the Rebels punt the ball about 8 feet in the air in a line about 30 yards right at the Derek Pegues, the Bulldog return man, with less than a second hang time. The Rebels never had a chance to cover the punt and Pegues was able to split right through and into the endzone easily. This punt singlehandedly lost the game and was the worst special teams display since Jonathan Nichols missed two gimme field goals against LSU in '03.

I hope with a real coach coming to Oxford he'll be able to manage the special teams and turn it into a strength. Hopefully force the opponent to start the game deeper than the 35 after a kickoff occasionally.

LSU Recap

I'm sure y'all have all been wondering, "now why don't he write?"

Well I couldn't watch the LSU game so I arranged for a guest commentator. I then waited for a while for the guest commentator because I didn't want to leave it out. Then I became a slacker, got to excited about Houston Nutt's hiring that I spent my time reading articles about him and neglected the site. I apologize to all three of my readers.

Anyway when the BatDave gets around to re-caping the game I'll fill it in below: