Why would any top recruit play football in Mississippi?

The Ole Miss program is in trouble. Mississippi State isn’t much better—Dan Mullen couldn’t beat an Auburn team with one of the worst defenses in recent memory. It is easy to see—things are a mess in Mississippi.

The 30-7 loss to Vanderbilt is one sign that the Houston Nutt era is coming to an end in Oxford, Mississippi. The only question is whether Ole Miss and its incompetent leaders will wait until the end of the season to fire Coach Nutt. When your athletic director speaks to the Rivals.com fan website and calls your team’s performance “unacceptable,” you are in trouble. (Source: free article over at Rebel Grove.)

Big trouble.

The same athletic director fired another warning shot, “This is not the kind of football Ole Miss is supposed to play or is going to play.”

When a fan website runs this type of story and an athletic director makes these kinds of comments, Houston Nutt’s days are over at Ole Miss. The Rebels are headed in a new direction.

What direction is anyone’s guess.

The leadership hasn’t exactly made wise choices in the past. Ole Miss fired David Cutcliffe—a bad move. Ole Miss hired Ed Orgeron—a dumbass move.

Now the administration calls out its coach in front of fans and recruits?

Should fans just forget about this recruiting class?

It sounds like the athletic department leadership is the bigger culprit in the collapse of Ole Miss football. The athletic director fired Cutcliffe after one losing season and then subjected the SEC to the idiocy of Orgeron.

It may be time to sever ties with Houston Nutt, but this type of amateur talk illustrates the problem in Oxford.

And that problem is all about leadership.

The leadership is clueless.

It treated Cutcliffe poorly. It is treating Nutt and fans poorly today. If fans are serious about change, they should insist on change at the top.

16 thoughts on “COMMENTARY: Leadership is the problem at Ole Miss”

  1. Ole Miss fans have been pleading for years to get rid of Pete Boone the incompetent athletic director that has been in charge of making all of these unacceptable decisions. We are begging for a change at the top.

    1. Good luck in making the needed change. Alabama was hurt for years by poor leadership. Alabama got lucky with a good new president in Dr. Witt. It is amazing what that has done for the entire university.

    2. at least the guy was trying to be honest.

      how many coaches, embroiled in controversy, have appeared at press conferences, their a d’s arm on their shoulders pledging allegiance only to have them stick the knife in their backs at the end of the season?

      (think mark richt)

  2. Vandy’s 23 point win was the biggest margin of victory over any SEC team since their 1992, 4-7 team beat Ole Miss 31-9.

  3. It’s that stupid “black bear” thing. We’ve been cursed since they took the Rebel away. BRING BACK COLONEL REB!! (And yes, a change in leadership would help, too.)

  4. remember when everyone was singing the praises of houston nutt?

    how he was going to lead ole piss out of the wilderness??

    remember who told you NOT???

    “We’ve been cursed since they took the Rebel away.”

    no, it goes back a little further than that.

    (think archie manning)

  5. wait a minute-we made a mistake in firing David Cutcliffe?The ‘offensive genius’ who cost Fat Phil his job,and lost to Richmond last week?You lost all credibilty with that comment…

  6. I agree with most everything that you wrote. However, there is one thing that you and most other writers have failed to try to understand. While it is easy to blame OM for firing Cutcliff for one losing season, there is more to the story. David was ill and was hardly working his last year. He was offered coaching help and assets but refused. He all but forced the buyout. If one checked, they would find that he could not show up at Notre Dame as OC as he was very ill. But I understand that getting fired after one losing season makes a better story.

  7. Why would any college student go to school at Alabama. Auburn is not much better. Those of us in Ohio know they all live in trailer parks and marry their first cousin.

    1. yeah, and those of us across the country now know those in ohio would rather jump off a building to cheat than to stand in front of you and play by the rules.

      go flush the columbus commode.

      then come back.

  8. @ jcrag- You are one dumb b****. I will bet you are really Indy Vol. You have never been to the great state of Alabama. GTH. RTR.

  9. sad you call what we currently have “leadership”. the chancellor, Boone, and nutt need to go. nothing speaks like withholding money. they won’t get a dime from me anymore until the 3 of them are gone.

  10. Your comments are well taken except for those trying to drum up support for David Cutcliff. The reason for that support is obvious since he is an Alabama graduate, and washed jocks for the Bear. However, Cut was fired for a very GOOD reason. He refused to follow the orders of the Athletic Director; in addition he was already suffering from a serious heart condition which he kept hidden from the AD and the fans. Cut had NO energy to fulfill the duties of an SEC head coach, pure and simple. He also had several members of his coaching staff that were at best incompetent and yet he refused to make the needed changes to improve that part of the equation. What businessman today allows an employee to be insubordinate, which Cut was. THAT was the reason for his firing.

    Yes, there is a huge leadership problem @ Ole Miss. It starts with Pete Boone and his nit picking, nickel and dime interference with all the athletic coaches, including especially Houston Nutt. No coach in their right mind would want to work for Pete Boone. Until HE is removed our problems are unsolveable, IMO. He was a great success as a banker; he is an abject failure as an AD.

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