Want some insight into how quickly a season can change for the worse?

While I see your point, I was going to be happy this year with an 8-5 season. Dropping 3/6 of the following games is pretty much worst case scenario at this point, 4-2 would be unexpected. I'd be stoked at 9-4 to end the season and expect 10-3

Ole Miss
UGA
Vandy
FCS
Bama
Bowl Game

I also thought OP was linking the '14 A&M game. That'd probably be the best example for us.

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I also thought OP was linking the '14 A&M game. That'd probably be the best example for us.

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First off, some of us could see the trainwreck in the distance in '14. Our defense, which appeared to be pretty solid after KState and LSU, was exposed against MSU in week 6. Then, in case we thought it was just a fluke, both Ole Freeze and Scarolina moved on us at will, and we won those games solely on the backs of our offense. Which wasn't enough to sustain us the rest of the way.

This year, unlike '14 (and '15 for that matte) we are improving on both sides of the ball. While I seriously doubt our numbers at the end of the year will be as gaudy as they are right now, I don't see us going into a significant slump.

Actually, I had intended to illustrate the evolution of the mindset of next opponent's fanbase. From the linked page in their season thread:

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Watching Aub and LSU I just don't see how they can possibly score with us. I feel that we gonna get in a groove in a big kind of way coming up.

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Watched LSU vs Auburn and not concerned. Watching aTm vs Arky and am thinking they will be tough to beat. Knight is a dual threat, Allen is accurate on 3rd down and they both have good defenses.

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LSU and Auburn "should" be comfortable wins.

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Then, somewhere around page 109, reality starts to sink in, somewhat:

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Arkandas' staff coaches circles around us again... Wommack is Enos' prison bitch for the second straight season.

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We probably aren't as bad as we showed against Arky and aren't as good as we showed against UGA/Bama. It's easy to lose your shite after the Arky game, but I don't think our WR's will play that bad again and I think that was by far our worst game on defense all year. We will be ok. I think we finish 8-4 or 7-5. I think we lose to either LSU and/or A&M. Auburn is possible but I don't think their offense is very good and it's a home game.

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Finally, reports from AU-Arky start to trickle in, and their predicament becomes crystal clear:

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Arkansas is getting beat 21-0 in the first quarter. We are fricked

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Auburn is winning 42-3. Our team is so amazing!

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Auburn has 500+ yards rushing against Arkansas on 53 carries. We had two weeks to prepare and ran the ball 17 times with running backs...but yall wanna fire the DC??? Lol

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Then, of course, they proceeded to shite the bed against their idiot savant former HC. And things got ugly on page 115 - I won't quote all the comments, but this one pretty much sums it up:

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This season is starting to smell a lot like 2011...where players just give up. I hope I'm wrong. Guys on the sideline arguing during the game. Guys are out there on offense and defense and literally have no clue what they should be doing.

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Sad, really.













(not really)

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This thing could come off the tracks quick on freeze... with a&m and aubunr left to play.

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I'm really rooting for this to happen. I'd like to see them come into Nashville with their tails between their legs and let Webb and Blasingame pound them into oblivion. By the way, if you haven't seen Vandy, Khari Blasingame is a converted LBer who is basically VU's Pettway Lite.

As for the original topic, teams can come off the tracks with the quickness. It can take one game or seemingly one play turning into a snowball effect. Obviously, you hope a team is strong enough in its identity, coaching, and leadership to withstand the storms. The real problem for Ole Miss right is the weight of expectations. I think Freeze and the players had kinda bought into their own hype. Getting smacked with the stark reality that they are not just going to stroll onto the field and be great is a hit they look unable to recover from.

Gathered is a whole different vibe to this team.

That defense isn't going to falter. They are for real.

The OL is getting into rhythm and making holes.

I don't see the 2014 happening here.

Bama will be the biggest question mark of course. That doesn't mean we take any of the other three SEC games lightly at all, but we should have 4-5 wins and need LSU to take out A&M.

I am just pleased that the season is full of intriguwpe and possibilities. Our offense pissed me off because I knew our defense was going to ball out.

There are those moments I look back specifically at Clemson and know we should have won that game.

I'd be over the moon if we won 10 games. Been awhile since we did that and not had a championship run. AU needs to have these kinds of seasons every couple of years.

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It can take one game or seemingly one play turning into a snowball effect. Obviously, you hope a team is strong enough in its identity, coaching, and leadership to withstand the storms.

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I wonder how much of this really happens, and how much of it is just fanbases projecting their emotions onto their teams.

That said, the moment I felt like we had turned it around was when Tony Stevens mishandled a good pass and MSU intercepted it in our red zone on our very first possession. I probably wasn't alone when I thought "Oh shite, here we go again..."

Then the defense came in and shut them down, and their kicker missed a chip shot. And our offense came right back out and marched it into the endzone, with a big catch by Stevens putting us in scoring position. THAT was where I began to think we had something special.

Still a long way to go, but we are certainly heading in the right direction.

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here we go again..."

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My thoughts exactly when that pass was picked off.

To Gus's credit, he hasn't lost a team yet... there were plenty opportunities last year for that team to lay down, but it never really happened. We were competitive in pretty much every game and he had his team motivated to play a meaningless bowl game. The closest he's come to losing his team was Athens two years ago... but we bounced back and played bama off their feet in Tuscaloosa. LSU was bad last year, but we played a decent 2nd half.