re: The program Hugh inherited and why you should take notice of Ole Miss football

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True but it's usually divided up between us, State, LSU and Alabama. We've been getting better at cutting off the elite talent from outside schools but it's still hard to convince a kid not to go to Alabama.

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Of course, Louisiana was being raided by these programs during the 90s, look how far they dropped off.

Arkansas was dependent on Texas at that time and was cut off for "destroying the SWC", we no longer rely on Texas to supplement our instate recruits.

Ole Miss would be a decent program if they could lock down the instate guys, hit up Memphis, LA, AL, GA, FL, and Texas to fill out classes. Right now state is doing just enough instate to keep both program mediocre.

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And one of the other oddities is that anybody who points this out gets attacked personally by those who do not want their delusions disrupted....which is why, when you ask fans of other SEC teams to give you a one-word description of Ole Miss fans, the word that inevitably comes out of their mouths is "delusional"

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#reeltawk

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Yes, the weirdest thing of all about the Ole Miss fan culture--one that really is deserving of a major sociological study--is that BOTH a deep-seated inferiority complex and being delusional exist AT THE SAME TIME.

It truly is the most bizarre cultural phenonmenon I have ever witnessed among sports fans anywhere, and I have been exposed to an awful lot of them.

Oregon has out-achieved USC and UCLA for a long time, despite having a smaller enrollment, in a state with a much smaller population--and one that does not produce much football talent....and I can guarantee you that nobody there believes there is a "ceiling" for their program.....

Your inferiority complex is of your own making and is your problem to conquer....

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So what mindset should Ole Miss fans have? You don't elaborate regarding how it is possible for an entire fanbase to have a deep-seated inferiority complex while suffering from delusion at the same time. How can a fanbase be delusional at the same time that it suffers from an inferiority complex? Those seem to be mutually exclusive standpoints. Is there some kind of Goldilocks zone where a fanbase has appropriate expectations while recognizing its limitations? You have a lot of criticisms but no solutions. Professional sports have built-in mechanisms to encourage parity among teams. That mechanism doesn't exist when it comes to college sports. How do we overcome that?

I expect nothing from an obvious alter like you, so you couldn't possibly disappoint me with whatever response you have.

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I'm sure being "cut off" was part of it, but mostly Arkansas lost all of those road games in Texas where Texas kids would get to go home and play in front of their mom and them.

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No, we had HS coaches steering player elsewhere from us, mainly the Oklahoma schools. All the Texas schools refused to play us for a while as well.

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So is being "cut off" Bert's excuse for only being able to pull a couple of 3 stars from Texas this year?

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Texas isn't a big emphasis anymore, hasn't been since the early 90s. Nutt focused more on GA and AL. Petrino on Arizona, and CBB is focused on Florida and elsewhere where he has prior relationships with HS coaches.

Even OU has backed off of Texas as being a primary source of recruits.

You gotta diversify your recruiting territory.

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Obviously you have to diversify I just think 2 from the whole state of Texas seems very low for Arkansas after all these years. They ought to be able to find 5 kids from Texas worth signing.

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The difference is we are getting kids from Florida, something we have never done. Those numbers are stealing from Texas, they have been taking kids of similar height, build, ranking from Florida instead of Texas.

One of the two was a kicker, which is a position of need, he had offers from Texas and aTm.

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Oregon has out-achieved USC and UCLA for a long time, despite having a smaller enrollment, in a state with a much smaller population--and one that does not produce much football talent....and I can guarantee you that nobody there believes there is a "ceiling" for their program.....

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There is this thing called Nike you need to Google.

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OM has a decent in state pool of talent they have access to.

Far more on a yearly basis than Arkansas and Mizzou who have played in 4 SEC title games.

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Thank you. And neither of those programs--or any other SEC program, regardless of their history (think South Carolina)--believes that there is a "ceiling" beyond which they cannot rise.

And all the disadvantages propagated by the excuse-mongerers existed when Vaught was winning SEC championships by the boatload and national championships, as well.

It is primarily about attitude.

Finally, the main source of revenue for SEC programs is football ticket sales, so the difference between Ole Miss and most of the schools who have more money is due primarily to the school not having built a stadium that if of appropriate size for an SEC program (even though it has spent countless millions on all kinds of other building projects on campus over the last decades).....so again, is a matter of choice, not some insurmountable obstacle to success.

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There is this thing called Nike you need to Google.

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I don't need to Google anything. Oregon plays in a small stadium, has a relatively small enrollment in a relatively small state, and has a weak in-state recruiting base (the population is only about 2% black)

And still has excelled all the California schools.

Miami dominated college football for two decades despite having a paltry budget, no stadium of their own, and a small fan base.

Money cannot buy you success--as long as you have decent facilities and pay your coaches competitive salaries, you can succeed (and Ole Miss has excellent facilities and pays its coaches Top 15-level salaries).

Excuses, excuses......