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

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That is precisely the kind of thinking that has led to an eternity of mediocrity. Neither LSU nor Alabama was a "juggernaut" until they hired Saban--in fact, both programs were badly decayed and had seen little success in a decade.

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Alabama won the SEC in 1992 and 1999; Alabama also won the national title in 1992. While LSU had a "bad" decade in the 1990s, they were, arguably, a top ten program all-time up until 1990. It merely took the right man to keep the talent in-state. However, the be-all-end-all is money. Alabama and LSU have an incredible amount of funds directed towards athletics, specifically, football, and we just can't compete with that year-to-year. I'm not saying we can't every three or four years, but, unless a massive windfall falls our way, we are unable to do it.

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Texas A&M has not been a national power for a long time--even last year, they only went 8-4 and nearly lost to Duke in their bowl game.

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TAMU's endowment is $7.6 billion, system-wide. The University of Mississippi's endowment is $462 million. Again, it boils down to funds.

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Auburn went 0-8 in the SEC year before last....and have the serious disadvantage of having to share a relatively small state with another national power.....

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Auburn is a top fifteen program all-time and spends more on football than we do, far more. Also, Alabama is much more talent rich, not per capita but overall, than Mississippi is. Because of their meteoric rise in the 1980s and 1990s, Auburn has become a regional, nearly national brand. We're barely scraping the cusp of being a regional brand because of our despair in the past 40 years.

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The "juggernauts" exist in your head, which has been conditioned to think of your own program as inherently inferior ("A celing certainly exists")

The difference between Ole Miss and other SEC programs is mainly one of the mentality and culture surrrounding the program, nothing else--if you expect to be mediocre and consider it perfectly acceptable, that is what you will always be.

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Revenue, not profit, per SEC West athletic department (as of 2012)
Alabama - $125 million (#4 overall)
Texas A&M - $119 million (#6 overall)
LSU - $115 million (#7 overall)
Auburn $106 million (#10 overall)
Arkansas - $100 million (#14 overall)
Mississippi State - $70 million (#38 overall)
Ole Miss - $52 million (#51 overall)

The numbers do not lie. Four of the ten most profitable athletic departments are in our own division. Five of the fifteen most profitable athletic departments are in our own division.