re: How many years are we going to endure Luke ball?

I will say that I believe Matt Luke to not be the type of coach to temper his expectations of the program. If he "loves Ole Miss" as much as he is described, then he would definitely want to try his best to elevate the program back to prominence and beyond.

However, is he capable at this juncture in his career to achieve this? And the bigger question, is he able to make the tough decisions and hold people accountable for their poor performance both on the field and recruiting?

It remains to be seen.

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It doesn't change the point that I was making.

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It actually reinforces it. The AD over there finally gave up on testing each hire for traces of mystical Bear DNA, and the top guys on the list had nothing to do with Alabama previously.

There isn't that much to "get" at Ole Miss. The Grove is unique, but overall, the school is a lot like other pre-Civil War public universities - the ones that actually were then what they are now (my alma mater is an example of one that isn't). It dates back to a time when states viewed themselves as nations and their universities were there to promote the intellectual greatness of that nation. Here, there is a layer of old south myth-making on top of it, but the core identity of Ole Miss comes from something before the Civil War when it was the educational crown jewel of a nation-state.

You feel a variation of the same thing when you go to any of the older public universities, that connection to a different era. Antebellum universities exude that, and any coach that comes down here that Ole Miss treats right and wants to be here is going to pick up on it. It's an easy thing to get into as it is unique and distinct to a handful of universities in the world. It's a different experience being involved with one.

People should actually have little more respect for the university's capacity to win people over, I think. The irony to me is that Ole Miss is one of the few universities to which I've been that quickly makes outsiders want to be here, a fact much noted until we talk about coaches. When it comes to them, there remains a contingent that seems to think they must be from here to buy in.

I think if you paid a top notch staff to be here and told the boosters to leave them the hell alone when it comes to the recruiting and coaching, Ole Miss could land a good coach that would stay for quite awhile.

If you think that Tuberville left Ole Miss worse than found it, then you are crazy. To be honest, Freeze did too. We weren't 2-10 and winless for 2 years in the SEC, and 30 players in trouble academically, like what he inherited.

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But you can't put all this on Luke.

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A coach in his second year can't be held accountable? Are you kidding me?

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open-minded person would just let this shite ride until we can actually play for something.

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So fire him at the end of this year then since the bowl ban will be over? I'm good with that

What steps has Luke taken to improve the team? To me, it looks like he is riding on the back of Hugh's recruiting and hasn't done jack schitt to make things better or really change anything at all. He would be a great coach for an FCS team.

I refuse to watch The Season while Luke is HC. I think I would rather start a self mutilation fetish than subject myself to that.

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What steps has Luke taken to improve the team?

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1) He tried to get rid of McGriff at the end of last season. 2) He held the majority of the talent on the team. What would this season look like without AJ, DK and Lodge? What if Little, Sims, Patterson and Rawlings had left? 3) Luke and the staff have addressed the lb issues with recruiting. 4) He has saved Ole Miss from 10 seasons of losing football and placed the program in the best possible position under the circumstances.
The NCAA's goal was to put Ole Miss in football purgatory for the next 10 years. A two year bowl ban was going to be bad enough, but the mass exodus of talent was going to leave Ole Miss struggling to field a team with enough talent to win 1 game. A new head coach bringing in a bunch of Juco and freshmen was going to struggle for 3 or 4 years at the least. If you could find one that wanted to do a rebuild. If the right coaching hire becomes available he will have more momentum when he does come in and no bowl ban to recruit against.
Matt Luke is serving his purpose, he is keeping Ole Miss afloat. That's all he was supposed to do. Some of you are crying over HF, well he's why you have Matt Luke. He's why your school is on probation. I think Henry and Landmass are taking out their hate of HF on Matt Luke. Get some therapy you two, or maybe just grow up.

I'll be interested to see how Hugh Freeze performs in his next HC job. Does his shortcomings follow him? Does the scandal affect his recruiting?

You haven't read many of my post obviously. I'm an old Ole Miss fan. This is my 42nd trip on this Ole Miss merry go round. Steve Sloan didn't leave me believing we would ever have a chance of winning. And before I knew it BB had me believing we could, and then I was cussing him when we couldn't win more. I cussed him when he got us put on probation. I also attended his funeral. I loved Tommy Tuberville and cussed him when he left us for Fauburn. Cutcliffe was boring and should have won the west. Orgeron was fun and could recruit. If we had held on to him for one more year we probably would have had HF coaching the offense instead of the shite show that was Houston Nutt. I've spent the last 40 plus years of what ifs. What if Cooper Manning would have played and Peyton Manning had come to Ole Miss. What if Tuberville didn't leave us for Fauburn. What if Orgeron had punted and won that game against state. What if Hugh Freeze was Orgeron's offensive coordinator. Orgeron and HF would have owned the state of Mississippi in recruiting. What I do know after 42 years of Ole Miss football is this. If we aren't shooting ourselves in the foot, we get plenty of help from the SEC office. What I think is funny, is Tuberville seems to be hanging around quite a bit in Oxford lately. Maybe we hired him to consult with the defensive coaches?