Is anyone here excited about Ole Miss football this year?

I'm indifferent towards Ole Miss football and college football as a whole, currently.

Oh boy, who's going to win the National Championship Game between Alabama and Alabama this year? Probably Alabama.

Hell yeah I’m excited. There’s a bunch of whiney babies on this board now.

I am always excited about Rebel football. While I have opinions about our head coach, utimately, it matters not who the coach is, or what the FNCAA has to say about us, I still love Ole Miss. Always have for as long as I can remember (which is many more years than I care to admit).

It will be interesting to see what the offense does this year, especially the NWO's. I'm even interested to see if Crime Dawg can breathe a little life into the defense. For what it's worth, I do think we'll see some defensive improvement this year, and I do think we'll post an upset or two.

Always excited. Excited to see our offense and that Ta’amu/Brown combo. Our defense can’t be anymore lousy than last year. I’m excited to see if we’ve improved on that side of the ball. And Especially excited to open up vs a quality opponent on a big stage. I think this is one of those years for us, where the first game will dictate a lot on how our season will go.

I respect the Bama program and not just the Saban era but their history. Alabama love the crimson tide. More than AU. I was at Alabama welcome center on I20 and there was one big section of Bama football. Huge section, not one AU picture. I appreciate that heritage. One of the best college programs, if not the best. If OM did not exist I would probably be a Bama fan. I'm ready for football to see whose good and watch Coach Luke surprise the SEC and it's critics.

I'm more excited for the 2021 season where we'll hopefully be Matt Luke-less and over the NCAA fiasco.

Always excited about football season, no matter what's going on with the program.

Listening to the Oxford Exxon podcast yesterday has me a little worried and conflicted. Basically Neal McCready and Jeffrey Wright are setting the marching orders for the media and fans to handle the inevitable 2019 Football Season collapse by redirecting any blame toward Matt Luke unto Hugh Freeze's poor recruiting classes during the NCAA fiasco.

I'm definitely not in the "Hugh Freeze cult" by any means, and I definitely recognize many of the faults that he had in offensive coaching and even recruiting. However, how long will the media and fans circle the wagons and protect Matt Luke from any criticism while deflecting blame to the previous football head coach.

They argued that last season's team would have been 5-7 or worse if Hugh Freeze had remained the head coach and they could be correct (I'd argue that the team would have gone 5-7 or worse if Shea remained healthy). I can definitely see where the team had grown cynical and tired of Freeze's antics; however you could also argue that last year's team won six games in spite of Matt Luke's coaching blunders.

It was because of Freeze's recruiting efforts and subsequent talent that Matt Luke wasn't exposed more than just the Cal and Arkansas losses. And if Ole Miss doesn't pull something off with the 2019 recruiting class, the talent won't be there to mask the coaching deficiencies in the 2019 seasons and onwards. Though, Nick Saban would be lucky to break .500 with the 2019 football roster; however he would have likely culled the football staff and had the recruiting efforts going full-tilt, NCAA be damned.

How many times did we hear? "Well, it's Houston Nutt's fault that Ole Miss lost x game." during the 2013 football season? Very little. Despite the fact that Freeze inherited a much worse situation than Luke. Granted, the stars had aligned and Ole Miss hauled in a major adrenaline shot of a recruiting class in 2013. And unfortunately, recruiting is a difficult task when you don't get a free pass to purchase players like many of the blue chip programs and your booster network is wrought with old money incompetence which makes the NCAA salivate.

Every embarrassing football event onwards is going to be, "Well, Matt Luke had inherited a mess from Hugh Freeze, so you can't blame him." repeated ad nauseam. If Matt Luke does fine, then great. I'm sure there aren't many people more than Matt Luke who would love to bring Ole Miss back to the national spot light (in a positive manner); however can he do so is the big question. I honestly had rather we rolled the dice with a complete reset.

As for the offense? I don't understand how anyone can throw out lines such as, "Well, at least Ole Miss's offense will be exciting to watch. They can score on anyone.", after watching game-after-game of second half stalls against woeful defenses. The offense is feast or famine and it is hard to predict which will occur, however it's almost guaranteed that both phases will occur in the same game, typically to the detriment of Ole Miss.

It's so frustrating to watch Ole Miss score 2+ touchdowns in the first few minutes and then watch the offense completely lose the ability to get a first down for the remainder of the game.

I dont think anyone is asking for OM to be Bama. We are in the best conference in the country. We have a top 15-20 national budget in football. Facilities are average for SEC program. We are located in virtually the center of a recruiting hot bed in the south from Texas to Georgia.

The NCAA didnt stop OM from becoming a national power. A loose lip coach with personal flaws, a bad step father and son relationship, and sloppy boosters is what caused the downfall.

The program was close to turn the national corner. No NCAA issues and I strongly believe this program is in a different place. What's the point of being a fan of all you expect is average to below average?