This year I broke my string of College Football Bowl Game attendances even though the Wisconsin Badgers did get invited to the Champs Bowl ( Orlando Florida ). I had been (along with my son) to five straight prior Badger Bowl games ( Nashville TN, Oralando FL, Tampa FL, Orlando FL, Tampa Florida ), but I was flat out exhausted from 2008 and decided to stay at home this year and have a few of those “forget what day of the week it is” days. Is today Saturday? Ah yes, it must be as yesterday was the Cotton Bowl! Ole Miss came through for me (Ka-ching! ) yesterday by handily trouncing the formerly #1 ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders.
#1 is a strong statement. Yup, they absolutely have a 9 – 4 record. They are not a Utah with an undefeated season. They are not a USC, Texas (yes, my friends, Texas will beat Ohio State ), or Florida ( hint hint ). But here is why I think Ole Miss is the best College Football team in America during the 2nd half of the season:
- The only team to beat Florida. If (when) Florida does beat Oklahoma and is crowned #1 – what does that make Ole Miss? They beat #1.
- Won their last 6 games of the season
- Let their opponents ( three (3) of which were SEC teams ) score only 20 total points their last four (4) regular season games. That’s 5 points a game. Meanwhile, they scored 152 points during those four (4) games. 152 – 20 : I did not hear that statistic mentioned once by any of the ESPN commentators or other Pundits ( speaking of pundits … Kirk Herbstreet move over on Gameday – my Notre Dame ( big ) over Hawaii call was much … well… more correct ).
- New coach ( Houston Nutt ) and an ever increasing shift in momentum / success each of the last 6 weeks of the season. It’s this last item that really makes them the #1 team at the end of the season. Why? Because as a Team ( capital T ), they can go out and execute better than any other top 20 team today ( including Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, and certainly Texas Tech ).
As I mentioned early on, I found 2008 to be an exhausting year. So many changes and new things to learn throughout the year as the seasons unfolded. But as Spring turned to Summer, Summer to Fall, the economic changes added “stress fuel” to the already hot “change fire”. Don’t get me wrong – 2008 was a great year professionally and personally. I’m just hoping for a little less “stress fuel” and a little more sleep in 2009 ( oh, and a few more Badger Football wins 
).