Rippee Writes: is it free shot in Tuscaloosa or more than that?
Ole Miss-Alabama thoughts and a glorious shellacking the Ryder Cup
Hope everyone had a good weekend. We have a new podcast out with Weldon Rotenberg recapping week four in college football as well as scratching the surface of this Ole Miss-Alabama matchup. Check it out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
I have some Ryder Cup thoughts in addition to a lot of football on my mind today.
Ole Miss-Alabama week has arrived
I’ve gone back-and-forth on whether I think this is a free shot or an opportunity with potentially adverse consequences for the Rebels should they lose. I still tend to lean toward it being a completely free shot, all things considered. A month ago, I had this chalked up as an automatic loss for Ole Miss. That’s simply no longer the case. In fact, the pendulum has swung so drastically, I think the consensus among both Ole Miss fans and the general viewing public is that it would be more surprising if this game weren’t competitive. The fact that this program is in this position just 13 games into the Lane Kiffin era is simply remarkable to me, particularly given what this staff inherited on the defensive side of the football.
Las Vegas initially set this line at Alabama -17.5. It appears to have dropped pretty quickly to 14.5. That seems way too high to me, but I am just some schmuck with a newsletter. Those guys aren’t in the business of getting things wrong. I think the game will be closer than that. But at the end of the day, if Ole Miss loses this game, no one will hold it against them in the short or long term, and rightfully so. That’s why I settled on it being a free shot. This program isn’t where it needs to be from a depth standpoint, especially on defense, and even this offense has some flaws up front. These 2021 Rebels are an exciting team and this next month will inform us as to whether that is all they are, or, if they are in fact a really good team. I’m fascinated to find out. I don’t feel like this team has much to lose when it takes the field on Saturday afternoon.
With that said, the other argument here is the one that expresses the need to strike while the iron is hot. Given the machine-like consistency Alabama has achieved over the last half decade, is there a better time than now to take down the Tide? Look up and down their depth chart. You’d probably be surprised at the amount of names you don’t yet recognize. Don’t mistake what I am saying: you’ll know who they are soon enough. One glance at the recruiting rankings over the last three years is enough evidence to support that. They are still infinitely more talented than the Rebels, but what is different about this Alabama team is that it does not have as many polished, early-round 2022 NFL Draft prospects sprinkled across the roster. There is a decent mix of youth and inexperience. The quarterback is a first-year starter and has been in the program for one year. Ole Miss caught a break catching the Tide early in the year, not to mention the fact that the Rebels are basically fully healthy. That is a huge advantage, particularly on defense.
Ole Miss is led by a Heisman contender at quarterback. He’s commanding an offense that might be the most explosive in the sport. Even if you believe Kiffin will continue to recruit well and build a consistent winner, there is no guarantee the Rebels will find another dynamic arm talent like Corral, let alone surround him with a deep, diverse running back room and capable receivers. Those guys don’t come around that often. I don’t pretend to know where Arch Manning is going to decide to go to school and I have no idea how he turns out as a prospect. I tend to think he will be a hell of a player, but there’s no guarantee. So, is there a better time than now to knock off Alabama? If not now, when? Ole Miss has a chance to seize the moment.
We will get deeper into this match up right here in this space later on in the week. I still don’t know how I feel about the way the game plays out. I believe Ole Miss has more than a puncher’s chance to pull an upset. I know the Rebels will score points. I don’t know if the defensive improvement is real. We shall soon find out.
The last thing I’ll mention to Ole Miss fans is this: I went to a wedding in Oxford over the weekend and this game is all anyone wanted to talk about. This will be the most talked about game of the week nationally. Enjoy the ride. Your program is relevant again for the first time in six years, and this time there isn’t an NCAA-induced black cloud hanging over the program, ready to rain on its success. This is exactly what everyone hoped for when Kiffin was hired — to be relevant. To be playing in games like this. If you’re honest with yourself, it arrived a hell of a lot sooner than you thought. You’ve gotten a healthy dose of irrelevancy. Enjoy the excitement. This is a fun team to watch.
The stats speak louder than anything I can say. What a week for SkyBox. If you’re into wagering, what are you doing not utilizing SkyBox? Check them out here. They have a picks package for your preferred sport that will fit your price range. You’re missing out by not going to pay them your business. It will pay off in your bank account. Use the promo code “rippee” for 20 percent off any purchase. Oh, and the free plays they have given our podcast listeners are 6-1. These guys are the real deal.
USA destroys Europe at Whistling Straights
I couldn’t have been more wrong about how this 2021 Ryder Cup was going to play out. That’s not uncommon. I am wrong a lot. What is uncommon is how stupid I feel for my terribly wrong prediction. What I mean by that is that I let unimportant storylines — that had little to do with golf — blind me from seeing just how much more talented the United States team is than Europe. There’s a strong argument to be made it is the most talented golf team ever assembled, and it showed in a staggering 19-9 final total. Look up and down the roster. The perceived ‘weak link’ (stupid to call him that, I just can’t think of a better term), Scottie Scheffler, went 4-0-2 and took down the best player on the planet in his Sunday singles match. The United States didn’t lose a single session.
Six of the 12 players were rookies and eight of them were younger than 30. It seems this influx of youth onto the American team brought with it a looser, yet more business-like attitude and an increased level of buy-in that’s been lacking in year’s past — even if Brooks Koepka complained about it infringing on his nap schedule. There is no way that anyone watched this event without determining that the American team was having the time of their lives. Daniel Berger and Justin Thomas shotgunned beers on the first tee box before the fourth session on Saturday afternoon.
If you read anything about Stricker this week, it’s clear that he intentionally stayed away from motivational speeches and subtle reminders of this event’s proud, and in the Americans case, underwhelming history. He just let them go be themselves and knew their sheer talent would shine brightest in that setting. With the way this group played this week, I am not sure there were any wrong buttons to press. This team was dialed in from the start and its play highlighted a talent discrepancy among the younger generation of players on the American and European side. Europe was old. Lee Westwood, Ian Poulter, Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia are all 41 or older. Shane Lowry and Bernd Weisberger are 35. Garcia was the only man on this list with a winning record. The younger players like Tommy Fleetwood, Viktor Hovland and Matt Fitzpatrick combined for one single point and none of the three won a match. Where’s the next influx of talent coming from? Since 2012, the Europeans have 11 Ryder Cup rookies that have yet to make a return trip to the event. That’s an incredible stat.
The Americans never let their foot off the gas, even if you found the beer chug before the Saturday afternoon matches to be off-putting. Imagine being Sergio Garcia and losing the first hole of your singles match to Bryson DeChambeau because he dove a 373-yard par 4, hit it to 35 feet and drained an eagle putt. How do you not get demoralized by that? Garcia made birdie and never stood a chance.
This victory felt like the beginning of something, rather than the culmination of an ass kicking. Yes, a lot can and will change before they tee it up in Rome in 2023 for the next iteration of this incredible spectacle. I’m not going to guarantee the first victory on European soil since 1993 just yet, but this felt like the beginning of a new era of American team golf, one that will bring with it far more champagne celebrations than somber, defeated press conferences and leaked stories that throw captains and other players under the bus. Amazingly, with all the focus being on the manufactured beef a select few American players had with one another, this team looked like a group that enjoyed spending time with one another, which might be the most encouraging part of all of this. Maybe they found a new method to go about this — less harping on past failures and the pressure that accompanies it and more of a business-like approach that puts trust in the remarkable collective talent assembled.
I had a hell of a lot of fun watching it and I hope it’s a sign of things to come.
Current Deal: For being a loyal subscriber, show him proof of subscription and you’ll get a 16 oz. prime strip for $15 and a pack of sausage for $5. That’s a hell of a dinner on the grill for 20 bucks. Go check him out, it’s the best place in Mississippi to get meat and Oxford is lucky to have it.
Around the SEC
As we do every week in this space, let’s a take a look at each team around the SEC.
Alabama: dismantled Southern Miss as we all expected. I don’t think we know a ton about the Crimson Tide yet. The same can be said for Ole Miss. We will find out a lot more about both teams on Saturday afternoon.
Auburn: The Tigers were saved from an embarrassing loss to a 1-2 Georgia State team by the same SEC officiating crew, led by Mark Curles, that messed up the downed punt debacle in the Mississippi State-Memphis game last week. If an you are Ole Miss fan snickering at your rival school’s misfortune’s, this same crew screwed you out of a win over Auburn last year by botching the call regarding the Tigers kickoff returner touching the football as it went between his legs and into the back of the end zone. SEC officiating is a joke that is never going to get fixed because the checks still cash just fine, and even get larger by the year, but it’s a total joke. That aside, Auburn finally ripped the Bo Nix band-aid off when Bryan Harsin benched him in favor of T.J. Finley, who led the only offensive touchdown drive of the game to win it. Perhaps the Tigers will be better for it? We shall see in Death Valley next weekend.
Arkansas - The Razorbacks are good, quarterback limitations be damned. This team manhandles people on both sides of the line of scrimmage. K.J. Jefferson’s limitations are greatly mitigated when Arkansas runs the ball like it did against Texas A&M. What a win for Sam Pittman and the Hogs. They boast the two best coordinators (as a pair) in the country. They’re talented enough defensively and are always in the right spot. I don’t know if they can beat Georgia, but I am done doubting them against anyone.
Florida - Dan Mullen seemingly rested anyone with a paper cut and slogged through a Tennessee team that never had a chance. Florida is good. That game in Jacksonville in a couple of weeks will be a treat as I am not convinced the SEC East has Georgia’s name all over it.
Georgia - The Bulldogs were 30-plus point favorites in back-to-back conference games. You don’t see that every day. Their 62-0 win over Vanderbilt didn’t tell us a lot, but we sort of know what this team is already: great defensively and mostly good enough on offensively, or so they hope on the latter portion of that.
Kentucky - The quarterback play with Will Levis might not be what it appeared to be in the season’s first two weeks, but hey, they won an SEC game on the road in a 16-10 decision over South Carolina. I cannot fault them much for that, even if it looked ugly against a bad opponent. I am still a believer in this roster, though my belief they’ll finish above one of Florida or Georgia doesn’t seem realistic anymore
LSU - Max Johnson was more than good enough. He went 17-27 with four touchdowns in a 28-25 win in Starkville. LSU can’t run the football and this won’t be the last time the game will be in the hands of Johnson to some degree, but the Tigers did what everyone does to Mississippi State — allow the hollow yardage via short passes between the 20s, wait for the Bulldogs to shoot themselves in the foot and tighten up in the red zone if it gets to that point. Mississippi State shoots itself in the foot a lot. I have no idea what to make of Auburn-LSU in Death Valley next weekend.
Missouri - I wrote last week that Missouri’s offense is competent and the defense is bad. I still feel the exact same way. This team is the definition of average. Boston College is better than average and that’s why the Eagles beat the Tigers. Honestly, not that anyone cares, but with Clemson being what they are, watch out for Boston College in the ACC if this team gets fully healthy. Hell, watch out for anyone in that mess of a league. No one is that good.
Mississippi State - I don’t understand this offense. Rogers doesn’t push the football down the field and seemingly makes a brutal mistake in plus territory at least once a game. Leach doesn’t adjust and the defense is good but not good enough to overcome this anemic offense. Yes, it’s anemic. I don’t care about the yardage totals. It’s all misleading. The Bulldogs are terrible in the red zone and I don’t see that changing, particularly with their inability or unwillingness (I think it is a bit of both) to consistently run the football.
Ole Miss - It’s a free shot and then some for the Rebels in Tuscaloosa. Will this team be the talk of college football next week? I don’t know how likely that is but I wouldn’t completely rule it out.
South Carolina - “The Gamecocks play hard for Shane Beamer but are not talented enough to compete against good teams.” — I wrote this last week. It’s the same story.
Tennessee - Josh Heupel called a great game in the first half and showed why many believe he will get this thing figured out in Knoxville despite it looking bad right now. I tend to agree to some extent, but the Vols simply don’t have the talent.
Texas A&M - Zach Calzada is not accurate and I am not totally convinced this outdated offense would look leaps and bounds better with a healthy Haynes King. The Aggies are a nine-win team at best unless the quarterback play drastically improves.
Vanderbilt - I am sorry there are eight more games left, Ken Seals. I truly feel for you.
On the horizon
- A ton of great coverage to get you ready for this showdown in Tuscaloosa, including a closer look at the Tide on the Wednesday podcast.
- The Sanderson Farms Championship is this week’s PGA Tour stop. I will have coverage of Mississippi’s PGA Tour event throughout the week.
- Friday picks with Greg and perhaps a golf podcast mixed in too
That is all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join in on the fun by hitting subscribe below. It is free.