SEC FOES PREVIEW Ole Miss hit with high expectations following '08 turnaround campaign

By BY DAVID SHOWERS Northwest Arkansas Times

Posted: July 27, 2009 at 7:31 a.m.

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OXFORD, Miss. — Six-straight wins to end 2008, a Cotton Bowl victory and a No. 14 finish in the final BCS rankings have burdened Ole Miss with high expectations ahead of the 2009 season.

The Rebels are prominent in several preseason polls. They're ranked fifth in the ESPN and Sporting News' polls, eighth in the Scout.com poll and 13th in the CBS poll. Ole Miss' rise followed a 3-9 record in 2007, when it went winless in eight SEC games. Its abrupt ascendancy makes this offseason decidedly different, but junior quarterback Jevan Snead said he and his teammates are oblivious to the hype.

"I think with the rankings comes a lot higher expectations," said Snead, who's being touted as a Heisman Tropy contender on the strength of his 2,762 passing yards and 26 touchdown passes in 2008, last week at SEC Media Days inBirmingham, Ala. "As far as the team goes, I don't think we're handling it any differently.

"People said we weren't going to do well last year. We ignored them and kept working hard. I think we're doing the same and working hard. We're going to follow that same formula and keep doing everything we can to improve."

Head coach Houston Nutt engineered last year's surprise turnaround during his first season in Oxford. He said last year's success has emblazoned a conspicuous target on the Rebels.

"Last year, the same group of experts picked us towards the bottom," Nutt said at SEC Media Days. "The same group of experts now picking us towards the top. ... What does that mean? ... You're going to be hunted.

"Last year we had an attitude, we're fixing to go hunt, we're going to go compete, try to win this game when nobody gives us a chance. ... Right now we're the hunted a little bit. ... You got to work a little harder, you got to play a little harder."

Nutt's teams at Arkansas were unable to meet high expectations, as the media reminded him last week in Birmingham, but he said the raft of preseason rankings is a boon, not a bane.

"We're excited to be in this position," Nutt said. "We knew this would happen. If you go towards the end of the year, you win six straight, you go to the ATT Cotton Bowl, you beat a good team like Texas Tech, there's going to be some attention.

"Now you got to embrace it, handle it. The way you handle it is going to work."

Nutt said filling the "600 pound" void left by the departure of left offensive tackle Michael Oher and defensive tackle Peria Jerry, both of whom were selected in the first round of the NFL Draft, is one of his biggest concerns. The behemoths endured the lean years that preceded Nutt's arrival in Oxford, something last year's freshmen avoided.

"Those guys were not only captains of our football team and leaders but just played so hard," Nutt said. "So we got to replace a very good group of seniors.

"When we came back from the Cotton Bowl, the thing that stood out was the freshmen were still talking about their flat screen TVs, theirgifts, their hats were still being worn. ... We told them that it's so important they understand that it just doesn't happen. It took Peria Jerry and Michael Oher four years to get to a bowl game."

Two of the Rebels' current senior leaders escaped serious injury after being involved in a car accident earlier this month. Defensive end Greg Hardy, one of the SEC's top pass rushers, and Dexter McCluster, an allpurpose weapon who plays quarterback in Ole Miss' Wild Rebel formation, emergedrelatively unscathed from the fiery wreck.

Hardy aggravated a previous foot injury, and McCluster experienced bruising and soreness, but Nutt said they were none the worse for the accident.

"I can tell you this: I was really nervous when I got the phone call from Greg Hardy and Dexter McCluster getting hit it in broad daylight. ... To think not having those two guys for the season, that's a nightmare, because that changes your team."

Sports, Pages 7, 8 on 07/27/2009

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