HOOVER, Ala. - Ole Miss’ early season schedule looks like one put together for a team from a mid-major conference trying to pile up financial guarantees, not an SEC charter member.
Or maybe by a Mississippi State booster club.
The Rebels play four of their first five games on the road, including trips to Texas, Alabama and Auburn. They open the season on Aug. 29 at Vanderbilt, which returns 14 starters from last year’s 9-4 team.
Rebels At a Glance
At a glance
LAST SEASON 7-6, 3-5 (fifth) in SEC West
COACH Hugh Freeze (7-6 in first season at Ole Miss, 37-13 in four seasons overall)
RETURNING STARTERS 8 offense, 11 defense
KEY RETURNING PLAYERS QB Bo Wallace, WR Donte Moncrief, DE C.J. Johnson, LB Denzel Nkemdiche
SEC TITLE SCENARIO For the Rebels to have a shot at winning their first SEC championship since 1963, they’ll need Wallace to make better decisions after he threw 17 interceptions last season. He also needs to pick his spots of when to run so he has a better chance of staying healthy.
Ole Miss also is playing at two-time defending national champion Alabama for the second consecutive season.
Every other SEC team plays at least three home games among its first five. Arkansas,Auburn and Texas A&M play four of their first five games at home.
“Well, honestly, I don’t know how the schedule came about,” Rebels Coach Hugh Freeze said Tuesday at SEC football media days. “A lot of that was done before I got here.”
Freeze took over at Ole Miss last year and led the Rebels to a 7-6 record - including a victory over Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl - after going 10-2 in his lone season as Arkansas State’s coach.
“You know how scheduling is done quite far in advance,” Freeze said. “Some of it had to do with the reshuffling of who we play in this conference, with crossover games, adjusting your nonconference games to those.
“Certainly I wish it wasn’t that way. I don’t think it’s ideal.”
Ole Miss is opening at Vanderbilt because the Thursday night game will be telecast nationally on ESPN. Playing at Alabama two years in a row resulted because Ole Miss requested that the SEC stop having the Rebels play road games at Alabama and LSU in the same season.
The game at Texas is a return game for the Longhorns playing at Ole Miss last season.
The Rebels’ only home game in their first five is against Southeast Missouri State - an Ohio Valley Conference team which is playing three road games among its first five.
“We talk about what we can control,” Freeze said. “I can’t control that we’re playing those [four] on the road right out of the gate pretty much.
“But I can control how we prepare for them. So we try not to give much power to that as far as it being a negative.”
If the Rebels can survive their first five games, then the rest of the schedule is favorable. They don’t leave the state of Mississippi for any of the final seven games: six in a row at home and the season finale at Mississippi State.
“Our schedule is a weird setup,” Ole Miss junior quarterback Bo Wallace said. “To have six home games in a row, that’s pretty crazy. I hope the fans keep coming.
“Hopefully, we’re winning a lot of games, so they’ll want to come.”
Wallace started all 13 games last season, but played hurt the final nine games after injuring his right shoulder against Tulane.
Wallace underwent surgery in January and missed all of spring practice, but he said he’ll be full speed when the Rebels open fall camp. Last season he completed 235 of 368 passes (63.9 percent) for 22 touchdowns and 2,994 yards with 17 interceptions.
“If Bo can play like that with a shoulder injury, imagine what he can do when he’s 100 percent healthy,” Ole Miss senior linebacker Mike Marry said.
Wallace and Marry are among 19 returning starters for the Rebels, which has fans optimistic after Ole Miss bounced back last season from a 2-10 record in 2011.
“We made great strides in a lot of areas,” Freeze said.“We’re not all the way there yet, but we’re certainly farther along in the area of personal accountability than we were a year ago.”
Freeze said that when speaking to booster groups in the off season, he urged them about being careful not to become frustrated because of unrealistic expectations.
“Our task in Year 2 is to maintain the enthusiasm and energy from both the fans and our players, and everyone that is involved in our program,” Freeze said, “as we continue to strive to be relevant in the SEC West.”
Depth is a concern at several positions, Freeze said, including the offensive and defensive lines, the secondary and at tight end.
A recruiting class rated among the top 10 nationally - led by defensive end Robert Nkemdiche, offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and receiver Laquon Treadwell - should help the Rebels’ depth issues.
“You can see why they were high four- and five start guys,” Wallace said of seeing the newcomers work this summer. “They’ve come in and worked hard and definitely gained our respect.
“We expect a lot of those guys to play this year.”
Freeze took a more cautious tone about the newcomers.
“They’re 18-year old kids,” Freeze said. “You don’t how quickly they’ll adjust to this game and this league.”
Wallace said the Rebels don’t talk about this season’s high expectations.
“Last year the expectation was we might get beat by Central Arkansas,” Wallace said of Freeze’s Ole Miss debut the Rebels won 49-27. “We didn’t think about the expectation then, we’re not going to think about it now.
“We’re going to control what we can control in our building and leave the rest up to the fans and the media to talk about.
“As a team, we know we have a chance to win some games in this conference, and it’s up to us to work like it.”
Sports, Pages 17 on 07/19/2013