Despite weak performances from starters Drew Pomeranz and Aaron Barrett, the Rebels were able to use a strong offense and a steady bullpen to earn a rare sweep of fifth ranked LSU.

Friday’s matchup was moved to Saturday setting up a doubleheader. Strong storms moved through the Oxford area Friday evening through Saturday morning causing tornadoes in South Western Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama. One tornado was fatal, leading to an estimated 10 deaths in the Yazoo City area.

Game 1 showcased what fans had hoped to be the premiere pitching matchup of the season, Ole Miss ace Drew Pomeranz (6-0, 1.90 ERA) against LSU starter Anthony Ranaudo (2-1, 6.35 ERA). Ranuando started the year recovering from a stress fracture in his throwing arm but had been solid in his last 4 starts , perhaps returning to the form that garnered him MVP honors in last year’s NCAA Regionals as LSU marched on their way to the NCAA Title. As for Pomeranz, he is considered a frontrunner in this years Golden Spikes Award as the best player in baseball.

Neither pitcher was able to make it into the 4th inning with Ranaudo giving up 9 runs in only 1.2 innings of work. The story of Game 1 was the Rebels offense, particularly DH Matt. Snyder accounted for 6 RBI’s as the Rebels were able to swing their way out of a poor pitching performance by Pomeranz to beat a Top-5 team 11-9, a luxury Pomeranz had not had  in the past weeks.

In Game 2, Aaron Barrett was roughed up in 1st inning, allowing 4 ER runs. Barrett would settle down, not allowing an earned run over the next 5 innings. The game was kept alive and moved into extra innings thanks to a homer-robbing catch by Rebels’s CF Tim Ferguson and strong pitching fro relievers Trent Rothlin and Matt Crouse, who gained the win for the Rebels. In the bottom of the 11th with runners on the corners and two out, freshman Alex Yarbrough came through with game winning single to give the Rebels the series.

The Ole Miss Rebels kept their NCAA Tournament hopes alive defeating lowly LSU 72-59. Chris Warren shot a perfect 5/5 from beyond the arc as the Rebels opened the game with an 11-4 run. LSU would make a run in the 2nd half. Tasmin Mitchell tied the game at 47 with a baseline jumper. From that point on the Ole Miss defense kept the Tigers in check. LSU managed only 6 points in the final 6:00 of the game opening the way for the Rebels to take the victory.

The Rebels will next head to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas in the season finale. The Rebels have a chance to clinch a share of the SEC West title with a win and a Mississippi State loss to Tennessee. Ole Miss will be a #2 seed in the upcoming SEC Tournament as Miss. St. clinched the #1 seed having swept the Rebels in the regular season.

The Rebels continued to shoot lights out Tuesday against UCF in their last game before the start of SEC play. Coach Kennedy’s squad jumped out early, outscoring the Knights 46-24 in the first half en route to an 84-56 victory.

Terrico White led all scorers with 21 points including a 5-9 performance from behind the arc while Terrance Henry blocked six shots and grabbed right rebounds in what Kennedy called, “…his best game in an Ole Miss uniform.”

UCF’s 0-11 performance from 3-pt range paired with Ole Miss’ hot first half shooting saw Ole Miss head into the locker room with a 22-point lead. Kennedy credited Ole Miss’ start with the play of their most experienced player Eniel Polynice saying, “It was all facilitated by Eniel Polynice, when he drives with a purpose we’re a very difficult team to guard.”

The Knights sole bright spot was their speedy, 5 ft. 9 in. PG, A.J. Rompza who led the team with 16 points. Marcus Jordan, son of former great Michael Jordan, scored 13 points despite shooting just 50% from the line.

Chris Warren’s 14 point performance put him past 1,000 points for his career. Warren was sidelined for most of last season and has reached 1,000 points in only 59 games.

The Ole Miss Rebels will now turn to their SEC-opener Saturday against rival Mississippi State. The Bulldogs will look to bounce back from Monday’s 55-52 loss to Western Kentucky while Ole Miss will look to gain their first SEC-Opener win under Coach Kennedy. The teams were picked to finish first and second respectively in the SEC West by the media and the game may perhaps establish the frontrunner in the West as conference play gets underway. The one notable difference Polynice noted between last season and this season’s game against Mississippi State, “We got all our guys back.”

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Rivals line up during a 1970's Egg Bowl

The Egg Bowl has long symbolized football supremacy in the state of Mississippi. The game played annually between Ole Miss and Mississippi State has held host to many memorable football events. It was in this game that Mississippi State won its’ first SEC game, fights such as the game in 1997, and a 1983 game known simply as, “The Immaculate Deflection.”

The series, like the teams in it, have had highs and lows. After this year’s 41-27 victory by Mississippi State, the series seems to have a renewed sense of passion and both teams feature new coaches: Houston Nutt is in just his second year at Ole Miss and the Rebels will most likely look to defend their Cotton Bowl title again this January. As for Mississippi State, they have a rookie head coach Dan Mullen who has big expectations for the coming years in Starkville.

In Oxford, there is a lot more emphasis on the Arkansas rivalry after having signed their former head coach. Jason Smith, Sports Editor for the Daily Mississippian has another theory as to why people in Ole Miss have seemingly overlooked this rivalry the last two years, “The Egg Bowl, it’s about state pride and Ole Miss really doesn’t have many Mississippi kids on the roster anymore. Houston Nutt has really focused his recruiting out of state due to a variety of reasons: non-qualifiers in the state of Mississippi and just better talent (out of state) outside of the top three or four players in the state.” Regardless, after last weeks 41-27 defeat that cost the Rebels a trip to the Capital One Bowl, players and fans in Oxford will be looking for revenge when the Bulldogs travel to Ole Miss next season.

Mullen inherited a 4-8 team at Mississippi State that could only manage two wins within the talent-ladened SEC. Moreover, the team was fresh off a 45-0 thrashing at the hands of Ole Miss. Mullen has a pedigree for success, he led his high school football team to a New Hampshire State Championship and was a first-team all conference selection at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. Mullen has made his mark in the college ranks as a quarterback coach and offensive coordinator under Urban Meyer at Utah and Florida. Mullen has mentored quarterbacks like Alex Smith at Utah, the #1 overall NFL draft pick in 2005 and most recently Tim Tebow at Florida, whose reputation has been cemented as one of the greatest winners in the game. Mullen understood that for Mississippi State to turn into a Utah or Florida their mentality would have to change. Mullen saw in Mississippi a state where its’ greatest players such as Brett Farve, Walter Payton, Steve McNair and Jerry Rice, who was a native of Starkville, all played for smaller schools within the state. Mullen has placed a premium on gaining a foothold on recruiting in a state where many of the players defer to Ole Miss or other powerhouse schools in the region such as Alabama or LSU. For Mullen one of the keys for this to happen is to establish dominance within the state. When Mullen became coach he placed a clock in the team locker room counting down to last week’s Egg Bowl making it a point of success or failure for his Bulldogs. Mullen’s team did not disappoint as they defeated the favored Rebels. Mullen did not stop there, laying down the gauntlet after the game saying, “There’s certainly one program in this state that’s definitely on the rise, going in the right direction, and that’s right here in Starkville.”

Many wonder if Mullen’s post-game comments are not without merit as Ole Miss will lose 15 starters on both the offensive and defensive ends. Regardless, Mullen’s comments ensure that this rivalry’s intensity is only going to increase as long as he’s around. Said Ole Miss legend  and NFL veteran Archie Manning of the rivalry, “Hell I’ve been gone forty years and people still ask me, ‘How’d you do in the Egg Bowl?”

Reports of both stories to come this evening.

Shane Tate, a Tupelo resident and North Mississippi’s great titan said of the rally, “I’m just going to bring a few guys, show up and get our message across and then leave.” Tate said that his members believe that this is an issue of free speech not something racial inspired. Tate plans to have between 20 and 100 members with him at the rally.

I will have a full report Saturday after the game.

Jones made the decision in response to the continued chanting of the controversial phrase “The South Will Rise Again” during Saturday’s game versus Northern Arizona.

“To those who have called on others to desist from the chant and to those who have responded by stopping, please accept our appreciation.Yet some have chosen to continue the chant. Sadly, we have also heard from a few outside our university who support the chant as an expression of values associated with a segregationist movement discredited so many years ago.”

The chant and the chancellor’s response in the past weeks has garnered regional and even national media attention. Supporters of the chant clamored to Ole Miss to encourage students to continue to chant “The South Will Rise Again.” Robert Barrett, a white nationalist and self-proclaimed leader of the national Skinhead movement, was in the Grove Saturday to offer his support of the controversial chant.

The movement comes just 4 days before Ole Miss nationally televised football game with Tennessee. There are unconfirmed reports that members of the Klu Klux Klan will be present to protest the Chancellor’s decision among other issues.

The letter appeared in Monday’s issue of The Daily Mississippian, the school newspaper. In the letter, Chancellor Jones asked the student body to refrain from uttering the controversial chant at the end of the song, “From Dixie With Love.” The Chancellor said that if the chant continued, “I will ask the band to discontinue the music that triggers it to ensure that we do nothing to promote or facilitate the use of these hurtful words.”

Ole Miss officials and alumni have followed the Chancellor’s lead in condemning the chant. Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone said in a statement that the entire Ole Miss coaching staff is behind the Chancellor. The Alumni Association as well as individual alumni, most notably, Jim Barksdale and Shepard Smith. Smith will be greeting students as they enter the stadium reminding them of the nature of the chant.

I spoke with the editor-in-chief of The Daily Mississippian, Alex McDaniel, about the debate that has taken place largely within the opinion and news pages of her paper.

Eagerness was something Noonan said is necessary to survive. Noonan also stressed the importance of acquiring internships while attending college. While journalism school is useful, Noonan asserted that one will gain invaluable experience that school simply cannot provide. Noonan closed by reminding students that this profession while rewarding, is not for the faint of heart; you must be willing to work hard while initially not making much money but for those who love it, the benefits will come.

Below is a segment from Noonan’s Peabody winning documentary, “Did They Die in Vain?”