This is the final 10 Weekend Thoughts sponsored by GameChanger Patch Co. Christopher and the people at GameChanger have sponsored this spot for the past two years and they’ve been an awesome partner. GameChanger is staying with MPW Digital as a sponsor of the Oxford Exxon Podcast, but they are diversifying their advertising to other markets. The patches work. It’s a two-patch system to prevent hangovers and provide recovery while you sleep. I tested them and they absolutely work. The code “RebelGrove20” remains in effect, so make sure you get ready for the football season by stocking up. Thanks again to GameChanger Patch Co. for making this content item possible over the past two years.

I have a new sponsor lined up and it will be introduced in this spot next Sunday.

1. Football season is here. For Ole Miss, everything starts this week. We, the local media, talk with Lane Kiffin and selected players on Wednesday. Preseason camp begins Thursday. The countdown to the Sept. 2 opener at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium versus Mercer is underway.

Summer went quickly. It always does. For me, when the calendar turns to August, I just instinctively go into grind mode. There won’t be a free weekend until sometime in December, if then. The workload increases, but as I get older, I find that I like it that way. The weeks become routine, and at least for me, the fall flies by.

Press conferences on Monday, practice coverage on Tuesday and Wednesday, The Mailbag on Wednesday, Neal’s Picks on Thursday, slow Fridays ruined by rumors, Saturday game day and then 10 Thoughts on Sunday. Rinse and repeat.

We are still ironing out some of our football season plans, but for the most part, barring something unexpected, I suspect it’ll look a lot like last season. I’ll go to the games and provide written coverage and jump on the postgame show with Chase Parham at my earliest convenience. It’ll be shorter this year so we can turn it into an audio podcast immediately after its conclusion. Chase is going to the Tulane game, so we’ll switch roles that weekend and there’s another conflict later in the season, but that’s the general plan.

We still have a couple of other things to iron out, but we’re looking forward to covering one final season of the “old” Southeastern Conference, complete with divisions and a “permanent” rivalry with Vanderbilt before moving to the new model in 2024. It should be a fascinating few months.

2. I’m always jealous of optimists. They see a glass half-full and convince themselves it’s on the verge of overflowing with their favorite beverage.

I’m much more pragmatic. I think I’m more of a realist than I am a cynic or a pessimist, a major life accomplishment for me. Still, as the football season approaches, I find myself amazed at some comments I’ve heard from Ole Miss fans regarding the upcoming season.

Mind you, the majority of Ole Miss fans I’ve encountered view the season in much the same way I do — cautiously. However, the most excited ones, I’ve found, have convinced themselves something really special is going to happen. They’ve talked themselves into a 10-2 campaign — 9-3 at worst — and that got me thinking. For that to happen, Ole Miss must buck history, right?

Ole Miss plays three national title contenders this fall — at Alabama on Sept. 23 and then home on Sept. 30 against LSU and at Georgia on Nov. 11. To get to 10-2, obviously, the Rebels must win one of those games and then win every other game. Look, Mom, those math skills I learned at Ruston High and then polished up at ULM are paying off.

That means Ole Miss would have to sweep Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State and Texas A&M this fall. So I wondered, how has Ole Miss performed against those teams in recent history.

I went back to 2012, Hugh Freeze’s first season in Oxford. I felt that including the Houston Nutt years would be profoundly unfair.