McCready: 10 Weekend Thoughts presented by Harry Alexander

1. The regular season ends on Saturday.

Win or lose, I have to believe change is coming inside the Ole Miss football program.

Whether Ole Miss keeps the Golden Egg for another year or whether the Rebels suffer the vision of a bad Mississippi State team taking the trophy with them back to Starkville, I believe change is coming.

Change has to come at this point, right?

There’s no defending the status quo at this point, not after Saturday’s 38-17 loss to Vanderbilt, not after a dispassionate showing in Nashville just one week after an emotional win at Texas A&M. Change has to come now, after yet another disaster on the defensive side of the ball.

Here’s the rub for Hugh Freeze right now: Change is every bit as needed on offense as it is on defense. Yes, Ole Miss gave up 481 yards on defense Saturday night and forced just one turnover against a pedestrian Vanderbilt offense. The Rebels’ offense, however, wasn't exactly gangbusters. Ole Miss managed 363 yards of total offense, including 273 through the air and just 90 on the ground. The Rebels were just 5-for-18 on third down, 0-for-3 on fourth down, 1-for-3 in the red zone and scored just seven points _ thanks to a circus catch by Evan Engram _ in the final 53 minutes.

Woof.

2. When it finally ended Saturday night, the fans left in the Ole Miss section were visibly angry. One leaned over the railing at Vanderbilt Stadium and cursed Freeze for calling a timeout and prolonging the misery. Another Ole Miss fan decked out in red _ and likely the influence of Jack Daniels and/or Budweiser, mockingly yelled “Hotty Toddy” at Rebel players as they headed for the locker room. Frustration boiled over. As the great Nuke LaLoosh so famously said in Bull Durham, "I love winning. It's like better than losing." That applies to fan bases as well.

For the first time in his five seasons at Ole Miss, posters on message boards called for Freeze to join the casualty list. Five years into Freeze’s journey, it’s fair to wonder if the Rebels are lost. They’ve definitely taken a series of wrong turns and Siri isn’t at the ready to offer directions back to the interstate.

Again, I anticipate change. How much change? I don’t know. Only Freeze knows that, and I think it’s weighing on him.

I believe Freeze is a good man. I believe he’s genuine. He runs a program that embraces relationships among the families that comprise it. Not only does he build relationships with the men with whom he coaches, but he also builds relationships with those men’s families. He knows their children. The wives are friends. His children are friends with his assistants’ children.

I watched Freeze walk across the field at Vanderbilt late Saturday, making the trek to the busses for the return trip to Oxford. He was accompanied by at least one of his daughters. Hearts were clearly heavy. He was a man carrying the weight of the world. At some point in the next couple of weeks (or less), Freeze will almost certainly have to dismiss friends, knowing that in the process, he’s turning their families’ worlds upside down.

It’s a multi-million-dollar business, certainly. It’s undoubtedly a scoreboard business, and everyone involved knows that going in. When times are good, they’re great. When times are bad, they’re awful. It is, as Freeze said Saturday night, an emotional roller coaster. It’s all part of the gig.

No one is asking fans to feel sorry for those involved. Just acknowledge the human element.

3. On the field, I understand how Ole Miss’ running game got to this place. Eric Swinney would’ve helped this season. So would have Jordan Wilkins. Their losses were huge. I understand how much Ken Webster’s injury shook up the Rebels’ defensive secondary. I know how much Fadol Brown was missed early in the year. I get it. I do.

However, how, in Year Five, is Ole Miss’ linebacker corps so bad? How?

I catch myself asking that question repeatedly during games. Outside of Demarquis Gates, there’s no consistent contributor at that position. How does that happen? I suspect Freeze asks himself that question. I imagine it keeps him up at night.

I don’t ask that sarcastically or rhetorically, either. It’s a legitimate query. It’s baffling. I suspect the Rebels will attempt to solve the problem with a haul of junior college linebackers. That’s rarely a workable solution.

Ole Miss needs to get this NCAA investigation into the rear-view mirror. And fast. Once that’s done, and its defense establishes a new identity, targeting some young linebackers to build around has to be very close to Priority One.

4. So on to the Egg Bowl, a game both coaches involved have to absolutely dread at this point. Someone will win it and someone will lose it. Both programs have bigger issues to address — perhaps including formulating a plan to avoid mutually insured destruction (more on that in a bit).

Anyway, it’s hard to believe it’s come to this for Ole Miss, a program that won the Sugar Bowl 10 1/2 months ago. The Rebels need a win over Mississippi State just to become bowl-eligible. Running back Akeem Judd and defensive back/return specialist Carlos Davis talked about those topics and more following the loss at Vanderbilt Saturday night.

5. Ole Miss associate athletic director for high school and community college relations Barney Farrar will meet with the NCAA on Tuesday afternoon, per multiple sources.

According to sources, Farrar will have to answer questions about an unauthorized cell phone that was used to contact prospective student-athletes. The NCAA, I’m told, learned about the phone (let’s not beat around the bush here; burner phones are a big part of the recruiting process) during immunity interviews with Mississippi State linebacker Leo Lewis.

I’m hearing there’s no text content, just a record of texts and/or calls from the unauthorized phone to Lewis during the recruiting process.

Mississippi State, at least the sane people around the process, can’t be happy with this development. Lewis was once committed to Ole Miss. As you might have noticed, he didn’t sign with the Rebels. LSU was heavily involved in the process as well. He didn’t sign with the Tigers. To say there were rumors flying around Lewis’ recruitment would be akin to saying Kate Upton’s tweet last week about the American League Cy Young Award voting drew a little attention.

Maybe you believed Ole Miss and/or LSU offered incentives in the recruiting process and Lewis chose Mississippi State because of his love of Restaurant Tyler and The Veranda. Maybe you believe he just felt maroon was slimming. Just know there are rumors (for lack of a better word) of videos and audiotapes that aren’t exactly flattering to Lewis (and his mother). Throw in the fact that Lewis’ handler doesn’t exactly possess a sparkling reputation and this situation has all the makings of a bloody mess before it’s finally put to bed.

Unless every source is wrong _ and at this point, hell, anything’s possible _ Farrar’s phone doesn’t contain the smoking gun the NCAA has searched for over the past four years. Four years into this witch hunt, the NCAA just can’t line up the kill shot. One Indianapolis resident in particular has made this a personal quest.

Everyone involved _ Ole Miss, the NCAA, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, et. al. _ needs this chapter to close.

This week, however, as the Egg Bowl approaches, the role Mississippi State has played in the investigation is a legitimate storyline.

6. It’s time to rank the SEC. Your guess is as good as mine. I can’t recall a bigger collection or mediocrity and ineptitude in the nation’s premier football conference in a long time. So, here goes…

1. Alabama — The Tide is human, but it’s so head and shoulders ahead of the rest of the league it’s laughable.

2. Florida — I couldn’t have been happier for a group than I was Jim McElwain and Florida on Saturday afternoon. LSU had that coming. Joe Alleva is too arrogant to realize that was karma kicking his ass.

3. Tennessee — The Vols are going to back their way into the Sugar Bowl with a win over Vanderbilt. The Vols are back, baby!

4. Georgia — Maybe the SEC East isn’t as down as we thought? No, the SEC is horrible this year.

5. LSU — Can LSU get Jimbo Fisher to leave Tallahassee for Baton Rouge? There’s your drama for the holiday season in the SEC.

6. Texas A&M — The Aggies and LSU meet on Thanksgiving night with nothing on the line and two coaches scrapping for anything resembling momentum. Ed Orgeron is the Tigers’ last-option fallback and Kevin Sumlin doesn’t possess his fan base’s confidence.

7. Auburn — The Tigers get to go to Tuscaloosa to get popped Saturday. That Cam Newton era feels like it happened eons ago.

8. Arkansas — Bret Bielema finally got that Mississippi State monkey off his back. A win over Missouri will silence the critics for the offseason. If I were LSU, I’d figure out a way to hire him if Fisher says no.

9. South Carolina — The Gamecocks have six wins, are going bowling and have a nice young quarterback to build around.

10. Kentucky — The Wildcats have six wins, are going bowling and now Mark Stoops can enjoy basketball season in peace.

11. Vanderbilt — Derek Mason probably saved his job Saturday night in Nashville. A win over the Vols Saturday isn’t out of the question.

12. Ole Miss — No running game, no linebacker play, a shaky secondary and a severe case of the dropsies led to an embarrassing night in Nashville — probably the low point of the Freeze era. Unless…

13. Mississippi State — The Bulldogs are 4-7, have surrendered 109 points in the past two weeks and head to Oxford looking to avoid a third straight Egg Bowl loss. Oh, the drama (insert eye-rolling emoji here).

14. Missouri — The Tigers rolled up more than 700 yards in Knoxville and still lost. Sometimes, it’s just not your year.

7. I’ll freely admit I’m not sure how some of the bowl stuff works this year. The logjam of mediocrity lends to quite a bit of confusion. If Ole Miss wins Saturday, anything from the Liberty to the Birmingham or Independence Bowl seems to be in play.

College Football Playoff at Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl – Alabama

Allstate Sugar Bowl – Tennessee

Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl – Florida

Outback Bowl – LSU

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl – Arkansas

Taxslayer Bowl – Georgia

Autozone Liberty Bowl – Ole Miss

Advocare V100 Texas Bowl – Texas A&M

Belk Bowl – Auburn

Birmingham Bowl – Kentucky

Camping World Independence Bowl – South Carolina

Cactus Bowl — Vanderbilt (by virtue of APR scores)

8. Here’s my top 25 ballot this week. I’m not sure it really matters, as I still don’t see anyone beating Alabama.

1. Alabama

2. Michigan

3. Ohio State

4. Washington

5. Oklahoma

6. Wisconsin

7. Clemson

8. Colorado

9. Penn State

10. Oklahoma State

11. Florida

12. USC

13. Louisville

14. Western Michigan

15. Florida State

16. Auburn

17. West Virginia

18. Houston

19. Nebraska

20. Boise State

21. Washington State

22. Tennessee

23. Texas A&M

24. Utah

25. Stanford.

9. Ole Miss picked up its biggest win to date Sunday night, impressively defeating St. Joseph's, 81-68, Sunday in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

Sebastian Saiz scored a career-high 26 points and added 12 rebounds, and Ole Miss advanced to the Paradise Jam championship game with an 81-68 victory over Saint Joseph’s on Sunday.

Deandre Burnett added 20 points, and Cullen Neal and Rasheed Brooks had 11 each for the Rebels (4-0), who pushed a 41-37 halftime lead to as many as 16 points in the second half.

“We were giving up a lot of free opportunities in the last game (a 95-88 overtime win over Oral Roberts on Friday),” Saiz told the Associated Press. “We used the mentality of ‘nothing free tonight.’ I knew they were going to try to double-team me, but I was ready for it. I knew they weren’t going to be able to stop me.”

Shavar Newkirk scored 21 points, Charlie Brown had 13 and Lamarr Kimble 10 for the Hawks (3-1), who led twice in the first half, the last at 28-24 on Chris Clover’s 3-pointer with 8:56 left.

But Ole Miss responded with a 15-5 run over the next five minutes, with Brown’s 3-pointer with 3:54 remaining giving the Rebels a 39-33 lead, their biggest of the half.

Mississippi’s biggest lead came in the final six minutes, with Justa Furmanavicius tipping in a missed Burnett layup for a 73-57 margin with 5:26 left.

“We had too many missed plays,” said Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli, whose team was 10 of 22 from the free throw line Sunday. “We had to keep them off the glass, and didn’t do that. But it was our foul shooting — we started off 0-for-6 to start the half, and we can’t be in those situations.”

10. We'll have Egg Bowl coverage all week on the site, and I'll cover the Rebels' Thanksgiving Day basketball game against Montana. Until then, here are some links of interest to me _ and hopefully to you _ for your reading pleasure. Happy Thanksgiving.

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