It's time for The Mailbag, presented by Art Hays of Sotheby's International Realty, Edition 307.
I asked for your questions. You delivered. So here we go…
The Mailbag is presented by Art Hays of Sotheby’s International Realty. Are you thinking of making a move? Put the power of Sotheby's International Realty to work for you. As a licensed agent with Sotheby's International Realty and a supporter of all things Ole Miss, Art can help you buy or sell in your home town, or anywhere in the world, at no charge to you (seriously). Call and ask Art how. Call 612-805-5929 or email Art at Art Hays at arthur.hays@lakesmn.com.
From RebGeo08: Is Josh Allen this generation’s Dan Marino?
At this point, that's probably fair. He's a generational talent who has yet to win -- or reach -- the Super Bowl. Winning championships is really hard. Winning championships when you play in the same conference with Patrick Mahomes, at the peak of his powers, is even more difficult. Allen was clearly devastated Sunday. He'll have more opportunities, but yes, as long as he's without a title, that certainly counts against him, as unfair as that is.
From North Tampa Rebel: What are your thoughts on AI and how it will affect you in the next 5-10 years? How do you view it as it pertains to your kid's futures and careers?
I am intimidated by it, to be honest. I think, all in all, it's a negative thing. I realize that's a minority opinion. I've asked my kids about it and they think it's a good tool if it's used that way, rather than it being used as a crutch. I suspect it will further kill my field over time, and I fail to see how machines that essentially replace humans is a good thing for society.
From johnnyreb86: What has happened to the zone defense in college basketball? I see so many blown defensive assignments that lead to wide open layups and mismatches where guards are being asked to a post player on the block.
It's two-fold, I think. One, so many of the kids playing college basketball played AAU, and that's almost exclusively man-to-man defense. Two, so many players can shoot the 3-ball well, and they shoot an opposing team right out of the zone.
From chattreb: I have read and heard you say for the last couple of years that the current climate in college sports is unsustainable and that there is no good solution to this problem, and I agree with you on both counts. A similar scenario was the problem of excessive smoking in the US when the Surgeon General confirmed that smoking was dangerous to a person’s health and for the 41 percent of Americans who smoked, there was no way to ban the product without gifting organized crime. Now as you know, they did what they could and banned smoking in restaurants, public buildings etc, and now about 11 percent of the nation smokes. Now back to our problem with college sports, these athletes no matter how much money that they make are still students at universities where there are academic rules for all activities whether it is drama, sports or music etc. Now my question, do you think that it possible for the university presidents to start tightening up academic requirements or enforcing transfer credits or whatever in such a way that it will help solve this Wild Wild West that college sports finds itself in as we saw with the tobacco problem? Actually I think the egoistic boosters that are funding this may be thankful for a solution like this. What say you?
That's a fascinating thought, and I'm embarrassed I haven't thought of it myself. In short, yes, I think that would help. Make the players actually perform academically and treat players as you would regular students in terms of hours transferring. That would go a long way.
That said, can you imagine the backlash when a star player is deemed ineligible academically or when Johnny Transfer Portal decides to go elsewhere due to hours not transferring or the school not manipulating things to accept his previous credits?
But you're onto something, I suspect. Right now, the inmates are running the asylum. At some point, it stands to reason, that has to change.
From robert90: You seem very interested and passionate in regards to American Politics. I am interested in your thoughts on President Trump pardoning around 1500 people that broke into the Capital on Jan. 6th? Thank you in advance.
My view on that day has evolved over time. At the time, I thought it was disgraceful. I still do, but with caveats. There were Feds in the crowd, including some who were allegedly instigating and encouraging people to enter the Capitol. They were essentially ushered into open doors. They weren't armed. They were needlessly maced and pepper-sprayed.
Given all of the lies and the coverup and the evasion of the government in the wake of J6, and given Biden's widespread pardons of the J6 committee, I was in favor of a full pardon of everyone involved. It's a chapter of our country's history that likely needs to be closed.
From Kylethehoss: Do you think Nate Oats was sending a message to the team by benching Sears, or was it something else?
Based on his comments this week, I think it was a message being sent to Sears and the team as a whole about practice intensity and practice consistency. Sometimes, benching the leader of a team sends a message. Sometimes, I suspect, it backfires. The Tide will be an interesting team to watch in the next few weeks.
From BogueChittoReb: Let’s assume Beard rights the ship and this Ole Miss team makes it to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Let’s also say Indiana cans Mike Woodson. With the Bob Knight connections in mind, on a scale of 1-10 (1 being the least bit concerned and 10 being very concerned), how worried should Keith Carter and Ole Miss fans be about the possibility of Beard bolting after Year 2?
There's a lot there. First, I don't know Beard on any personal level, so it's impossible to really answer that. That said, he's a big Bobby Knight disciple and that's a huge basketball school, so I suspect he'd be very interested. But is Indiana going to give him anything more than Ole Miss is giving him? He's got carte blanche, basically, at Ole Miss, and he's allowed to be a human being in Oxford. Would that apply in Bloomington? I don't know, but I kind of wonder.
So I'll say 5 is my answer, but that's admittedly an uninformed 5.
From 901rebels: If you were told you had to stop working in the media today and had to immediately pick a new career that you would have to do for the next 10 years, what would you choose? No additional schooling or anything. And it can’t be media related, like reach a journalism class.
I'd likely go into politics and help campaigns with speech-writing and policy writing and whatnot. I'm not sure I'd make much money, but I would find it very interesting.
From theangus2k: Sorry if you’ve already covered this but I was curious about how you and your family came to host a foreign exchange student. It seems to have worked out well for everybody.
I'm going to write about it at some point because I'm asked about it quite often. In short, it was something that was inspired by a friendship Carson developed last year with a German exchange student that played on his team(s). They became good friends and it became a conversation we started to have.
From MarkVols: Do you think that the SEC teams will overwhelmingly benefit once they get out of playing each other? Sure Duke and a couple of the B12 teams are elite, but I look around college basketball and say, “Mizzou, OleMiss, A&M…even Georgia are all capable of Elite 8 runs (or further)”. Like put OleMiss up against some run of the mill B10 team in the tournament and I think it’s a kill job. And the ACC? Outside of Duke and maybe Louisville, that league is the West Coast Conference.
I think so, though I do wonder if they're going to beat each other up and wear each other out to the point where there's not much left late in March. Can multiple SEC teams make deep runs? I think so. As you said, Duke, Houston, Kansas and a few others appear to be elite teams, but there are several SEC teams I'd put in that mix as well. So yeah, the league is going to be battle-tested, but I have some concerns about fatigue.
From Levi275: Cooper Flagg will be R1 P1 in the NBA draft? Is he actually a generational talent?
Yes and yes. Flagg is going to be a star in the NBA, likely a franchise-altering player. He can do everything on the floor. He's an efficient offensive player who can score and facilitate. Defensively, he is so instinctual. It's probably too early to call him a generational talent but barring injury, he'll be a perennial All-Star, at a minimum.
From TupeloReb99: I know you are a Trump fan, as am I. I think the better wording is being a “common sense” fan. There’s a lot of talk about Trump’s Executive Orders on the board. I just want to ask, is there an Executive Order that you don’t like?
Yeah, I appreciate the president, but I'm not someone who believes he does no wrong. I think he's already been a bit over-ambitious, especially with some of the government spending pauses and whatnot.
I've laughed at some of it, like the Gulf of America thing. There have been more than 300, and I am not familiar with all, but from the best I can tell, almost everything has been very common sensical.
From gmeenfieldrebel: I think this article on the way historians view this era is fascination (in a liberal site but still worth a read). How much of Biden’s legacy is wiped away now that Trump has won? Has any president been so thoroughly repudiated? As the man from the Reagan Institute says in the article Biden was too old for the job, an unprecedented situation in America, and his one claim to fame - beating Trump - is totally gone. Even Biden’s focus on cancer research has been overturned.
Biden ran on one basic tenant -- that he would restore normalcy and prevent Trump from ever regaining power.
I would submit that Biden did nothing to usher normalcy into our country. I would argue he did the opposite.
And as it pertains to Trump, he failed. Clearly.
In short, his administration has to go down in history as a gross failure. I'm not sure how it could be called anything else, regardless of how successful or lack thereof the Trump presidency proves to be.
From cctrey5: Historically, Super Bowl wins have been a major determinant in an NFL QB’s legacy (one could argue that’s the primary reason Eli will be a HOF). But with the Chiefs’ dominance over the last several years, do you think SB wins will continue to be paramount in discussions about potentially legendary QBs like Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, and Joe Burrow who could all end up with no rings, or will we have to adjust our view?
No, I think that will continue. It's how we judge quarterbacks, whether that's fair or not (hint: it's not). The media and fans alike are obsessed with championships. Mahomes is pushing for GOAT status because of his titles, and deservedly so. Until Allen, Jackson, Burrow, etc., win, that failure to do so will tarnish their legacies.
From BAUER1: Recruiting question-It seems obvious that there wasn’t the amount of defensive talent in the portal that there was last year. Do you think that Kiffin is focusing on high school talent because there’s very little in the portal at certain positions or is high school emphasis a change due to necessity? All of the top talent this year seems to be at QB or WR.
Kiffin has said repeatedly the way to build a championship program is recruiting high school players and supplementing through the portal. At some point, I think we have to take him at his word. Ole Miss has had success, and that has led to piqued interest from high school prospects. The portal is very expensive as well, to the point that elite players are few and far between and are the subjects of bidding wars.
