We were supposed to beat Mississippi State, but we didn’t just beat them, we embarrassed them. We beat them 45-0, which is the biggest blowout in the Egg Bowl since we beat them 48-0 in 1971. And even though 45-0 sounds bad, the score really doesn’t reflect how badly we beat them. Allow me to elaborate. We had 461 yards of total offense to State’s 37 yards. State had -51 yards rushing. Yes, that is a minus sign. Sylvester Croom, State’s coach for five years, resigned the day after the game.
The win puts us at 8-4 for the regular season, our best season in a long time. It moved us into second place in the SEC West behind No. 1 Alabama, and moved us into No. 22 in the AP poll. My dad follows Ole Miss football closer than I do, and I haven’t seen him this giddy about anything in a long time. Things really do look bright for the future of Ole Miss football.
My money is still on us going to the Cotton Bowl. We certainly won’t go to anything worse. However, there’s a slim chance we could be picked up by the Capital One Bowl, which would be a huge deal. Georgia, who had been predicted to be in the Capital One Bowl, lost to Georgia Tech Saturday. While they still have a better record than us at 9-3, the Capital One Bowl could choose us over Georgia. Unlikely, but possible.
We would most likely face Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl or Michigan State in the Capitol One Bowl. Strangely, the better bowl would be easier to win. Texas Tech is ranked No. 8 while Michigan State is ranked No. 21. The BCS and conference tie-ins make for odd bowl pairings. That, and the Big 12 being incredibly strong this year. We should know where and who we’ll be playing late next weekend.
As for the national championship game, it looks like it’ll be the winner of the SEC Championship Game (Alabama or Florida) against Oklahoma, assuming they can beat Missouri in the Big 12 Championship Game. If they lose, things get interesting, but no one really expects them to. I expect to see Florida and Oklahoma play for the national championship.
It’s interesting to note that Oklahoma will probably go to the national championship game, despite having been beaten by Texas and both teams having only one loss. You can read more about that here.