Nutt, Rebels Look Awfully Familiar at the Finish

It almost feels like a pile-on the morning after, just another "I told you so," knowing what so many fans who watch this same situation unfold for 10 years were thinking as the final seconds of Ole Miss' 16-10 loss to South Carolina ticked away Thursday night.

The excuses for failure had been laid out well in advance for the ESPN broadcast team, starting with the report that 18 players had recently been hit by the flu. Ole Miss' players must have suffered from the worst flu bug to ever strike a football team, though, because it appears the offense has been ill since the Sept. 6 opener with Memphis and was still run down through three quarters Thursday night.

As the Rebels struggled to muster anything offensively, much less live up to their No. 4 national ranking, Thursday night in Columbia, S.C., additional blame was placed on Ole Miss' weird schedule to start the year. The 2-0 Rebs had a Sunday opener with Memphis, an SEC-scheduled open date on Sept. 12 (same as Arkansas and Kentucky), last Saturday's breather against Louisiana Directional School for the Untalented, and only five days after that scrimmage to prepare for Ellis Johnson's Gamecocks defense.

But all that excuse-making aside, let's look at where the game was decided, in Ole Miss' final series. Steve Spurrier, who isn't near the coach everyone thought he was back in his Florida days with all that talent at his disposal, seemed determined to let the Rebels stay in it after taking a 16-3 lead. He was willing to lean totally on Johnson's defense, which up and shockingly pulled a Willy Robinson and failed to react to a receiver running straight down the field, giving Ole Miss its only touchdown of the game.

Then Spurrier coached his own team backward on offense, setting up Ole Miss for terrific field position to launch its final drive. Only a lucky bounce and roll of a poor South Carolina punt kept Ole Miss from starting in Gamecocks territory.

So, what did Ole Miss do?

Well, instead of running the speed play to the right -- a call for the fastest Rebel, Dexter McCluster, that allowed him to get his jets going at full thrust and a play South Carolina didn't stop well in the fourth quarter - Ole Miss lined up in the I and ran power. The Rebels moved it into South Carolina territory as the clock wound down, and then the Rebels decided some trickery against the sound Ellis Johnson scheme was in order. The Rebels put in a substitute for McCluster to run the "Wild Rebel" and fooled no one. A double-reverse to McCluster, who first looked like he might pass against a defense set to stop any long throw, went for a big loss.

That set up third-and-14. Ole Miss, surprisingly still had some timeouts this late and burned its second of three.

But somehow the Rebs came out of that timeout with 12 men in the huddle, costing another five yards. They then managed to not have McCluster, whom the ESPN crew finally deduced in the fourth quarter was the Rebels' best offensive player, in the game for that critical call anyway.