Ultimate Underdogs

The Southeastern Conference is known for its epic football games every Saturday in the fall that has two teams pounding it out on the gridiron in what is usually a thriller all the way until the last second. However this Saturday in Oxford, Miss., the matchup between the Ole Miss Rebels and the No. 2 nationally ranked Alabama Crimson Tide does not have that sort of feel.

Instead, this SEC Western Division matchup is surprisingly one-sided according to Sportsbook.com with Alabama projected as a 25.5 point favorite to beat the Rebels, which is one of the worst underdogs Ole Miss has ever been in a home SEC contest.

So for Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt and his squad, this week’s game gives them an “us against the world” mindset as they go through their preparations for the challenge ahead. In their minds, they know the only people giving them a shot to win this game are themselves.

But they try not to listen to the odd setters for they know they can only control what they put into each and every play throughout the game.

“I always try to be as honest as I can with our guys,” Nutt said in a press conference Monday. “I thought last week we got better as a football team. From Fresno State on, we got better. That is what is important. Everyone has a responsibility to get better. Whether you are playing against the Green Bay Packers or Alabama, there is not much difference. You have to play extremely hard and eliminate mistakes.

“That is what we have been putting our emphasis on. We want to get better, eliminate mistakes and have a tremendous attitude. We have a great opportunity.”

That opportunity, however, will come against arguably the nation’s best defense, which is ranked third in the country in total defense giving up just 191.33 yards per game. So for the Rebels to have a chance of competing with the Crimson Tide, they will need to air the ball out as Alabama is giving up just 39.83 yards on the ground this season.

Sophomore wide receiver Ja-Mes Logan, whose first season in a Rebel uniform saw Ole Miss finish 4-8 and 1-7 in SEC play, is excited for the opportunity and knows the only way to gain people’s respect is to go out and compete as hard as they can.

"We are used to being the underdog,” Logan said. “We can't control what people say about us. All we can control is what we do. We talk every day after practice about playing hard and trying to prove people wrong about us. It's always fun to play a top five team. You just have to be prepared and play a really good brand of football against teams like this."

Senior left tackle Bradley Sowell has been in this role before. Sowell was a member of the 2008 Rebel squad that took down the Florida Gators, who won the National Championship that season, in Gainesville in one of the greatest college football upsets of all time.

“They have some big, NFL-looking guys on their team, and we just have to fight them,” Sowell said. “That’s our goal –– just go out there fight them and see where that takes us. We are not worried about the spread. We were something like 24-point underdogs against Florida. This is the SEC. Every team has talent.

“It’s just a 60-minute game. All we have to do is be better than Alabama for 60 minutes, not all week. If we go out there and lay our hats out there and our hearts (out there), you never know what can happen.”