{"id":30211,"date":"2016-01-05T15:54:31","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T20:54:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=30211"},"modified":"2016-01-05T16:03:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T21:03:02","slug":"looking-back-on-the-ole-miss-rebels-season-and-sugar-bowl-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/looking-back-on-the-ole-miss-rebels-season-and-sugar-bowl-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking Back On The Ole Miss Rebels’ Season and Sugar Bowl Win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford, Miss. – Well, well. Here we are, another January in Oxford<\/strong>. Another football season come and gone. The town\u2019s empty. The excitement\u2019s died down. Now we\u2019re left with the familiar feeling of counting down the days until the next opening kickoff, when maybe\u2013just maybe\u2013it\u2019ll finally be our year.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Rebel<\/a>
Photo by Shelby Rayburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Except\u2026 not. This January feels completely different. The town\u2019s abuzz. The excitement surrounding the Rebels<\/strong> is at an all-time high. This year, in a lot of ways, was the year we\u2019ve all been waiting for since Archie<\/strong> last hung up his cleats.<\/span><\/p>\n

They beat Bama<\/strong>. They took it to LSU<\/strong>. They pummeled Mississippi State<\/strong>. And as a finale, they completely obliterated Oklahoma State<\/strong> in the program\u2019s first Sugar Bowl<\/strong> in 46 years. I have no reservations in saying that the 2015 Ole Miss<\/strong> Rebels were the best football team that Oxford\u2019s seen since Johnny Vaught<\/strong> was roaming the sidelines – and certainly the best of my young lifetime.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ole<\/a>
Photo by Shelby Rayburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Rebs may not have been crowned SEC<\/strong> champs, but they beat the champions and were a 4th-and-25 away from making the elusive trip to Atlanta<\/strong>. Conference champions or not, these Rebels had everything: excitement and explosiveness on offense, speed and physicality on defense, and bona fide star power on either side of the ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although a trio of 5-star recruits (OT Laremy Tunsil<\/strong>, DT Robert Nkemdiche<\/strong> and WR Laquon Treadwell<\/strong>) have all declared for the NFL<\/strong> draft a year early, they have left their mark on Ole Miss football in meaningful ways. Consecutive wins over college football\u2019s premier program, consecutive New Year\u2019s Six bowls, top-5 recruiting classes lined up at the door\u2026 the list goes on. Programs often talk about plans to \u201cchange the culture,\u201d but rarely in college athletics do we see the hunters turn into the hunted to the degree that these Rebels have.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"tunsil<\/a>
Photo by Shelby Rayburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, it wouldn\u2019t be an Ole Miss football season without wondering what might have been, had things gone slightly differently. What if Arkansas<\/strong> had choked on the aforementioned 4th down try? What if Laremy Tunsil had been available in the first half of the season? What if injuries hadn\u2019t derailed Tony Conner<\/strong>\u2019s productivity in a sometimes-lackluster secondary? What if Alabama<\/strong> had lost just one more game somewhere along the way?<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rebs would have had a chance to play for a national title, that\u2019s what. It\u2019s not hyperbolic Homerism. It\u2019s nationally-accepted fact.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cody<\/a>
Photo by Shelby Rayburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The point is this: the stakes were raised in 2015, and Ole Miss football appears to have reached something resembling \u201celite\u201d status. Hugh Freeze<\/strong> has proven in his short tenure that he can attract top-tier talent to Oxford and put it in position to contend against anybody and everybody on the schedule. We\u2019re no longer concerned strictly with winning parties; we want crystal footballs to match the stemware.<\/span><\/p>\n

And, starting next year, it\u2019s realistic to think that Ole Miss football will compete for them on a year-in, year-out basis. That, Rebel Nation, is our new reality.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"clapping<\/a>
Photo by Shelby Rayburn<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford, Miss. – Well, well. Here we are, another January in Oxford. Another football season come and gone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":30212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[40,41,5,5036,1944,7067,4,700,7425,4399,1939,1942],"class_list":["post-30211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-athletics","tag-football","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-mississippi","tag-nfl","tag-nkemdiche","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-rebels","tag-sugar-bowl","tag-tony-conner","tag-treadwell","tag-tunsil"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/2106-01-05-SugarBowlWin.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}