2008 Mississippi Rebels
Written June 21, 2008 by Jason Lowry
With football season continuing to get closer and closer Jason Lowry is ready to make his 2008 Mississippi Rebels football predictions. The Rebels are coming off a pretty disappointing season where they finished 3-9 overall and 0-8 in the SEC West for the worst record in the whole conference. Head coach Houston Nutt will be making his debut with the Rebels, and should be glad to see 16 starters returning from a year ago. While its hard to imagine a team that couldn’t win a game in conference doing much better with the same players, but you just never know what will happen. To get a good idea on what this team will be bringing in 2008, lets take a look at what they got on both sides of the ball.
Offense:
The Rebels return 7 starters, but get a nice addition at the quarterback spot in sophomore transfer from Texas Jevan Snead. Snead did play in 8 games as a true freshman at Texas and showed he not only throw the ball, but has some running ability as well. The team has a special talent in freshman running back Enrique Davis, who many think will be one of the best the SEC has to offer. The team returns all 3 starting wide receivers from a year, and the best of the group is senior Mike Wallace who led the team with 716 yards and tied for the team lead with 6 touchdowns. Junior Shay Hodge is another good threat on the outside and don’t be surprised if he has a big year as well. The offensive line returns all but one starter and this should be a pretty solid unit this season. They have two of the best the SEC has to offer in senior left tackle Michael Oher and right tackle John Jerry. It looks like junior Brandon Green will take over the duties at center.
Defense:
They are hoping that the defense will be much improved with 9 returning starters from a year ago. The Rebels run a 3-4 scheme and should be very happy to see all 4 starters at linebacker coming back this season. They got two pretty solid talents in seniors Tony Fein and Ashlee Palmer. The defensive line brings back 2 of the 3 starters from a year ago, and have a special talent in junior defensive end Greg Hardy, and a pretty solid guy in the middle with senior Peria Jerry. As it looks now sophomore Ted Laurent will be taking over the vacated spot, and we expect good things out of him before he is done. The secondary might not have any exceptional talents, but should improve as a whole this season with 3 of the 4 starters coming back . It looks like junior Cassius Vaughn will take over at the corner spot opposite of senior Dustin Mouzon. At the safety spots look for hard hitting senior strong safety Jamarca Sanford to have another solid year, and look for continued improvement for sophomore free safety Johnny Brown.
Prediction: 4th in SEC West
We really feel that this team is going to make a big improvement in the 2008 season, and while 4th might sound bad, you have to remember the conference these guys play in. We feel like the Rebels will go right around 6-6 and could pull out a 7-5 season if everything goes right. Look for the Rebels to go bowling for the first time since 2003.
For those who are looking for other teams preview and predictions, be sure to continue to check back as Jason Lowry will keep making his way through the best teams and conferences in the country. Also for those of you looking to get a head start on the upcoming football season, get over to Sportsbook.com and get an account up and running today.