

The autopsy results are in

11:45 PM, Sep. 4, 2010  |  Comments

The celebration began here Friday when Jeremiah Masoli was declared eligible. It continued when Masoli and his new Ole Miss teammates sprinted to a 31-10 halftime lead over seemingly out-manned Jacksonville State.

The sun shone brightly. There was the first hint of fall in the air. Ole Miss, playing two quarterbacks, gained 323 yards of total offense in the first half alone. The visiting Gamecocks had but 70. Most of the Rebel student section exited, presumably to victory parties.

And then, and then ...

And then came one of the most remarkable turnarounds these eyes have seen. Then came one of the most disappointing defeats in Ole Miss football history. Jacksonville State, using its own two-quarterback system, shocked Ole Miss and the rest of college football with a 49-48, double overtime stunner.

The visiting Gamecocks, who play a division below Ole Miss and have 22 fewer scholarship players, made every play when it counted most. That included when the Gamecocks, down 48-41 in the second overtime, faced fourth down and 15 at the 30. That's when 18-year-old freshman Coty Blanchard hit Kevyn Cooper in the back of the end zone behind Ole Miss safety Damien Jackson.

Then Blanchard, under heavy pressure, shoveled a two-point conversion pass to running back Calvin Middleton, setting off a wild Jacksonville State celebration all over the artificial turf.

"It's my fault," Jackson would later say. "It's my fault. It's my fault. It's my fault."

Sorry, Damien, that's just not true. There's plenty of shared blame to go around here. You had much help.

And you can't start blaming anyone before you give credit to the Gamecocks, who showed more resilience and fortitude than Rocky Balboa in all six movies combined.

Look around the country. Look at what happened in nearly every one of these inter-divisional matchups. Jacksonville State was paid $300,000 to come here and play the part of sacrificial lamb. The Gamecocks left with a lot more than the money.

It was too easy early

Meanwhile, Ole Miss is left to figure out what happened and why. This will be football's version of an autopsy. There will be lots of film watching, lots of soul searching.

You could blame all the Masoli controversy that preceded the game, except for the fact that the Rebels appeared sharp and focused in their first-half dominance. Blaming that distraction just doesn't wash.

You could blame what looked like a fatigued defense in the fourth quarter, except for the fact that Jacksonville State, with fewer players, appeared fresh as the proverbial daisy. That doesn't wash either.

Correctly, you can blame the same reasons why most huge upsets occur. Ole Miss turned the ball over three times; Jacksonville none.

And you also can correctly blame complacency. Everything was almost too easy for Ole Miss in the first half. The Rebels appeared to come out flat in the second half, let the Gamecocks hang around in the third quarter, and the visitors' confidence seemed to elevate with each passing minute, each possession.

But there has to be more than just that in an upset of this magnitude. Perhaps Jacksonville coach Jack Crowe put his finger on it when he was talking to this reporter just before boarding the bus. Crowe believes Ole Miss has the talent to win several SEC games, but ...

"I don't usually talk about the other team, but what I sense with Ole Miss is that until they get this quarterback situation stabilized, they are going to have a hard time finding their identity," Crowe said.

Perhaps there's something to that, although nobody wanted to talk about it at the Ole Miss post-game press conference.

Two quarterbacks?

Nutt thought both his quarterbacks - starter Nathan Stanley and Masoli - "played pretty well."

"No problem," Masoli answered when asked about the swapping out of quarterbacks.

"No problem," Stanley answered, when asked the same question.

Stanley completed 6 of 10 passes for 133 yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked once for a 15-yard loss. He fumbled, resulting in a JSU TD.

Masoli completed 7 of 10 throws for 109 yards and was intercepted once. He ran five times for 29 yards.

When Jacksonville State pulled to within 31-20, Nutt went with Masoli. When JSU made it 31-26, Nutt went back to Stanley. When Jacksonville sent the game into overtime, Masoli was the guy. He responded by taking the Rebels to touchdowns on both overtime possessions, making a key 16-yard run on the first and completing a key 16-yard pass on the second.

In fairness, both quarterbacks played well for the most part, and both made costly mistakes. But I've never been much on a two-quarterback system, even though I watched Jacksonville win with two on this day.

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