It's football delirium all over the Mid-South

Memphis defeated SMU in triple overtime, 55-52, to clinch a seven-win season and a place in the New Orleans Bowl.

And the fans cheered!

Tennessee defeated Kentucky in quadruple overtime, 52-50, to clinch the SEC East and a trip to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta.

And the fans cheered louder!

Ole Miss called a press conference to announce the firing of beleaguered coach Ed Orgeron.

And the fans cheered loudest of all!

&quot;I would look at it as an opportunity,&quot; said Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone.

I would look at it as one of the absolute best long weekends in the history of local college football. I even have a new ditty. Altogether now:

Hotty Toddy

gosh almighty

pig Sooie;

it's great to be

a Memphis Tiger

on Rocky Top, Tennessee

Of course, that leaves out Mississippi State. Coach Sylvester Croom was so happy Friday he couldn't muster a word for the sideline reporter after the game. He just stood there, unable to speak. It may be the best post-game interview I've ever seen.

Arkansas fans had to be darn happy to see their Razorbacks beat No. 1 LSU in triple overtime Friday. So what if it might have messed up their coaching search?

And then came Saturday. Oh, what a Saturday, starting with the hastily called press conference in Oxford.

They held it in at the indoor practice facility. A sign on the wall said: &quot;Three and OUT!&quot;

So it was for Orgeron, who was dismissed just three years after being introduced as the Ole Miss coach.

&quot;To say it was a mistake, I don't think so,&quot; said Boone.

To say that's being honest, I don't think so, either.

Of course it was a mistake. Hiring a coach who lasts three years and walks off with a buyout package worth more than $1.4 million buyout is the very definition of a mistake.

It wasn't Orgeron who made that mistake, by the way. It was Boone and Chancellor Robert Khayat.

As recently as a few weeks ago, Khayat said Orgeron would return &quot;unless something completely insane happens -- and I mean, like, breaking the law or something.&quot;

Well, there isn't actually a law against going for it on fourth-and-1, from your own 49, with 10 minutes left, up two touchdowns over your bitter cross-state rival, but there certainly ought to be.

So that was it for Orgeron. But Saturday's craziness was just getting started.

In Lexington, the Vols played for the right to go to the SEC championship game.

At the Liberty Bowl, the Tigers played for the right to go to the New Orleans Bowl with a spring in their steps.

A 6-6 bowl team just sounds terrible. Especially when that 6-6 includes losses to Arkansas State, Middle Tennessee State and Ole Miss.

But 7-5?

&quot;It just sounds better,&quot; said Memphis quarterback Martin Hankins.

Here's to sounding better, then!

Back and forth it went. And to and fro. And the same thing was unfolding in Lexington on television.

&quot;It's been a fun year for college fans to watch the games,&quot; said Hankins. &quot;There are no guarantees anymore.&quot;

So Tennessee went up, 31-14, then lost the lead. Memphis had a chance to win the game in regulation, but missed the field goal.

Then overtime. Then double overtime. Then triple overtime. Not in one game, in both of them.

At one point, 5:13 p.m. Central, both games were in overtime, and in timeout, at the exact same moment.

SMU had called a timeout to ice Memphis kicker Matt Reagan, before a 33-yard field goal attempt to tie the game at the end of the first overtime.

Tennessee had called a timeout to gather its defense, before a two-point conversion attempt point by Kentucky to tie the game at the end of the fourth overtime.

A whole season had led up to this. And, still, nothing had been settled.

The four teams in the two games milled about. The coaches plotted and the fans watched or turned away, unable to bear it.

That moment is what this enterprise is all about, of course. That moment of exhilarating tension.

It's why people care so much about this game called football. It's why we come together, every autumn, for another season of it.

It's why coaches are hired and fired, why schools have hastily called press conferences.

&quot;We're always ready to pay what's necessary,&quot; said Boone.

Because how can you put a price on that exhilarating tension?

Tennessee stuffed Kentucky on the two-point try. The Vols are off to Atlanta.

Reagan missed the field goal but got a break when -- it had to happen at some point this season -- SMU called a timeout just before he missed it.

Reagan made the second kick. Then made another to win it at the end of the third overtime.

&quot;I had a towel over my head,&quot; said linebacker Jake Kasser.

Of course he did.

And then he heard the joy, from his teammates, from the fans, from Memphis and Starkville and Knoxville and even Oxford.

&quot;It's been a crazy year,&quot; said Kasser.

Cowbells, anyone?



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Comments » 11

nsites writes:


Not everyone is filled with delirium and joy at the firing of Ole Miss football coach Ed Orgeron. Some of us think the firing revealed several fools.

Some of us think Ole Miss athletic director Pete Boone was premature, peremptory, and, well, foolish. Firing a football coach after just three years, I would say, is prima facie evidence of foolishness.

Your colleague Scott Cacciola quoted former Alabama coach Bill Curry as characterizing any review period of less than five years to reflect "unrealistic" expectations for a football coach. Never able to go directly to the pros right after high school, college football players undergo profound physical development over four years. Also, football teams are huge, diluting the impact of initial recruiting classes. As a result, we see that, after three seasons, Kansas miracle coach Mark Mangino had just a 12-24 record. Sylvester Croom had a 9-25. Ed Orgeron was 10-25.

Exactly where is the compelling evidence Orgeron was hopeless? The New York Times is running a blog piece this morning about how well Orgeron would fit back at Southern Cal. In fact, neither you nor Boone can tell if Orgeron would be good or bad as a head coach after so short a time. It is a fact he out-recruited many other SEC teams during his stay at Ole Miss. But, Lord knows, he was incompetent at Southern Cal.

It was not even like Boone had to stomach someone else's repugnant hire; Boone hired the guy. That was after Boone got a big head shuttling around the country on attorney Dick Scruggs' jet with chancellor Khayat interviewing coaching candidates and being embarrassed when he coudn't get Dennis Erickson. Boone plays the blame game.

By the way, remember that "With no plan, U of M has no chance" column of yours on October, 16th? You know, the one where, because of the small number of wins, you basically called for the firing of football coach Tommy West--and athletic director R.C. Johnson and president Shirley Raines?

Some of us think the firing of Orgeron revealed several fools, Geoff.

Some of us think the success of West revealed several fools, Geoff.

How's your delirium and joy today, Geoff? Wouldn't a fire Pete Boone column be more in order?

JMSTiger writes:

nsites makes some great points. I am a Memphis Tigers fan and never liked Orgeron (maybe because him beating Memphis was the only thing he could do well as Ole Miss head football coach), but there seems to be something very unfair about firing a head coach football coach after three seasons. Everyone knows you need to give a new coach at least four years, even as many as five to see if he can turn it around and start winning. Boone and Khayat have sullied Ole Miss' reputation the way they stabbed David Cutcliff in the back and now have done the same to Orgeron. This reputation is going to make it very difficult for Ole Miss to land a quality head coach. I will be shocked if they are able to get anyone worth a damn.

cavis writes:

When you go winless in your conference, it's acceptable that you lose your job. Your conference is your measuring stick, and Coach O and Ole Miss showed this year that they are the clear cut bottom. Winless? Seriously, you defend a winless coach?
I'm sick and tired of hearing about Coach O's recruits. If you get "good" players, and coach them terribly, what's the point?

markcpa#638899 writes:

This isn’t rocket science. When you hire someone to become a head coach in the toughest and deepest college football conference in the nation who doesn't even have one game of coordinator experience, you are asking for exactly what Ole Miss has seen in the last three years.

SportsFan writes:

Memphis 'Stale' to the New Orleans Bowl with 7 victories over teams with just a few more combined wins....almost laughable, but the more serious issue is being in a NON BCS Conference which limits football revenue and makes Memphis a second tier football program.

...or back to the New Orleans Bowl, Papa John Birmingham Bowl, or Mobile Bowl...

Remember, West has never won the Conference USA title, so Liberty Bowl is far fetched.

sforman#649581 writes:

SportsFan once again demonstrates that there can be no discussion of anything negative related to the U of Mississippi without someone chiming in to somehow slam Memphis. This all has nothing to do with the Tigers, kindly leave us out of the current general disarray in oxford.

SportsFan writes: comments were about Memphis; in no way did I indicate anything about Ole Miss. I am just observing the position of Memphis football which is 2nd tier in competition and bowl participation.

DCVolFan writes:

I'm amazed that Calkins' article is the only mention of UT's win. Is the CA biased? Just a little? I'm sure if the Vols had lost, it would have bumped The Tiger High game to below the fold.

onekeeper#207110 writes:

I agree with Geoff, the mistake was hiring Coach O to begin with. He was always a good recruiter, or so the "recruiting class grades" always said so. If that's true, then it only exacerbates what a terrible Xs and Os coach he was. Ole Miss was actually regressing...after three years of "great recruiting", that shouldn't be happening. And it's ridiculous calls like the 4th-and-1 call that prove it. Coach O was great as Pete Carroll's top assistant, so he could just recruit, and leave the on-field stuff to someone else. As the top dog, he was over his head.

Tigers did well to get back to 7-5, but they need to find some defense, or it's not going to be a happy trip. The New Orleans Bowl is a nice reward, but it, just like many of the second-tier bowls, is much like the NIT. Except for the two teams involved, no one cares. And no one really should. For the Tigers though, it's great, and it's what should be a reasonable goal at least two out of every three years to reach an NIT-bowl. If they keep doing that, Tommy West could have a job for life. Because lets face it, for Tiger football, the bar is pretty low.

Vols...well, that was an exciting game, but just like the Memphis game, it had no business being QUITE that exciting. Good luck against LSU, unfortunately, I think you'll need it.

Congrats to Sly Croom. Your success isn't overwhelming, but I really liked what I saw from your team this year, particularly on defense, despite lacking the depth of talent that the big boys have. In fact, your success is probably part of what got Coach O canned, because his program SHOULD be where yours is now.

kean54 writes:

Let me make this perfectly clear, I am a die-hard Mississippi State fan, but Ole Miss surely deserves to be in the SEC. You have to look over many years to determine their rate of success. They, like MSU, is not likely to be a regular powerhouse, but can be competitive.

hooperk#640279 writes:

When are the football fans of Memphis going to stop accepting average to below average football. You are excited about the New Orleans Bowl? Sorry but just like at Clemson, Tommy cant take a program to the next level. Why after three straight bowl games did the recruiting not get better? Is that Joe Lee Dunn's fault? He took Clemson to three straight bowl games, then a 3-8 record. Fact is that since Tommy has played with all his players, this will be his first bowl game. That is not acceptable! Or maybe it is. Look at what happened to the coach at USM. He has actually has played in the Liberty Bowl and actually WON conference championships. Tiger fans need to look at the lack of success in football program for the reason you are not in the Big East. Just look at South Florida. Memphis most years beat them in football. They have recruited well and are now one of the top three teams in the Big East. How did the defense play this year? Cant blame Joe Lee for that also! Bottom line it comes down to recruiting. Memphis did not build on those three straight bowl games to get quality recruits. According to, Memphis ranks LAST in the recruiting rankings with ZERO commitments. They are the only team in CUSA without one. Time for Tommy to go. I would call Jeff Bower asap! That is if you want to go to better than average! Sad state of affairs when Arkansas State & MTSU are better than Memphis in football.


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