“That school to the north of us.” That’s how Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen addressed Ole Miss during SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., last week. No one is giving the Rebels the remotest of chances to perform even respectably in 2012 – except for the one guy who voted them to win the entire conference. Even Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze referred to his team as, “In the wilderness.” Granted, Freeze takes over a program that won two games last season and put just one player on any of the media’s preseason All-SEC teams – senior safety Charles Sawyer made 3rd team defense. “I’ve said this from day one,” Freeze said. “I think the reasonable expectation from our fans and our administration that they should have on us is that we compete passionately for our university for 60 minutes. Whatever the scoreboard says it says at the end. We’ll have to live with that.” Ole Miss’ highest statistical ranking among SEC teams last season was ninth in passing defense and ranked in the bottom three of every other major category. The Rebels return nine of 24 starters from that dismal season and hope to rebuild what was once a program filled with pride and tradition. “I’m thrilled we have a core group of guys that have bought in,” Freeze said. “I think were sitting around 60 percent of our team that has bought in. I think you need to get it to about 80 percent to have a fighting chance. Hopefully we can get that done before the fall.” South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier also hopped aboard the Ole Miss bashing bandwagon when he made the comment, “If I made the schedule, Georgia would be playing LSU and we’d be playing Ole Miss.” Spurrier’s statement was entirely unprovoked. Freeze fired back with a statement of his own saying, “I guess my thought would be, 2013 they’re on our schedule. We will circle that date and maybe change his perspective about what he thinks about Ole Miss.” Freeze may have the toughest job in the SEC this season as his Rebels have a rugged schedule that includes road dates at Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia and LSU with home dates versus Texas, Texas A&M and rival Mississippi State to end the season. Ole Miss has a combined 245-311 all-time record against its 2012 opponents.
 
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