College Football Pick – Ole Miss Tries To Recover From Supreme Humiliation

No FBS program received more of a kick in the teeth than the University of Mississippi in week one.

Now the Rebels will try to pick up the pieces in New Orleans against Tulane. Here’s a preview and a college football betting pick.

Saturday, September 11th – 9:00 PM ET

Louisiana Superdome, New Orleans

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Ole Miss Rebels @ Tulane Green Wave

Broadcast: ESPN Classic, ESPN3.com

NCAA Odds: Ole Miss -20.5, Tulane +20.5

There were a few particularly embarrassing losses on the first weekend of the college football season, but the biggest pie-in-the-face spectacle was Ole Miss’ come-from-ahead 49-48 double-overtime defeat at the hands of FCS-based Jacksonville State.

Ole Miss led its lower-division opponent 31-13 in the second half before its defense completely collapsed and allowed the Gamecocks (not the ones from South Carolina) to wage their remarkable comeback. Ole Miss would have won if it had simply stopped a fourth-and-15 play in the second overtime, but the Rebels couldn’t do the deed.

Coach Houston Nutt’s team would have won if it had stopped Jacksonville State’s do-or-die 2-point conversion attempt on the very next snap, but the blue-shirted defensive gang of 11 could not stop the JSU passing game. Now, Nutt and his coaching staff are left to sort through the rubble and rebuild their program anew.

The first game following the JSU debacle comes against a team that’s not much better than JSU: Tulane.

NCAA Handicapping: What Ole Miss Has To Do To Win

It’sreally rather fitting in a certain sense. After the NCAA properly allowed Jeremiah Masoli to play in Oxford following a series of appeals and legal skirmishes, the bigger picture reminded college football fans that you can’t just acquire players and win.

There’s a lot of work to be done at Ole Miss this year, and one great quarterback won’t automatically help. True, Mississippi put 48 points on the board, but UM’s defense hemorrhaged against Jacksonville State. If the Rebels don’t solve their manifest defensive problems, particularly in terms of their pass rush and secondary, Jeremiah Masoli will have to put up video-game numbers on a regular basis.

Mississippi needs to get a strong defensive performance in order to win this game and any other game it plays in 2010.

NCAA Handicapping: What Tulane Has To Do To Win

Coach Bob Toledo’s team needs to improve across the board. Tulane did win its opener –unlike Ole Miss –but the Green Wave looked bad in a less-than-convincing 27-21 win over FCS-based Southeastern Louisiana. Tulane was outgained by the visiting Lions and didn’t seal the one-possession win until the final minutes.

The Green Wave did force four turnovers in that contest, and that’s what Tulane must do against Jeremiah Masoli and the rest of a capable Ole Miss offense. When Tulane does have the ball, though, quarterback Ryan Griffin – who threw for only 129 yards against SE Louisiana – has to push the ball downfield and hit vertical passes against Ole Miss’ pathetic secondary.

NCAA Handicapping: Outlook & College Football Pick

The Rebels are a poor SEC team. Tulane is just a poor team. Ole Miss will score big, and as bad as the Rebels are on defense, the Green Wave does not have enough offensive quality to light them up. Ole Miss will win handily and cover the number.

Expert College Football Pick: Ole Miss -20.5