Turns out the word "Bjork" was missing from that Fran Tarkenton tweet.

Ole Miss is expected to name Western Kentucky Athletic Director Ross Bjork as its new athletic director sometime today or tomorrow. Bjork fits the profile of everything I hoped the Rebels would get in an AD. He's young, aggressive, upwardly mobile and won't hesitate to do whatever it takes to succeed - just ask the WKU men's basketball team. Bjork made a controversial midseason coaching change after a bad start and the team's fortunes turned, ending with an improbable run to the NCAA Tournament. Bjork also fired a long time and well-liked women's basketball coach this year because she wasn't cutting the mustard. She was an alum, and I'm sure the decision was met with some pushback, but Bjork made the move he thought was necessary. In short, Bjork is decisive, and he won't let feelings and connections get in the way of accomplishing the mission - leading a successful athletic department. And he knows what it takes to make an athletic department successful - winning.

The biggest and best surprise of this Bjork hire is that he's not a member of the good ol' boy network, and getting an AD from outside that group was far from a guarantee as several connected names were in the mix. I'm not sure how all the drama of the search played out, and I still maintain it should have happened faster, but from this angle it looks like Chancellor Dan Jones did the very best thing for Ole Miss in hiring the guy with the best resume instead of the one who knows the most influential "right people."

Instead of getting a guy who "understands Ole Miss" the Rebels appear to have hired an AD who understands the goal - winning, and that may be the most fantastic news to come out of Oxford since Eli Manning faxed in his letter of intent.

At this juncture it's impossible to tell who should get the most credit for the hire, but as I've always said the buck stops with Jones. Thus, it's only fair he get the credit for the hire, no matter what played in to the final decision. 

Last night I took a stroll down Bjork's twitter timeline and discovered several interesting tidbits. First, his Twitter profile contains his resume (AD at WKU with previous stops at U. of Miami, U. of Missouri and UCLA). Interpretation: "Yes, I'm the AD at WKU, but look where else I've worked." Bjork never intended for WKU to be his last stop. He probably doesn't intend for Ole Miss to be his last stop either, and that's okay because the only way he'll ever go somewhere better than Oxford is if he makes Ole Miss more successful in the process. Bjork is ambitious, and that's a good thing. Ambition as an athletic director equates to a hunger to win and a willingness to do what it takes to make it happen. I also noticed in his timeline that Bjork actually teaches a class in sports administration. This tells me he is qualified. Athletic director isn't a second career for Bjork. There were several tweets about branding and accessibility. He clearly understands the importance of engaging the fanbase. You'll see much more from Bjork on Twitter than what the MS Sports Hall of Fame served for dinner. He'll be a presence that can finally rally a fractured fanbase in desperate need of a leader.

And speaking of fractured fanbases - enough of that now. It's time to put the last few years to bed. Ole Miss is ready to move forward for real, and that's the best news yet.

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After suffering a 10-0 shutout to Southern Miss, there aren't any game awards to give out today. Three Rebels combined for only three hits in the game and as for the pitching the final score kind of speaks for itself. Not all those runs were earned, but there isn't anything to be proud of in this one. Coach Mike Bianco called it a disaster and it was.

Suddenly Ole Miss looks like a team that's lost all confidence at the plate. They better get it back fast. The SEC won't wait around. Ole Miss has now dropped four of its last six. They travel to Tuscaloosa to take on Alabama starting Friday. 

A former ACC Freshman of the Year is considering playing quarterback at Ole Miss. Red Cup Rebellion did a good job with the story. Here are the highlights from his freshman year at Maryland. Enjoy.

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I read this Tweet about 1,000 times now and I'm still hesitant to give it the meaning that it so clearly has: That Archie Manning himself is interviewing to be the next Athletic Director at Ole Miss. I scored well on the reading comprehension component of the ACT. I majored in Liberal Arts with an emphasis on English at Ole Miss. I attended law school. I really do know how to read. I read this tweet to mean that Manning is interviewing for the AD job. If the Tweet actually means that Archie is merely interviewing another candidate, then it's not breaking news, it's not exclusive and it's hardly worthy of a Tweet by Fran Tarkenton. We would all like to assume that the search committee has been interviewing candidates for the last two months. Interviewing an unnamed candidate is not news!

Furthermore, if someone interviews "4" a job that means they are a candidate for that job. Interviewers interview a candidate. Candidates interview "4" the job.

If this tweet really just means that Archie was interviewing a candidate last night then somebody needs to drive over to Fran Tarkenton's house and give him a lesson on responsible Tweeting. And speaking of law school, I see a cause of action for Negligent Infliction of Emotional Distress here. Imagine all the poor Ole Miss fans who went to sleep hopeful they might actually have an athletic director they could be excited about last night only to be disappointed when they find out it isn't true. Such terrible news would create all kinds of emotional distress within the fan base to be sure. It could be a class action!

"Disappointed Ole Miss Fans vs. Fran Tarkenton"

How do you read the tweet?

 

Friday: Ole Miss 2, Auburn 1

Rebel Throwin Smoke: Bobby Wahl (4-0) had another stellar outing, striking out 6 and allowing no earned runs over six innings of work.

Hammerin Rebel: It was a pitcher's duel, so there weren't many hits over which to celebrate, but Zach Kirksey drove in the winning run and that's good enough to be the Hammerin Rebel. 

Saturday: Auburn 10, Ole Miss 4

Rebel Throwin Smoke: This is a difficult award to give out after a 10-run game, but not all those errors in the 1st inning were the fault of R.J. Hively. The fact is he recovered nicely from an inning that would have left many a pitcher too shaken up to continue. Not Hively. He held on and didn't allow another run through 7 innings of work. Although it was a loss, the mental fortitude Hively showed was admirable and will no doubt be useful through the many SEC battles that await.

Hammerin Rebel: First baseman Matt Snyder had three doubles in the same game. Those long legs of his were doing some work to make it to 2nd base, but they made it every time. Snyder's three doubles give him a slight edge of Preston Overbey, who also had three hits, one of which was a homerun. 

Sunday: Auburn 3, Ole Miss 2

Rebel Throwin Smoke: Mike Mayers came about as close to a complete game 2-1 victory as a pitcher can come and still lose. In hindsight it might've been a good idea to let closer Brett Huber finish off the Tigers. Coach Mike Bianco chose to stick with Mayers, and well, the Tigers just got it done when Mayers had them down to their last out of the game. It was a tough one, but really a great day by Mayers. This one falls on the offense. The Rebels should never lose to a team that only scored three runs.

Hammerin Rebel: Shortstop Blake Newalu hit his first homer of the season for one of the Rebs only two runs. 

Overview: Sunday's loss hurt bad for a couple reasons. First, Ole Miss (15-5, 1-2 SEC) had it in the bag and let it get away in the 9th inning. Second, the loss gave the Rebels their first SEC series loss of the season. The fact is that the Rebels shouldn't have been in position to lose on Sunday. No team should expect to win with only two runs. An Ole Miss offense that was averaging more than eight runs a game going into Friday was slowed tremedously by SEC pitching. Alex Yarbrough, who was hitting .471 on the season prior to this weekend, was held hitless. Snyder hit well on Saturday, but Ole Miss needs contributions from Snyder, Kirksey and Yarbrough in order to win. Those two guys will need to recover in time for Round 2, this weekend at Alabama. SEC pitchers are going to be much tougher than those the Rebels were seeing in non-conference play. We'll get to see if Ole Miss can respond accordingly soon enough. 

There's a big shiny green and yellow bullet, emblazoned with the initials UAB headed squarely at Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones right now. If Andy Kennedy takes the job at UAB (rumored to be interested in Kennedy, following the recent firing of Mike Davis) that bullet will hit the Chancellor square between the eyes, and the entire Ole Miss fanbase will watch aghast as another committee gets appointed to find another coach while a lame duck athletic director inexplicably remains in his office. A committee may not be able to protect Jones from the negative fallout that would come from such a scenario. 



Ole Miss has been looking, in the loosest since of the word, for a new AD since Pete Boone announced he would be stepping down at the same press conference used to announce the dismissal of Houston Nutt as head football coach last November. Boone said at that meeting that he felt it was time somebody else make the next coaching hires at Ole Miss while at the same time saying he'd be retiring before December 2012. This left a noticable gap in time where the Rebels wouldn't have an athletic director who could make coaching decisions, which would have been fine if there were no coaching decisions to be made. Maybe what Jones failed to realize back in November is that there are ALWAYS coaching decisions to be made. Coach decisions don't always involve firing a coach. They also involve retaining a coach, and these are decisions to be made almost every season for every sport. That's why Boone's statement that he shouldn't hire coaches anymore combined with his intent to stay until December of next year was so puzzling.

A committee was appointed to locate and hire football coach Hugh Freeze and the next athletic director. They moved quickly to find Freeze. The search for AD has been much, much slower.

Since then the athletic director search has been conducted mostly in secret and there's been little by way of announcements of any real progress. We know that the committee has discussed a wide pool of candidates and that's really about all we know about the search. Now Ole Miss finds itself in the position of needing to make a decision about Kennedy. This moment in time was as foreseeable as the coming of spring itself. Boone decided not to renew Kennedy's contract last season, making a decision of some sort likely this season. In response, Kennedy led a team of mostly underclassmen to a fifth 20-win season in six years. Kennedy looks like a lameduck coach unless his contract is renewed. But for the UAB problem, the Rebels probably wanted to let Kennedy ride another year and hopefully have a new AD in place in time for next basketball season.

UAB could mess that plan up royally.

It was a problematic plan already exposed with the retirement of women's coach Renee Ladner on March 1. Women's basketball gets far less media exposure than men's, but as a result of Ladner's retirement, a committee of marketing director Michael Thompson, a teacher and an associate AD have been looking for the new women's coach. If Kennedy should decide to leave it's anyone's best guess who will be on that committee. 

Ole Miss now finds itself in a predicament of it's own making. Simply hiring a new AD would have avoided this quagmire. If Jones, Boone and Associate AD John Hartwell renew Kennedy the school makes yet another  another major coaching decision (Freeze being the first) before the hiring of an athletic director. If they let Kennedy get away to UAB Ole Miss is again without an AD who can hire a coach and is forced to use an ad hoc committee to find another major coach.

And meanwhile who makes the decision whether to renew Kennedy? Boone already stated he didn't feel he needed to make future coaching hires. Is he better-equipped to determine contract renewals? According to Hugh Kellenberger's story, Jones, Boone and Hartwell will work though the process together, but such should be of little comfort to hopeful Ole Miss fans. Jones professes to know so little about athletics that he defers to Archie Manning and Mike Glenn to make all the other decisions. Boone hired Rod Barnes and Kennedy while Hartwell looked on. Boone already admitted new blood was needed to make these decisions. Why does a combination of Boone, Jones and Hartwell make their control over this situation more palatable? If it's strength in numbers Jones is looking for maybe he should include a few more people in on this decision. It couldn't hurt.

Furthermore, why would a new athletic director want to take the job at a school where a lame duck Boone set the entire table before he ever set foot in Boone's old office? Whoever eventually gets the AD job steps into a position where the football and basketball coaching decisions, arguably the two most important coaching positions at an SEC school, were already decided for the forseeable future, and that's not to mention the multi-million dollar apparel contract entered by Boone and Hartwell just this year. It's hand-tying of the highest form, and if it happens there won't be much need for a new athletic director any time soon. Boone could just stay and do whatever he's been doing since November for a few more years.

All of this could have been avoided if Ole Miss would just hire a new athletic director. The fact that it has not already is incomprehensible. Search Committee co-chair Archie Manning said the Super Bowl and the playoffs may have slowed the search down a little bit, but one must wonder if it's not more likely that Jones wanted the search to move this slow so Boone could continue on the job as long as possible, ignoring the possibility that Ole Miss would find itself in this position with Kennedy come March.

Perhaps Ole Miss will hire an AD this week. If so, it will be none too soon. Or, Kennedy may prefer to stay at Ole Miss and Jones may dodge the UAB bullet, but that won't take away from the fact that everyone saw the bullet coming and the near miss, and it won't dispel the fear of Ole Miss faithful worrying about the next one.

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With 17 games played Ole Miss is in the upper echelon of the SEC statistical standings:

1. Batting Average - 2nd at .334
2. Slugging pct - 3rd at .481
3. On base pct - 3rd at .417
4. Runs scored - 2nd with 146
5. Hits - 2nd with 200
6. Runs batted in - 2nd with 134 (tied with LSU)
7. Home runs - 4th with 15
8. Total bases - 3rd with 288
9. Strikeouts - 10th (it's good to be 10th) with 84

Ole Miss ranks high in a few key pitching categories, too:

1. Opposing batting average - 3rd with .221
2. Hits allowed - 3rd with 123
3. Earned runs allowed - 3rd with 46
4. Home runs allowed - 1st with just 3 allowed on the season.

Ole Miss opens SEC play in Oxford tonight in the first of a three-game series with Auburn. Between that and the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament this is shaping up to be a terrific sports weekend. After VCU upset Wichita State and and West Virginia lost to Gonzaga my bracket is already pretty much decimated, so it'll be easy enough for me to turn my attention to baseball, especially with a weekend forecast shaping up like this one. With highs around 80 degrees it should be the perfect weekend to slap some sunscreen on the kids and head to the ballpark. 

Ole Miss is 3rd in the nation in total attendance through nine home games. It may rise to No. 1 with an SEC series and warm spring weather this weekend.

Ole Miss enters SEC play sporting a 14-3 record, No. 12 ranking, and fresh off an 18-8 drubbing of 22nd ranked Louisville Wednesday afternoon. The Rebels have a pair of Friday/Saturday starters who are undefeated and pitching some pretty good ball through the first part of the season. Bobby Wahl (3-0, 1.96 ERA) and R.J. Hively (3-0, 2.08) each enjoyed shutout performances against Houston last weekend. Wahl gets the start tonight. On the season he's got 28 strikeouts in 23 innings of work and opponents are batting a paltry .183 against the sophomore. Hively gets the nod on Saturday. He leads the team with 29 strikeouts, 13 of which were struck out looking. This weekend they'll be tested by Auburn's .319 team batting average, and they'll have to slow Auburn hitters Creede Simpson (.439) and Ryan Tella (.410).

Ole Miss is led at the plate by the .400 club of Alex Yarbrough (.471), Matt Snyder (.410) and Zach Kirksey (.410), who has a team-best 8 homeruns, including two against Louisville on Wednesday, one of which was a grand slam. Ole Miss ranks 2nd in the SEC in team batting with a .334 average.

Yarbrough has been Mr. Consistency for the Rebels this year. The 2nd baseman has hit safely in nine straight games, and gets on base just about every other at-bat. Yarbrough also has an SEC leading 32 hits. 

None of the above statistics have withstood an SEC opponent yet. This weekend Ole Miss coach Mike Bianco will get the opportunity to see how good his players and his team really are. 

Auburn brings a 10-7 record to Oxford, winning two of three against Belmont last weekend. For the season they lost two each to 6th ranked Arizona and Missouri, and once to Southern Mississippi, Purdue and Belmont. 

The Tigers will start Derek Varnadore (1-1, 5.55) tonight. Their Saturday starter Will Kendall (2-0, 0.00) hasn't allowed an earned run this year. Auburn has won their last three SEC-opening series.

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If you can't read it then you're probably better off. 

Ole Miss ran into a 3-point-shooting buzzsaw last night. I'm not sure if statistics are kept for such a thing, but it's highly unlikely any team that shoots 74% from 3-pt range and makes 17 trey's has ever lost. Despite the amazing shooting, the Rebels still had a chance to win it in the end, which is incredible in and of itself given that earlier this season coach Andy Kennedy said 50 points would be a good night for this club. The final score of this one was 96-93. A score like that would have been a ridiculous thought in January or February. Actually, it was ridiculous last night. These eyes have never seen a 3-pt show like that before. It really was ridiculous. Almost as ridiculous as that Nick Williams pass that ended the game with Ole Miss down by only 1 point and a chance to win it in the final seconds. A hot-in-his-own-right LaDarius White was about to be a hero for the first time in his college career, but the ball went sailing 10 feet over his head. It was an Ole Miss ending that brought back painful memories of Valparaiso and Eli falling down in the final seconds against LSU. The stakes were less high for sure, but the ending was just as gross.

From appearances Ole Miss seemed to give good effort. They fought for loose balls, made some great steals and scrapped hard for rebounds. I wouldn't have blamed the loss last night on lack of effort. There were times when I did wonder how Illinois State had so many clean looks from three-point range, but I chalked that up to great ball movement and whatever defense Andy Kennedy had called. In the locker room though, a couple players did admit to reporters that there was a lack of focus. I'll go with that, but I think sometimes that's said by players because in a way it sounds better than: "We just got beat by a better team." Last night, Illinois State was way better. But effort or lack of effort, it's no matter now. The fact is Ole Miss lost. This season's officially done.

The really disappointing part of the loss is the fact that the seasons of LaDarius White (25 pts) and Jarvis Summers (16 pts) were cut short. They were playing some great ball in the end and I would have enjoyed a few more opportunities just to watch them take over a basketball game. 

With this season in the books I'm looking forward to seeing Summers and White playing in their sophomore seasons. If one of these new commitments AK picked up can shoot, it's going to be NCAA or bust next year. For real this time.

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