This isn’t supposed to happen. In fact, as recently as a few years ago, the general consensus is that it could never happen.
Yet, for at least one week, Mississippi finds itself in an unfamiliar position. A day after Ole Miss beat Alabama and Mississippi State demolished Texas A&M, The Associated Press voters acknowledged those efforts by ranking Rebels and the Bulldogs third in the nation in its latest Top 25 football poll. Only the two teams that played for last year’s national championship, Florida State and Auburn, are looking down at the Mississippi schools in the poll.
It’s a pretty remarkable experience for Mississippi, which is used to being looked down by just about everybody, and not just in football, obviously.
It is no revelation that our state is generally ranked near the bottom of all things good and near the top of all things bad. We have become so accustomed to it that there is some sentiment that suggests we should not even talk about it anymore. What good does it do, right?
Yet there is some constructive reasoning for taking our failures to heart and while what has happened with the MSU and Ole Miss football programs is not a perfect comparison, it stands as a useful metaphor.
To fully appreciate where the Ole Miss and MSU football programs are today, it’s important to understand how far they have come.
The Ole Miss football program has not been consistently relevant in the world of college football in more than 50 years. State has really never been relevant for more than a fleeting moment.
The reasons were pretty easy to grasp. The two schools have always had to fight over a small talent pool in a sparsely-populated state. The schools lag far behind when it comes to the money spent on football programs by their main rivals (and still do, for that matter). Neither program was able to establish much in the way of consistent leadership. Over the last 40 years, Ole Miss has had 10 head coaches and MSU has had six. What that means is either Ole Miss or State has changed it coach about every two-and-half years since 1973. The names changed, the results did not.
How, then, have current Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze and MSU coach Dan Mullen defied those imposing odds?
In his press conference after the Bulldogs’ 48-31 win over Texas A&M, Mullen said it all started with the fans.
“We started out sell-out streak coming off a season where we went 2-5 at home,” the sixth-year coach said. “It wasn’t a matter of winning first, then the fans come. The fans came first and that helped lay the foundation.”
Yes, it started with the people, Mullen said. Freeze would likely say the same thing about his three years in Oxford.
Under the guidance of young, energetic athletic directors (Greg Byrne followed by Scott Strickin at State and Ross Bjork at Ole Miss), the programs went to work on a number of fronts, not the least of which was broadening their bases. They embraced new ideas, did not apologize for demanding that millions of dollars be invested in facilities. They fixed their goals very high, so high as to invite ridicule in some circles. They were not content with the status quo. They did not accept the old excuses for why their programs could not aspire to achieve the very best.
It was a message that resonated with everyone connected with the program, from the university administrations, to coaches, players, students, professors and thousands of Mississippians throughout the state.
What has happened with these two football programs should serve as a reminder to us all: When properly inspired, Mississippians can achieve remarkable things.
So we step outside the world of football and ask:
When was the last time Mississippians were truly inspired to meet challenges rather than be encouraged to ignore them?
When was the last time, we had visionary leaders who were not afraid to embrace new ideas, who could rally the people — all of the people — to a great common cause?
At a time when the football programs recognized the necessity for investing millions in their programs, our state leadership frets over every nickel. What we have seen from our leaders is not a bold vision, but a commitment to the kind of status quo that takes very good care of some of the people at the expense of most of the people.
There seems to be little hope that anything will change. When election time rolls around, voters choose among a fixed pool of career politicians, men with small visions and low expectations. There’s not a dime’s worth of difference among any of them. They think the same, do the same and, not surprisingly, achieve the same, which is to say very little.
So we will continue to be told that we must be reasonable. We must manage our expectations. We are told the obstacles we face are too great to overcome, that we should be content with our meager position, that we shouldn’t talk about our abysmal performance in critically-important areas such as education, healthcare and employment.
Fortunately, that was not an attitude embraced by the Ole Miss and State football programs and today they are No. 3 in the nation, looking down at the others, for a change.
Just imagine, for a moment: What if we were No. 3 is something even better than football?
Then ask: How do we get there?
Ole Miss and State have provided a pretty good blueprint.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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