OXFORD — University of Mississippi Athletic Director Pete Boone said Monday “everyone who loves Ole Miss is clearly frustrated” about the progress of the football program.
Coach Houston Nutt said the blame starts with him.
Boone met with Nutt on Sunday to discuss the future of the program after Vanderbilt embarrassed Ole Miss in a 30-7 loss. The loss left the program in disarray and fans calling for Nutt’s resignation.
Boone said the “rare circumstances” stemming from the Vanderbilt loss led to Sunday’s meeting. He also questioned the team’s attitude during Saturday’s loss.
“I don’t want our coaches walking around on egg shells if they see me — start looking down or looking away.” Boone said. “I want us to step on some eggs. I want us to come out with some fight and some fire.”
Nutt is in his fourth season at Ole Miss. The first two seasons produced 18 combined wins and back-to-back Cotton Bowl victories, but since then it has been a disaster. The Rebels have lost nine of their past 10 Southeastern Conference games, including two to Vanderbilt and two to rival Mississippi State.
The coach said Monday there was no excuse for his team’s poor play. Nutt showed little emotion Monday at a press conference as Boone discussed the state of the football program.
Ole Miss (1-2, 0-1 SEC) will play host to the University of Georgia (1-2, 0-1) on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The Bulldogs have won seven straight in the series, dating back to 1997.
“Anyone who was disappointed on Saturday, you can multiply it 99 times for me,” Nutt said. “It all starts with me. I appreciate Pete Boone meeting with the staff and myself, and I appreciate what he did the last 24 hours. Now the bottom line is it’s up to us as coaches and players to do our job.”
Nutt is making about $2.7 million this season in the first year of a four-year contract. Boone has said Nutt’s current buyout is around $6 million. That buyout diminishes the longer Nutt remains the coach.
The salary pales in comparison to the $150 million fundraising campaign Ole Miss started during the summer that will add improvements to the football stadium and build a new basketball arena. Boone admitted the embarrassing football losses have an adverse effect on potential donors.
“I don’t think there are any broken bones, but there’s some bruises,” Boone said. “This is certainly not the way that most successful campaigns would kick off.”
Boone is taking his share of the blame as well, with fans calling for his dismissal. A group that calls itself “Forward Rebels!” took out a full-page advertisement in several newspapers Monday blaming the current problems on the school’s administration.
“I saw the ad,” Boone said. “I’ve been in the business close to 15 years. I’m not paying that much attention to it. There’s things that are more important to me than that.”
Boone, Nutt, and the players said they’re trying to tune out any outside criticism and focus on making the football program better.
There’s plenty of work to do — especially in trying to rebuild an offense that was awful against the Commodores. The Rebels gained just 234 total yards Saturday. Quarterback Zack Stoudt threw five interceptions, but wasn’t helped by an offensive line that had trouble keeping the pressure away.
“It’s about execution,” Nutt said. “Everybody getting their block and doing what they’re supposed to do. Having 11 people doing it the right way on every play. We’ve been having about seven. You can’t do that.”
Stoudt was still listed as the starting quarterback on Monday’s depth chart. Nutt and offensive coordinator David Lee have discussed shortening the playbook, but Stoudt said he didn’t think changes were necessary.
“I think everything we have in the playbook we can do well,” Stoudt said. “We just have to go out and do it. We’ve got to stop talking about it and just freaking do it.”
Boone isn’t expecting miracles. He didn’t even mention a win against Georgia. But he made it clear things would have to change.
“I expect our team will come out and fight,” Boone said. “I expect our coaches to have a lot of enthusiasm. I think our fans will come out and support and be loud. I think it will be a totally different team than we had” at Vanderbilt.
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