Surprises Abound in Bizarre Season
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
OXFORD, Miss. — To be truly appreciated, the passion and splendor of college football must be observed in person.
The University of Mississippi — or Ole Miss, as it is more familiarly known — hasn’t had much on-field success recently, outside of a 10-win, Eli Manning-led season in 2004. But you’d never know it by taking a walk through the central area of campus called “the Grove” during a home football-Saturday. At Ole Miss, tailgating has been raised to an art form.
As the fans in the Grove like to put it, “We didn’t invent tailgating, we just perfected it.”
By early morning, the Grove is transformed into a tent village. SUVs crawl through campus — at a speed limit of 18 mph, in tribute to Archie Manning’s retired jersey number.
Tables are accented by silver candelabras and many of the tents had chandeliers. Gentlemen were dressed in seersucker and oxford cloth shirts; ties are not uncommon. For the southern belles, sun-dresses and high heels were standard issue. And the only makeup you’ll see is most definitely not face paint. Football at a place such Ole Miss is a society event, and the enthusiasm varies little with the performance of the team. The Rebels came into Saturday’s game against defending national champion Florida at 1–2 and already 0–1 in SEC play, and fans held out little hope for a close game.
One fan sighed after Florida returned the ball past midfield, and appeared to speak what the entire crowd was thinking when she said, “It’s going to be a long day.”
But Ole Miss showed that it came to play, taking Florida, a three-touchdown favorite, to the wire in an eventual 30–24 loss. The closeness of the game would be noteworthy —except that in this increasingly bizarre college football season, a near upset by the home team in a conference game no longer raises eyebrows. Certainly not on a day when a 36-point favorite lost at home, and Nebraska was a missed field goal away from losing to Ball State, also at home.
No result this year is likely to top Michigan’s season-opening loss to Appalachian State for sheer astonishment. But Louisville’s loss Saturday may have been an even bigger upset. Much like Michigan, Louisville began the year with dreams of a national championship. A 58–42 win over Middle Tennessee State raised concerns about some glaring defensive weaknesses, flaws that Kentucky exploited in handing Louisville its first loss a week ago.
The Cardinals didn’t get over their disappointment in time for Saturday’s game against 0–3 Syracuse. Louisville was a better than five-touchdown favorite. But the team trailed throughout the game after committing four turnovers, 12 penalties, and defensive mistakes too numerous to count. Suddenly Louisville, the Big East co-favorite with West Virginia, is 2–2 and appears to be no better than the conference’s fourth- or fifth-best team.
Michigan, on the other hand, is also 2–2, but headed in the opposite direction as Louisville. The Wolverines followed a shutout of Notre Dame with another strong defensive effort in a 14–9 win over Penn State, showing that they do intend to be a factor in the Big Ten race after all.
And what of Appalachian State? The Mountaineers were stunned at home on Saturday by Wofford — which, for those who enjoy the game of daisy-chaining results to compare teams, means that Wofford is approximately 50 points better than Notre Dame.
Upsets of the Fighting Irish used to make headlines, but no longer. A loss to Michigan State Saturday dropped Notre Dame to 0–4 for the first time in 119 years, and prospects don’t look good for a win in the next four weeks, with games against Purdue, UCLA, Boston College, and USC.
Surprises can be found in every conference. In the SEC, Auburn has disappointed, while Kentucky continues to make believers after beating Louisville and Arkansas the last two weeks. UCLA was considered the Pac-10’s second-best team, but the Bruins were hammered at Utah by 38 points a week ago. The ACC’s Virginia Tech was supposed to be a national-title contender, but the Hokies weren’t even competitive in a blowout by LSU.
Only at the very top of the sport have things gone according to form. USC, LSU, Oklahoma, and Florida are all undefeated and it’s a safe bet that the eventual national champion will emerge from that group of four.
Back in the Grove, news of the day’s upsets was met with little reaction from the fans. Who can get upset when there are drinks to be mixed and barbecue to be consumed? Certainly not Ole Miss fans, many of whom tailgate on parcels of the Grove that have been passed down through generations. In two weeks, the Ole Miss fans will be back out in the Grove in genteel force. In this season of surprises, that is one safe bet.
Mr. Levine is a writer for FootballOutsiders.com.