Instant Upgrade At QB: Jeremiah Masoli Is Good Move For Ole Miss
Raymond Cotton Transferred
Ole Miss backup QB Raymond Cotton surprised Houston Nutt by telling him that he would not be joining the Rebels in Oxford this fall. Houston has said that he would like to have a third quarterback on the roster by the time fall practice starts in a couple weeks. Cotton was convinced that he was not going to have much of a roll this fall. Nathan Stanley took advantage of Cotton’s spring shoulder injury during and separated himself as the starter entering the fall camp. I’m not exactly sure why Cotton didn’t think he had a chance to get any playing time this fall. Everybody in college football knows that doing well in spring practice does not equal success in the fall. If Stanley and the Rebels were to get off to a slow start in the fall, all of the fans would have been yearning for Cotton, and come on is there a better name for an Ole Miss QB than Cotton? Sounds meant to be to me, but oh well, too late now.
Nathan Stanley - Current Starting Quarterback
Nathan Stanley doesn’t have a lot of experience entering the fall, but he has some and showed that he can do alright at the collegiate level, but is alright going to be good enough for the Rebels? Stanley is capable; he had decent numbers in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma State after Jevan got rocked and taken out of the game. Decent in your first game is usually a very good sign for the future, just showing some poise and that you can handle the pressure is key. But since Cotton won’t be there if Stanley doesn’t meet the expectations that Ole Miss Fans have, whose name will they be calling for next? Right now, it’s Randall Mackey, who was a huge recruit for the Rebels a few years ago, but he went the junior college route and has two years of eligibility remaining, his number from juco were ridiculous, passing and running for legend type numbers……but, that was in juco, not against SEC defenses. So, Mackey is unproven. But there is a proven option out there, if the Rebel faithful get restless. Houston is exploring the option, and the option’s name is Jerimiah Masoli. Masoli was booted off the team in Oregon after getting in trouble with the law on a few occasions. His record includes pleading guilty to second-degree burglary after stealing laptops from a fraternity house. Then in June, Masoli received a citation for a misdemeanor marijuana charge, which led to his dismissal from the team.
Jeremiah Masoli - Previous Oregon Quarterback
Proven? Masoli threw for 3,891 yards and ran for 1,386 accounting for 51 touchdowns in two seasons at Oregon and lead them to a Rose Bowl. That is a lot more experience than the Rebs have on the table with any of their options, and not to sound biased toward the SEC, but the Pac-10 defenses just haven’t proven as strong as the SEC in the past. Still, we are comparing this to Nathan Stanley’s 163 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception. So, Masoli is much more proven than Stanley. Stanley has earned the starting position entering the fall, but if he fails to meet expectations or succumbs to injury, it would be great if the Rebels had a proven QB to come in and take the reins.
The PR department at Ole Miss may take a bit of a hit, by giving Masoli another chance, but come on, lots of teams have done the same thing to get a few more wins under their belt, and I think that people would love to see Masoli come out on the other side successful. And the Rebels could use a proven QB this year.
Jacob Fuller from the Daily Mississippian agrees.
You can also read this article from Team Speed Kills about the strengths and weaknesses of Masoli.
Plus, we could take pictures like this...
What do you think?
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Kyle, without a QB, it looks like your Ole Miss season projection will be ruined. I also think Kentucky will beat the Rebs on October 2nd!
No Quarterback and No Mascot.
Tough to be a rebel in 2010…
I read this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
Should Ole Miss take Jeremiah Masoli?
8:20 am July 28, 2010, by Tony Barnhart
College football is more popular than it has ever been. The crowds are bigger. The TV ratings are higher. Coaches are paid millions and assistant coaches now make more money that the previous generation ever dreamed out.
That’s the upside. The downside is that we’ve created a monster of expectations that encourages–almost demands–some risky behavior.
The case of former Oregon quarterback Jeremiah Masoli is a prime example. Masoli is talented. No doubt about that. Oregon will probably be the best team in the Pac-10 this season even though Masoli is not there. If he was still there, we’d be talking about the Ducks in the national championship mix.
The reason Masoli is not there is that in June coach Chip Kelly kicked him off the team after his second legal incident in six months. In January Masoli and a teammate were charged with second-degree burglary for stealing laptop computers from a fraternity house. He was charged with a felony which was knocked down to a misdemeanor. In March Masoli pled guilty and received a year of probation. He was suspended for the 2010 season by coach Chip Kelly and told that if he screwed up one more time, he was out.
On June 7 Masoli was stopped for a traffic violation. He was driving on a suspended license and a search of the car revealed that he possessed less than an ounce of marijuana. He pled guilty on the marijuana charge and paid a fine. His attorney, Daniel Koenig, told the Oregonian newspaper that the suspended license charge was thrown out.
Kelly then booted Masoli from the team.
Understand that Masoli already had a rap sheet before these incidents. He spent three months in a juvenile detention center in 2005 after it was determined that he took part in a strong armed robbery. Nobody knows all the details because his juvenile records are sealed.
Did I mention that while all of this was going on Jeremiah Masoli earned his degree from Oregon? That means if he can find a Master’s degree program that Oregon does not offer at another school and gets enrolled, he will be immediately eligible to play in 2010.
Ole Miss is considering bringing Masoli to its campus. Coach Houston Nutt has been calling around trying to gather as much information as possible. He’s called Kelly. He’s called members of the media to get their take on it. The administration, all the way up to Chancellor Dan Jones, is going to get involved in this one.
Here’s the reality. My first instinct is to tell Ole Miss not to touch this kid with a 10-foot pole. The upside is that once he learns the offense, the kid is talented enough to help Nutt win an extra game or two. The assembled SEC media picked Ole Miss to finish last in the SEC West when they voted last week.
The downside, however, is that this guy could be a profound embarrassment to your institution if he screws up again. If you’re Ole Miss, you’re going to get criticized if you take Masoli. That is a given. But if he gets arrested in Oxford, certainly a more conservative place than Eugene, Oregon, Ole Miss will be embarrassed on a national stage. Columnists and taking heads from sea to shining sea will use Ole Miss, a proud institution that has worked incredibly hard to build its reputation, as the butt of jokes about the very worst excesses of college football. They will say that Ole Miss sold its soul for a kid who had already proven that he was not trustworthy. That criticism, sad to say, will be justified.
But again, that’s easy to say. Another reality is that Nutt’s backup quarterback, Raymond Cotton, just announced that he was leaving the team. That leaves Nutt with starter Nathan Stanley and a JUCO transfer, Randall Mackey, who just joined the team.
Nutt sent a text to Parrish Alford of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal about this and acknowledged that criticism will come if he takes Masoli. But Nutt told Alford that he was also concerned about the “criticism I might receive if something happens and I don’t have a QB to finish the year.”
There, in the final analysis, is the rub. The reality of today’s game is that the same people who would criticize you for taking a Jeremiah Masoli would also call for your head on a platter if you go 6-6 because you didn’t have a healthy quarterback.
Like I wrote a while back: These things really fall on the adults who run college football and who consume college football as entertainment. Either they want discipline or they don’t. If you want discipline, you must be willing to live with the consequences of it. If you don’t want to live with the fallout of discipline, then don’t pretend that you really want it. You’re just paying lip service to it.
Here is my advice for whatever it is worth.
1. Chip Kelly, the Oregon coach, is a straight shooter. If I’m Houston Nutt and Kelly tells me that this kid is worth the risk, I’m going to be inclined to take that risk. But if Kelly doesn’t recommend the kid, that would give me pause.
2. Jeremiah Masoli will have to come to Oxford, put on a coat and tie, and march into the office of Chancellor Dan Jones. He has to prove to the Chancellor that he deserves this chance and will not embarrass the university.
3. If accepted at Ole Miss, Masoli must have a press conference before he ever steps onto the practice field. He must stand before the cameras and give a huge mea culpa. He must say something like: “Thank you for this opportunity because I know by my past actions I really don’t deserve it. I promise you that you won’t be sorry.” And he has better sound like he means it.
Also, Ole Miss needs to bring commissoner Mike Slive into the loop. This is an institutional decision. I get that. But after a summer of SEC players behaving badly and administrators like Damon Evans behaving badly, the commissioner needs to get his two cents worth into this conversation. The SEC does not need a self-inflicted wound on this front.
So what do you think? This is a risky proposition for Ole Miss. We can all sit on our moral high horse and say that it shouldn’t be done no way, no how. But what do you do if you’re in the toughest football conference in America and this guy can help you win? And let’s not kid ourselves. Houston Nutt is not going to get fired for dealing with the Jeremiah Masolis of the world.
If he gets fired it will be because he didn’t win enough games, period. That is why this is a difficult call.
[...] Miss Head Coach Houston Nutt sure is reaching on this one, (probably because he read Kyle Buffolino’s arguments for Masoli). Last year he took a chance on ex-Florida Gator Jamar Hornsby, giving him a chance with the Rebels [...]
[...] as far as passing quarterbacks. The two quarter backs figured to be in the rotation this year are Nathan Stanley and Jeremiah Masoli, assuming Masoli will be cleared to [...]