A game-by-game look at Bo Wallace and his two alter egos, Dr. Bo and Mr. Pick.

When Wallace has things firing on all cylinders, he looks like a world beater. Right up to the point where inexplicably his body is taken over by some strange force, turning him into Mr. Pick.

The ongoing Jekyll and Hyde comparison will continue as long as Wallace continues to have turnover problems. During his stint with East Mississippi Community College he threw 14 interceptions. Granted, put that up against 53 TDs and it doesn’t look that bad. A big hurdle he will have to overcome is the speed in which windows close in the SEC. What used to be an easy window to fit a pass, will often turn into a deflection, or worse, an interception. Figuring out how to deal with the changing speed will be the determining factor in whether Wallace is Dr. Bo or Mr. Pick.

This was abundantly clear in the first game of the season against Boise State. Mr. Pick was alive and well, keeping the game much closer than it should have been. Once Mr. Pick is unleashed, it’s tough to reign him in. He gets more and more determined to fit balls into windows and challenge cornerbacks when he shouldn’t. Thankfully for the Rebels, he was able to revert back into Dr. Bo for the second half, throwing for three touchdowns in the 4th quarter.

That game alone was the perfect cross-section of his two personas. Ole Miss’ second game, against Vanderbilt, was much more tame with Dr. Bo being present much more than Mr. Pick. But that wasn’t always the case. The Vanderbilt defense gave Wallace pretty much whatever he wanted. He certainly looked good, putting a number of passes right were they should have been. However, there was still shades of Mr. Pick, aching to get out. On a number of throws, Wallace has his weight on his back foot muscling the ball where he wanted it to go. Again, against Vandy, he can get away with this, but against a top defense, those throws can easily go from making Dr. Bo look much more like Mr. Pick.

There were a few times Wallace threw the ball away, which made it seem like he was taking a much more cautious approach, but shortly thereafter he would do something like, scramble and try to pick up some yards, but when that wasn’t there, he’d do something like a crazy half-underarm-shovel pass-thing that somehow worked keeping the chains moving. Now, this seems like it could be a Dr. Bo move because it worked. But just because it worked does not make it a smart play. We’ll file this one under Mr. Pick.  Another time Wallace threw to the back of the end zone, aiming for the back pylon but with his receiver blanketed. There was no were to fit the ball in, but he tried to find it, again getting bailed out by a bad Vandy defense (and in this case a pass interference call).

Yes, you can say I’m reaching a little bit here, and maybe I am, but this defense was not exactly capable of taking advantage of some of the Mr. Pick decisions. Also, this is not to say that Wallace did not look good at times. He played well enough to get Ole Miss out to a huge lead, so much so that he barely had to play in the second half giving him, and his two alter egos some time to rest, and potentially exorcise that dastardly Mr. Pick from Dr. Bo’s body.

Wallace finished 23-30 for 320 yards and a TD. Those are very respectable numbers no matter who the defense is.

The ruling for week two versus Vanderbilt: Dr. Bo

Now let’s see who shows up next week against the Ragin’ Cajuns. My guess is that Dr. Bo will have plenty of opportunities to show his good side.