SO MUCH BLOOD

Yesterday, while experiencing the Colts-cutting-Peyton Manning press conference on Twitter, I took a trip over to YouTube to look for some highlights of Manning’s one game against Ole Miss in 1996.  Why?  Because I like pain and wanted to be reminded of the damage caused by Billy Brewer’s second run-in with the NCAA infractions committee and the brains at that school who placed Joe Lee Dunn in charge for an entire year.  Oh, to have been in the room when Joe Lee Dunn made his recruiting pitch to Peyton Manning.

Anyway, thanks to some kind soul with nothing better to do, I found video of the entire second half of Ole Miss’ 41-3 loss to Tennessee in the Liberty Bowl in 1996 (not the actual bowl game, just the dumpy stadium).  I remember it was a Thursday night game and excitedly talking with my friends at school about our chances of pulling a major upset, as we had not yet had our spirits broken by the constant failures of Ole Miss since we were only 15 or 16 at the time. 

I watched the game that night with my dad and within 10-15 minutes of actual time, even 15 or 16-year old Gray could tell we were headed for a thrashing.  Tennessee was bigger, moved at a different speed, and had Peyton Manning.  We had former Mississippi Private School Association quarterbacks playing linebacker, a defensive line that gave up close to 50 pounds a man, and the combination of Paul Head and Stewart Patridge at quarterback (Patridge went on to have a great season the next year, but in 1996, not so much).

But, credit is always due to those early Tommy Tuberville teams for playing their ass off for a half and keeping the game close before the weight of inferior talent and depth eventually crushed them.  And, as the video shows, things JUMPED UP A NOTCH OR 50 very quickly in the second half.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=P3HcfKl7ztc?rel=0

A few points of interest:

• Paul Head played in an SEC game
• Ole Miss gave up 14 points in the first 1:37 of the third quarter
• JUNIOR YEAR MANNING FACE:

• I forgot how Tommy Tuberville didn’t wear a headset, or maybe he knew there was no point during those first two years at Ole Miss
• The Ole Miss defensive tradition of getting to the quarterback a half of a second after he releases the ball for a touchdown pass was alive and well in 1996
• That Leonard Little was pretty good, oh, by the way, has he killed anyone else recently?
• The 1996 Ole Miss offensive line had a lot in common with the 2011 offensive line, the main similarity being lack of blocking
• An Ole Miss punt was described as a “high, wobbly spiral,” which accurately describes every punt at Ole Miss from the early ’90s to 2008-ish
• It is rare that you get to see a quarterback legitimately fear for his existence, but watch Patridge drop back to pass after the fumble-forcing, blindside hit Leonard Little puts on him
• I always forget how big of a guy Noel Mazzone is; he could have been our third biggest offensive lineman that season
• If you’re a Tennessee fan, Phil Fulmer’s sweatshirt looks like the version your grandmother gives you at Christmas
• Tennessee’s sideline was a much more dull and less towel-waving place without Trooper Taylor
• I forgot how much I once hated Tennessee