The Ole Miss Mascot Search & Week 6 Picks

Ole Miss revealed the three finalists for the mascot to replace Colonel Reb, who was removed from sporting events in 2003.  I didn't grow up in the South, so I'll admit I may be missing something on why the Colonel was so offensive, but really, these three to me are even worse.

• Land Shark.  A land shark?  A land shark???  And the reasoning for this brainstorm of an idea is because some player made shark fins with his hands?  Does Saturday Night Live know you're stealing their creative property?  I know when I think of Mississippi wildlife, the first animal that always comes to mind is a shark.  Oh, but you've made it walk on land.  I wonder if Southern Miss is considering changing the name of their mascot to Land Golden Eagles?  See how stupid that is?
• Black bear.  Wow, that's a hell of a stretch to use that as a mascot just because Teddy Roosevelt didn't shoot a bear back in 1902 in Mississippi.  Hmmm....Teddy looks a bit like the old mascot.  Can TR be the mascot?  People would be okay with him, wouldn't they?  Oh, yeah, he liked to hunt and kill animals, so that's a no.  But, there are Gators, Tigers, Wildcats, Razorbacks and Gamecocks that could be hunted...



           Colonel Reb                     Col.Theodore Roosevelt

• Hotty Toddy.  This is the worst idea of them all.  You're jumping on the bandwagon of the colored full body suit that fans are wearing the last couple years.  Yeah, that's a trend that's going to last like avocado shag carpet, bell bottom jeans and Billy Ray Cyrus.  The artist's rendition of him makes him look like someone who would be breaking into my house to steal stuff...or worse.

Good job Mississippi.  Glad to see this is an issue that's taken you seven years, countless dollars and endless hours that could be used to improve the literacy rate of your state, and all you can come up with is a land shark, a bear and some sort of gray man who at the very least looks like he should be in a medium security prison and should never be allowed near children (which is apparently a big concern for the Ole Miss Mascot committee.  In my experience going to college football games, children make up somewhere less than 2% of the total crowd.  Ahhh, America.  Where the vocal minority makes the rules for the apathetic majority.).

Whichever one of these spawns of Satan you end up with, you lose.  I can't see how any of those are going to inspire anything but thoughts of depression and journeys to the porch to take a long draw on that jug with the "XXX" on the front of it.  Fortunately, you have the Grove and those lovely southern belles in their sun dresses to take your mind off that atrocity of a mascot.  You know, southern belles are certainly associated with the South and what it represents...I hope no one gets the idea that they're offensive and represent a way of life that is outdated and backwards in it's thinking.

Picks for October 9th

Last week was a disaster, as Iowa was the only team that covered in a 1-3 week.  The season record falls to 5-5-1.  So, time to get our head above water.

at Florida -6.5 LSU - Les Miles might have a deal with the devil, but that isn't going to save him from himself or the Gators defense this week.  The LSU offense is inept (and that's being kind), so unless they score a couple of defensive touchdowns and have a punt return or kickoff return for a score, this one won't be close.

at North Carolina State -9.5 Boston College - The Wolfpack imploded at the end of last week's game against Virginia Tech while Boston College barely went through the motions in their loss to Notre Dame.  I'll take the good team who lost to a good team over the bad team who got blown out by a bad team.  Pack wins by 14+.

at Stanford -10 USC - The Cardinal hung double nickles on the Trojans last year at the Coliseum.  Coming off a bad loss to Oregon, I look for Harbaugh and Company to get physical, smash the Trojans right in the mouth and not take their foot off the gas until they're back near 50 again...and maybe they'll still keep the pedal down.