Sad Days Ahead in Oxford
It’s panic time in Oxford.
Double check the paper trail. Cross-reference the bank accounts. Send the troops out to defend the beloved Rebels.
The out of control spending spree for the 2013 Ole Miss recruiting class is starting to buckle under it’s own weight. You can’t stir up every bee hive on the farm and expect to not get stung. But that’s exactly what they have done.
Rewind to January 2012. Billboard wars. After 3 straight Egg Bowl wins the MSU administration got a little cocky and put an infamous sign in Oxford. That didn’t go over so well. After Ole Miss successfully proved it was a violation of NCAA rules, it was taken down, and their wheels started turning to do whatever it took to ensure the Rebels would get back on their feet.
Not long after the billboard wars came the video wars. Ole Miss took the first shot. MSU took the second. And that was the end of that. You would have thought they’d learn the lesson: State will not let themselves be run over again.
But Ole Miss didn’t learn from it. They instead decided to fully engage themselves in everything and anything to get ahead. The first mark was to buy Byron D’Vinner to create a cloud of smoke over MSU that would assist them in landing the loot that was the 2013 recruiting class. The next step was to lock down as many prospects as they could by any means necessary.
No one with half a brain thought a team coming off a 2-10 season, that frequents the cellar of the SEC, could reel in 5 star after 5 star without breaking the rules.
Ole Miss recruits flashed money and were thrown parties, all of which were displayed on social media – but it was quickly deleted and covered up.
They ended up signing the ultimate recruiting class – they basically got everyone they wanted.
Fast forward to today. News that the NCAA has been questioning MSU DE Chris Jones about how Ole Miss recruited him. If you remember from the last couple of weeks in the drama-filled recruiting process, Jones went back and forth almost daily from Starkville to Oxford. It was well believed at the time that his mother wanted him at State, and his father wanted him at Ole Miss. Some had rumored that his father had accepted or was promised money by OM to get his son to Oxford. Others rumored that Chris was gathering information to use against Ole Miss during his visits. Either way, he has talked to the NCAA about it.
But that’s not the only piece to the puzzle. After landing eight 4-stars and four 5-stars at a program that had gone to only three bowl games in nine years, you don’t just investigate the player that got away.
The biggest questions are around Kailo Moore, Laquon Treadwell and Laremy Tunsil. Georgia lost out to Ole Miss on Tunsil, and it has been widely recognized that Mark Richt did not appreciate what happened. And when you tick off a school like UGA, it’s gonna hurt when they punch back.
Look for more to come out regarding this situation. It will take time, like everything does when the NCAA is involved, but rest assured the drug dogs are sniffing around the premises.
You might as well set up your easy chair and watch the Oxford rats scurry to put out the fires, but they will just keep growing higher and higher. It’s going to be quite a blaze.