Intro Miss is a top five team right now and right on Q the media haters are coming out of the woodwork you can set your watch by it you are locked on Old Miss your daily podcast on the Old Miss Rebels part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day welcome rebel nation I your host Steven Willis a 10e veteran member of the national media and a former Miss staff member this is the locked onas podcast your daily podcast on the Miss Rebels part of the locked on podcast Ole Miss Rebels Breaking Into the Top Five Network your team every single day we're free and available in all the podcast apps and on YouTube thanks for making lock down old miss your first listen every day and a special hello to the every dayers and insiders who make the show what it is today we are talking about the Miss Rebels breaking into the top five for the first time this season and for some grizzled old media members like Brett McMurphy and John Wilner that's just a bridge too far for them whether it's a grudge against Lane kein the SEC or something else they just can't seem to accept the fact that miss is now a leader in this era of football it's time for these critics to term come to terms with the fact that this these Rebels belong at the top will break down why ol Miss has earned this spot and what it means moving forward and don't forget to find a second listen on the network Chris Gordy at lockon secc or Cory Burton at locked on Vandy they provide other perspectives on college football the SEC and even Old Miss so check it out you know how I feel about perspectives now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV visit fanduel.com to get started om Miss got um into the top five in the coaches poll and lo and behold that's just a bridge too far for some media members it's two people that have grudges against the SEC or Lane kein whoever there's a lot of names that kept Old Miss out of the top five and allowed their beloved Notre Dame to jump Old Miss in the Associated Press poll if you look at the Miss poll in the polls this week Miss comes in at number six in the AP poll number five in the coaches poll and it's like I said it's just a bridge too far for some media members some media members like Brett McMurphy who had almost Miss six in just the poll last week but the poll this week had Georgia number one Ohio State number two Oregon number three that was no change Texas and Alabama no change and then there were changes Penn State jumped Old Miss Miami jumped Old Miss Notre Dame jumped Old Miss USC jumped Old Miss oh miss comes in at number 10 like I said he was had number six in his preseason poll when he wanted to look like the smartest person in the room for taking them now that it's getting a little bit too real he has to set up narratives for later on the season when the SEC you don't want the SEC to get five teams in the playoff you need to make it as difficult as possible people that have grudges against lane kein or Old Miss or the SEC and the one thing that you need to look at is how they voted like I said Brett McMurphy had almost sixth in the preseason one week later after almost won 76 to nothing and it was never close he dropped almost down to 10 why why why would he do that other than bias why would you do that you know these media members like to talk all the time about their unbiased nature how they're doing unbiased reporting that's not true unbiased reporting does not exist anybody that tells they're unbiased all they're saying is they're not looking at it from a fans's perspective they're still biased whether it's clicks whether it's subscribers whether it's money there is always something that is the bias for every decision that is made you look at old Miss's season this year this is why they're scared if you look at Miss right now at kickoff Miss is likely going to be favored in 11 of their 12 games that they play this season the only one that there might be an underdog in is the Georgia game and Georgia might be the best team in all of college football and that is setting up an elite football game but Brett M Murphy going from 6 to1 John Wilner going from 10 to 12 other people like Chris Murray and Randy Johnson and Matt Brown and Dave Preston having om Miss at 10 or below in their polls it makes no sense other than the fact that they have an intrinsic bias that they're going to have to deal with and that's okay because for the vast majority of the media members and the college football fans that are out there miss is a darling team this year oh miss is a fun story oh miss is everything that you want from college football but some people that just genuinely do not like the SEC or lane kein or Old Miss for whatever reason they need to find a way to I don't know handle this whether it's like Mark Jones that refuses to call Old Miss oh miss for whatever reason these people have intrinsic biases when people tell you that they are unbiased do not believe them there's a bias coming from somewhere because everybody is biased everybody is biased in this business what I do right now I am going to cover Old Miss in a way just naturally that is going to make me the most money that's the way this works it's going to help you push you one way or another it's going to frame your coverage and Brett McMurphy or John Wilner or Matt Brown or Dave Preston they obviously get clicks hating on all Miss hating on the SEC something like that is framing their whole world it's just a weird situation because Miss right now in this modern era of college football is one of the leaders Miss in one of this in this modern era of college football is a top five to top 10 program whether you choose that they're not whether you don't want them to be as irrelevant because they are if you truly were unbiased om Miss would might be number three or number four in the entire country after one week because of the weapons that are at lanin's disposal because of the defense Ole Miss's Dominance in Modern College Football that is at Lane kin's disposal when you look at Vegas when they're actually like the betting lines like Brett McMurphy works for the Action Network which is one of these sports betting I don't know superpowers out there in Vegas and if you look at them oh miss is very high up to even win the national championship to win the SEC Jackson Dart to win the Heisman basically every war award that you can have lines on and take bets on oh miss is very high up on it so it doesn't make sense other than the fact that you're trying to frame narratives or you're trying to do something there's something going on here but these media members that are voting like this they just need to kind of get over it because it is what it is is Miss is a 41-point favorite against Middle Tennessee right now this the largest line that I've ever seen Miss have against another FBS opponent 41 points and you know what I'm tempted to lay them I look at that line as like oh yeah I'll do that when you look at the fact that Middle Tennessee played Tennessee Tech and won 32 to 25 on a touchdown in the last 15 seconds of the game and I do realize that they're going to improve a little bit into the second week and I do realize that um they have a quarterback Nick Nicholas viatell or something like that that's a good player that's dangerous and we're going to talk about all of that as this week goes on but National meter members that are just choosing to vote Miss down to kind of artificially keep them from getting into the top five that's weak sauce man that is weak sauce with this omus football team and there's a lot of media members um that are very high on Theus Rebels Arie J Brun Howen Dylan sin Garland Gillan John clay all of them have at four and a lot of people have om Miss at four like 10 media members have Miss inside the top five or U inside the top four and then you have Adam Cole Adam Zucker Bob asmon Joe Aruda Jordan mcferson Michael Levy Trevor hos have them in the top five as well so this isn't everybody so whenever I say National media needs to get their head screwed on straight I'm not talking about everybody I'm talking about a select few that have an actx to grind and there's no way that they can really get around it because you can't look at what's going on in college football right now and say oh yeah Miss is 12th in the country you just can't other than the fact that you're like okay you must have played Ferman that's not showing us anything yeah but they won 76 to nothing and nobody else is winning 76 to nothing in these games and pitching a shut out against an FCS playoff team nobody's doing that so get over it wake up and let's move on to the next level and Miss is going to take on Middle Tennessee this weekend and we'll see exactly how that goes coming up next we're diving into why the Miss running game will be front and center against the Middle Tennessee blue Raiders don't miss what to watch for Saturday for the rebels passion drive and patience the formula for winning championships is also what keeps your ride or die alive eBay Motors has everything you need to maintain your vehicle and level it up to Peak Performance Super Chat Chargers roof racks exhaust kits LED headlights and more whether you're into speed power or style eBay Motors has you covered and with over 122 million parts for your number one Rider die you'll always find exactly what you're looking for with eBay is guaranteed fit your part is guaranteed to fit your ride every time or your money back because with eBay Motors you are burning rubber not cash with all the parts you need and the prices you want is easy to make your car the MVP and bring home some huge wins so keep your ride or die live at ebaymotors.com eligible items only exclusions apply eBay's guaranteed fit is only available to us customers college football is back and it's not too late to catch up for the season season starts with the SEC Squad the ACC Squad The Big 10 squad or the Big 12 Squad you can cat it all from lock on stable of college experts by subscribing to the lockon college football podcast who has a chance to make the playoffs who has the team chance to cause the most chaos in their new conference they have everything you Upcoming Challenge Against Middle Tennessee State need to know all in one place be sure to follow And subscribe to the locked on college football podcast as part of the locked on podcast Network your team every single day now if we turn the page to what to watch for in this game and this game Miss is right now I think a 41o favorite according to FanDuel andas was a 42 and a half Point favorite against Ferman so I'm not expecting competition to go up significantly but I am expecting it to go up some when you look at the what to watch for right now Old Miss running game Saturday was Saturday a symptom of a problem or a product of the game plan we'll talk about that as well um is this the week that Jordan Watkins comes back and what does that look like when all three of old Miss's major receiver targets are on the field this isn't a slide against Kaden Lee but it is something that I am interested in because he was Jackson Dart security blanket a year ago and special team starting to come to into Focus will miss pun enough to where we can judge Frasier Mason or Fraser mine so we'll see exactly how that goes as well but we'll start off with the running game and the running game against Ferman that is the the people that watch a game and no matter what happens are upset always looking at the negatives they're going to focus on stuff like that and that is some very lwh hanging fruitas didn't run the ball particularly well now they they ran the ball well enough anytime they needed to get a first down they got a first down um but they didn't have any big runs they didn't have any runs breaking off in the first half of the ball game and the question is is that a product of Henry Paris Jr and alyses Bentley um the fourth and the offensive line or is it a product of the game plan om Miss obviously was trying to pad Jackson Dart stats in the first half of that game to get him ready to potentially break El's record to win a Heisman Trophy all of that stuff almost was obviously trying to do that throwing the ball downfield and furman's defensive back field had a bunch of players that were new we talked to J Joe Deon before the game and their secondary was all new and transfer portal players that were brought in all of their secondary from the year before is got poached and defensive line wise while they were pretty good they're still an FCS defensive line so knowing that made you think that that Ferman was going to have a matchup problem with Trey Harris with Kaden Lee with juice Wells with Aiden Williams with Kaden prior with dayquon Wright there was going to be a matchup problem in the pass game and so was this a situation where Charlie Weiss Jr and Old Miss were just taking advantage of that matchup issue Oh missing that game was 55% to 45% pass to run and that that was probably more exaggerated in the first half of the game to where it just didn't seem like omus ran the ball very much like you said there's some Henry Parish there were some ulyses Bentley but miss pretty consistently threw the ball and threw it with success it was a situation where they were passing the ball so well why run the football it was situation where this is working why go to something else if something's working keep going to it and what was working were the passes downfield Jackson in the first half averaged about 20 yards per completion he threw for 418 yards on 22 completions that will hunt and he had as many touchdown passes as incompletions in the game and he accounted for more touchdowns than he had incompletions in the game so anybody complaining about it might not understand football now I understand that hey you can nitpick and look at this one particular thing without the Contex of what was available what was going on and what the coaches were thinking was it a problem product of the game plan or a symptom of a problem that is the question and we are going to find that out against middl Tennesse State we just are because Miss is going to have to run the football a little bit they're going to be facing a defensive line and a secondary that is better one of the better players of the players to watch on om Miss's newsletter was a safety the quarterback was another there's some players that can make plays and there are players that can hurt you in this game that's just the way this works you have a step up of competition Ferman had 63 scholarship players on their roster MTSU is going to have 85 that's the you're going to have greater depth that appears so we will see what happens we talked y about yesterday about the need for a fast start but I would like to seeus run the ball in the first half and I would like to see Matt Jones get his chance in the first half to run the ball can he make plays and do what he does against tired second level defenses that have just essentially quit can he be as productive as he has been in the second half in the first half of games Matt Jones had three carries 68 yards and two touchdowns two relatively long touchdowns if you want to look at it as well so Matt Jones has been a against tired and second team defenses I want to see Matt Jones get carries in the first half of a game to see if he can replicate what he's doing in the second half in the first half the question becomes honestly can Matt Jones be the Clyde Edwards hair of this 2024 Miss team if you want talk about the 2019 LSU offense well KDE Edwards hair was a big part of that and he was an undersized guy there Matt Jones' Potential Impact on Ole Miss was a lot of similarity can Matt Jones accomplish something similar this season in theas offense now the running back game is the depth is pretty good it's there um but Matt Jones probably has earned carries against the first team defense in the first and the second quarter of a game so we'll see exactly how that goes now the other thing that we are going to be watching for is this is this the game that Jordan Watkins comes back is this the game that he gets healthy I've heard on other podcasts that he had a lower body injury and the injury report thing doesn't come out until the Kentucky game so Lane kein is not going to volunteer any information until the Kentucky game he talks about W how um people want to get the sidd folks off of injury reports with their players and then whenever he plays this game that kind of shows that the other stuff kind of doesn't matter either because if that was a real concern they would do the injury reports the whole time and not just pick and choose during SEC games Jordan Watkins was J Jackson dart's security blanket a year ago Trey Harris is a guy he's the alpha juice Wells is going to be great but it would be nice to see what this wide receiver unit can look like once all three of its major weapons are available on the outside when you add a Caden prorn all of that and when you potentially add 12 Personnel because I'm always going to talk about 12 Personnel that gets it least interesting I want to see what Theus offense looks like with Jordan Watkins now it looked good with Kaden Lee this isn't any slight against Kaden Lee he looked really good in the opener against Ferman but I do want to see what this offense running at the highest level looks like should be interesting there's there's weapons all over the field for this team and we will see exactly how it goes but last year Jordan Watkins 53 catch is 741 yards three touchdowns um he was the security blanket and Jackson Dart you see him 22 of 27 418 yards and five touchdowns in one half of Football Saturday it's a real deal type thing and we'll see exactly what it looks like um for Old Miss coming up Chris Gordy from locked on Reveals His week two power rankings where do the rebels stand after the latest action find out on the next segment of lockdown old miss you know you've heard us talk a lot about FanDuel it's America's number one sports book well we have something a little bit different for you now through September 22nd all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube or YouTube TV then with a YouTube TV base plan you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of Market game all you need is a Google account and a current form of payment and you can cancel at any time and with what's going on with Xfinity right now our Direct TV YouTube TV is probably a pretty good option and this might be a little bit of a cherry on top as well with that $5 dollar you can bet on Miss to cover the 41 and a half point line against Middle Tennessee is absolutely nuts they were only favored by 42 and a half against fman the over under is going up as well it's up at 63 and a half points FanDuel thinks really highly of Theus Rebels right now so just visit fanduel.com and download America's number one sports book so Chris Gordy as he does every week released his power rankings in the Southeastern Conference and it was pretty interesting because after Vanderbilt beat Virginia Tech I was very interested in some other teams bes died Old Miss um this week you look at Georgia number one yeah that's lwh hanging fruit Texas there's no reason to drop him Alabama looked great in the first game om Miss at number four there's no reason to drop them and then you have the next tier of teams this is the team that LSU was in he has Missouri at five I agree with that entirely Tennessee at six om Miss Missouri and Tennessee all played FCS opponents in week one Oklahoma had a blowout win over the temple owl um looked pretty good doing it I really liked Jackson Arnold at quarterback they have some issues they have something they're going to have to get fixed before SEC play but I do see the framework of them being a very dangerous team probably more so than LSU I kind of agree with these power rankings right now Auburn at number eight Auburn over LSU I agree with that as well Auburn looked like a t top half of the SEC type team then you have LSU which might be a little bit too high I'd probably put LSU below Kentucky at this point um Texas A&M and Arkansas that's pretty evenly matched game coming up vanderbild at number 13 not number 16 good for the commodor Mississippi State moved up a spot to number 14 in the last two was Florida who got absolutely boat raced by the Miami Hurricanes in South Carolina which struggled to barely defeat the Old Dominion monarchs over the weekend if you look at miss' schedule off of Chris Gordy's SEC Power Rankings Miss plays two teams in the top eight of the conference they play number nine number 10 number 12 number thir number 14 number 15 and number 16 that is um what's going on whenever I talk about an easier Road an easier path like I did in yesterday's podcast this is what I'm talking about pretty exciting stuff now before I get out of here had a request in the comments to talk about Ole Miss Special Teams Breakdown and break down these special teams um going into the middle Tennessee game and I figure the what to watch at forx episode kind of fits that you look at Kaden Davis um kicking off and field goals Nails absolute Nails Phi go block I have no problem eventually zavon Harris is going to come back and you're gonna have the six7 guy in the middle and he had three field goal blocks a year ago no problem there at all punting again is Miss going to punt enough against Middle Tennessee for us to even have an opinion against Fraser mine that is that is a real question kickoff return I'm not 100% sure about with Micah Davis punt return I really liked what Micah Davis brought to the table and and punt return you can tell with the death that Miss has it's almost like Alabama or Georgia always to where their special teams are really good because because they are recruiting at a very high level because their to deep is so good their special teams are good so I like Micah Davis on punt return I have questions about punting I think I genuinely think there's a game to where hidden yardage is going to come into play for Old Miss and whether or not mine can make the kicks necessary to get that hidden yardage in miss' favor or not is going to determine whether or not miss wins the game but like I said the part return I like that you have a guy back there that has a little bit of Wiggle he can get to the outside he doesn't have all of the top end speed this is a kid that originally committed to Air Force okay so he's not going to be a 44 4-3 guy but what he is is quicker than a hiccup and he's perfect on a punt return so he might not take it to the house but he might pop one or two and I think he might get one to the house before almost plays Kentucky should be interesting um also I do want to let everybody know that lockon and I am are about to partner with Roy that's called return on yourself I think return on you or something like that and it's an nil program and what that this is going to be and it's going to have old Mrs Roster okay and you can go through and give an nil micro donation to whoever you want to give it two on Mrs Roster whether it's football basketball women's basketball baseball this is all going to be available based on who you're watching and at the end of the year those players can claim all of that money okay so if Matt Jones has $22,000 that's been given to him over the course of the Season at the end of the year Matt Jones can claim it but if Matt Jones transfers that money gets refunded to the fans who gave it if Matt Jones claims it he has to do NIL Transparency and Micro Donations four exclusive videos for the people that donated to Matt Jones if Matt Jones leaves in the second transfer portal window that might be after two videos of the four have been done people would get 50% back of the money that they donated because you got two videos as well this this is really cool and you have a situation with the way payments are set up that where they want to partner with collectives like the Grove Collective to where they can handle the micro payments of a team and this becomes the main State here's another great part everything's completely transparent you can go on there and look and see exactly how much has been donated to each and every player you can see all of that you know what's going to happen you know who's getting what you don't have a situation where people need to jump into the transfer portal to see their worth anymore now it's just right there and if you're happy with what's going on accept the money that's been given do your four videos over the course of a year and get ready for the next season everybody is going to be interested in what nil becomes this is an Avenue to make it more transparent to make the transfer portal more St able and to help athletic programs um for people to take micro donations everybody was excited potentially about the the um QR code Oklahoma State's QR Code Initiative that was on Oklahoma State's helmet does everybody remember that well this is the same thing you can watch a game have it open make a donation to whichever player Kaden Lee whatever whatever does that the minimum donation that you can give in one time 10 bucks so we are going to partner with them over the course and you're going to start to hear me talking about them with a little bit of regularity during the commercial breaks but I did want to let you know about what was going on with Roy and that's join roy.com if you want to learn more about it it's join roy.com and you can see exactly what they have going on they're supposed to launch their site this week in time for week two and all their apps will be available in the um then the App Store and all that at this point so we are going to partner with them and you're going to hear me start talking about Roy um for nil as opposed to The Grove Collective it's not an adversarial thing towards the Grove Collective it's just that Roy provides a way for regular fans like people watching this show to contribute in a way that is safe and transparent um you don't have to worry about a situation like quinon Judkins and all the money that he got going with him to Ohio State now if quinan judkin go to goes to Ohio State you get that money back really interesting type stuff anyway we'll see how it goes thank you for making the lock onus podcast your goto Source Forma Source Sports we pride ourselves on offering the most comprehensive perspectives which is why we're the number oneus podcast out there and your support means the world to us thank you for making lockon miss your first listen every day now go check out the lockon college football podcast from nil deals to the never ending conference 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