While on his way out the door, Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt has one last crack at Dan Mullen.
Mullen, who keeps a year-round countdown clock to the Egg Bowl in the Mississippi State locker room, is 2-0 against Nutt in this intense rivalry. The Bulldogs shocked the favored Rebels in 2009 with a 41-27 victory.
Then after last year's 31-23 win in Oxford, Mullen said in his postgame speech following last year's Egg Bowl that the Bulldogs would never lose to the Rebels.
Never?
Mullen has never minded providing bulletin board material.
It seems like the coach puts added pressure on his players with such brash talk. But it doesn't seem to bother offensive lineman Addison Lawrence, who fired a shot earlier in the week across the bow of the sinking Rebel ship.
"I think they're going to come out fired up and hot," said the senior right tackle, "but if we jump on them, I think they'll kind of lay down. I feel like they're wanting to lay down in a way, because of the things that have been happening here recently."
Nutt, who was fired 21/2 weeks ago but allowed to finish out the season, would love nothing more than to feed Mullen and the Bulldogs a heavy dose of crow in his Ole Miss swan song.
But that's easier said than done as the Rebels (2-9, 0-7 in SEC) limp into Saturday's game riding a six-game losing streak with a lame-duck coach. Ole Miss has lost a school-record 13 straight conference games.
Defensive tackle Justin Smith said the Rebels plan to send Nutt out with a win.
"We really want to win this for coach Nutt," said Smith. "The rivalry is definitely a bigger deal than when I got here. It's gotten increasingly more important ... the billboards, the stuff (Mullen) says in the media about us."
Ole Miss, a huge underdog Saturday, must pull off an upset to avoid its first 10-loss season in program history.
Don't chuckle too loudly, MSU fans.
Your team hasn't done much better. Four of State's five wins have come against teams with losing records (they're a combined 14-30), and the Bulldogs are just 1-6 in the SEC.
MSU's offense has been pitiful and, frankly, quite predictable. The Dogs average just 16 points and a mere 115 yards rushing a game in SEC play.
Then there's this rotating quarterback situation that is driving some fans crazy. It's a sign of desperation as week in and week out the Bulldogs struggle to find any consistency on offense.
It's cliche but true: If you have three quarterbacks, you really don't have any.
State should be able to get something going offensively against Ole Miss, which is dead last in the SEC in scoring defense, total defense and rushing defense and 11th in pass defense.
For the first time since 1990, MSU will have to defeat Ole Miss to become bowl eligible.
In 1989 and 1990, MSU lost to Ole Miss in Jackson to finish 5-6, one win short of a bowl bid. Mullen has called his team's hunt for a second-straight postseason berth "critical" to the development of his program in his third season.
MSU opened as an 18-point favorite. It's the most the Bulldogs have ever been favored in this series.
Seems way too high.
I expect State to win, but it will be closer than the boys in Vegas predict.
If Ole Miss can get a good performance from quarterback Barry Brunetti, they have a good chance to pull the upset.
If he can stay upright behind a struggling offensive line, Brunetti and his stable of talented young receivers can find some big plays in the passing game against this State defense. Opponents are completing better than 66 percent of their passes against State.
Look for Ole Miss to exploit MSU's soft coverage in the secondary, but the guess here is a Bulldog victory.
• Contact Bill Burrus at bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com.
