Here’s a look at the Ole Miss-Memphis series (through a series of one-liners):

* Each of the last three games in the series have been decided by seven or fewer points, Ole Miss winning by 3 last year, by 4 in 2005 and Memphis winning by 7 in 2004 in Oxford.

* Ole Miss leads the overall series, 44-10-2, but the Rebels are 6-4 against Memphis in the last 10 meetings (beginning in 1993).

* The average margin of victory in the series since 2003 is 6.0 points; it hasn’t been a series this closely contest since the mid-1970s, when the margin of victory in five games was 5.2.

* Tiger coach Tommy West began his college coaching career as an assistant under Steve Sloan at Ole Miss in 1979.

* There are 21 players on the Memphis roster from Mississippi, an increase of 18 from 2001 when West took over as Tiger coach.

It is now 12:20 am on Friday morning. I can’t sleep and believe me I’ve tried. The eyes just don’t seem to want to close. My mind is solely on getting myself to the Highland Hundred parking lot tomorrow, oops, this morning. Yes I said this morning. I will pull into the HH lot sometime around 9:30. I don’t image there will be anyone there at that time but I do know many will soon follow. The RV’s will start to arrive around 10. I want to be there to see my friends drive them in.

My car has 14 magnets on it which includes a few leaping Tiger logos, the obligatory “GO TIGERS”, a paw or two, the school official crest and even a couple of schedule magnets. I’ve got the “city” car flag on the back window. I call it the “city” car flag because I’ve got a couple that are worn and are for road game highway travel.

I’ve organized everything knowing full well that by game time Saturday the back end of my truck will be a complete mess. There are 4 pairs of socks, 2 pairs of shoes, some sandals, 6 shirts, 3 pairs of shorts, gray underwear to wear at the game (yep, I’m that superstitious) and a half dozen hats for 34 hours or so I’ll spend out there.
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THE BIG STORY
Kentucky senior wide receiver Steve Johnson will play in Saturday’s season opener against Eastern Kentucky, despite being arrested and charged with resisting arrest and several misdemeanor traffic violations Wednesday night.
Johnson was charged with resisting arrest along with having no insurance, failure to have his driver’s license in his possession, not wearing a seat belt and having no registration plate. Kentucky coach Rich Brooks questioned the resisting-arrest charge and noted that Johnson was on his way to the hospital to visit teammate David Jones when he was pulled over. Jones underwent an emergency appendectomy Tuesday night.
“It’s interesting a young man would resist arrest on the way to see a teammate when he’s got his parents coming to town to see him play in a game,” Brooks told the Lexington Herald-Leader. “So we’ll just have to see how it all plays out. I’m very comfortable with playing him and dealing with the issues inside (internally) for not taking care of a ticket, and some of the other stuff may be a little exaggerated.”

A look at the league: Read the rest of this entry »