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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Seven Football Home Games Slated for 2002
2/19/2002 | Football
Feb. 19, 2002
OXFORD, Miss. - Seven home games, including four against Southeastern Conference opposition, highlight a 12-game Ole Miss football schedule for the 2002 season, it was announced here Tuesday by Athletic Director John Shafer.
The 2002 slate includes home conference games with Vanderbilt, Florida, Auburn, and Mississippi State, while non-league home games will be with Louisiana-Monroe, Memphis, and Arkansas State. The October 12 game with Arkansas State is set for Homecoming. The Rebels will play SEC road games at Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and LSU, plus a non-conference game at Texas Tech.
"It will be interesting for all of us in college football to deal with 12 regular season games," said Ole Miss Head Coach David Cutcliffe. "I think this schedule may be, without question, the toughest that Ole Miss has ever played. I also feel that our team will challenge themselves in preparing for this difficult schedule."
"It is a tough schedule, especially having to play Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, and LSU on the road," Shafer said.
The 2002 schedule marks the first year for the new SEC league format, which calls for only one permanent opponent and two rotators from the opposite division. Vanderbilt and Georgia were permanent Ole Miss opponents from the Eastern Division, but only Vanderbilt now remains on a yearly basis. The addition of Florida will mark the first time since 1995 for the Rebels and Gators to play each other in football.
"The new league schedule required some adjustments in the way our SEC home and away games fell," Shafer said. "We have to go back to LSU this year and Vanderbilt has to come back to Oxford. It will all work itself out at the end of the full cycle."
Shafer said he felt this year's schedule will once again be attractive for the SEC's television partners. "I feel confident our schedule will allow Ole Miss to be well represented when it comes time to select which games are televised," he said. "I expect we will be on TV seven or eight times."
One game already set for TV is the November 28 clash with Mississippi State, which will be shown by ESPN for the fifth straight Thanksgiving Night.
"We feel good about our attractive home schedule and the new south end zone addition," Shafer said. "We set season ticket records the last two years and I believe this will be another record-breaking year when it comes to selling season tickets at Ole Miss."
The current expansion at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field will see capacity increase to over 60,000.
2002 Ole Miss Football Schedule: Aug. 31 - Louisiana-Monroe, Oxford Sept. 7 - Memphis, Oxford Sept. 14 - Texas Tech, Lubbock Sept. 21 - Vanderbilt, Oxford Oct. 5 - Florida, Oxford Oct. 12 - Arkansas State (HC), Oxford Oct. 19 - Alabama, Tuscaloosa Oct. 26 - Arkansas, Fayetteville Nov. 2 - Auburn, Oxford Nov. 9 - Georgia, Athens Nov. 23 - LSU, Baton Rouge Nov. 28 - Mississippi State, Oxford
