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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Gear Up For Grove Bowl 2008
4/9/2008 | Football
With the football program holding its Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day, nearly 100 professors and administrators were on hand for a reception and to see the Rebels train primarily in position groups and situational drills.
Ole Miss head coach Houston Nutt has been pleased with the effort and attitude of his squad in his first spring in
“I’ve been proud of them and the way they’ve worked,” he said. “The change in terminology, the change in coaching, it’s not always easy. There are some awfully good young men here.
“We have to keep getting better where when things don’t go right, they don’t have that defeatist attitude. We try to harp on that. It goes back to those little things that we are trying to instill in our guys. But it has been a very good spring.”
In addition to the annual Red-Blue Game, which kicks off at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Ole Miss will also be celebrating Eli Manning-Patrick Willis Day with several public activities for the two former All-Americans. With all the other athletics events occurring this weekend, Nutt said he has personally seen the anticipation from the Rebel fans.
“We’ve gotten a lot of e mails and a lot of letters,” Nutt said. “There is a lot of excitement with Eli Manning, Patrick Willis, Archie Manning and Derrick Burgess coming back. I’m going to have all of those guys talk to our team. On top of that, we’ve had a lot of fans come out and watch us practice. I’m looking for a great day. There’s nothing like playing in that beautiful stadium.”
Nutt said the Grove Bowl will provide a great opportunity for evaluation of the players.
“We’ll look at everybody extremely hard, but guys like Fon Ingram, Marshay Green, Justin Sanders and Chris Strong will be a few we watch to see how they produce,” said Nutt. “We need these guys to come on. Rishaw Johnson needs to come on with some consistency.”
At tight end, Ole Miss is replacing a pair of seniors in
“Gerald Harris has gotten a lot more comfortable in our offense,” Nutt said. “He’s smart and is an extremely hard worker. He and David Traxler are going to help us.”
Ole Miss will hold a brief practice Friday prior to attending the 19th annual Chucky Mullins Courage Award Banquet at 6:30 p.m. in the IPF. The event is open to the public, and tickets are available by clicking here.
