Rippee Writes: USC job opens, Tulane primer and Magnolia State golf update
Some Tulane thoughts, USC and Kiffin, three Mississippians on the PGA Tour and Johnson earns a win for Ole Miss Golf
A good Wednesday to you all. We have a new podcast out with Tulane beat writer Guerry Smith. He explains a unique Green Wave offense under new OC Chip Long, quarterback Michael Pratt’s ascension and more. Check that out here or anywhere you get podcasts.
We have football, golf and some silly season thoughts to get to today. Let’s go.
USC fires Clay Helton
With respect to UConn and whatever the hell is going on with its now coach-less football program, the coaching carousel officially got underway on Monday when USC that it finally fired Clay Helton, who had seemingly been on the hot seat for four years. The internet takesmen quickly loaded their guns and began firing shrapnel all over the internet atmosphere regarding who should be the next Trojans head coach.
Naturally, Lane Kiffin’s name was brought up. It makes sense. He’s made Ole Miss fun again. He’s a heavy-hitting name in the college football world. His family resides in the area, and, of course, he was the head coach there before. I am not going to revisit this every week for three months for the sake of my own boredom and sanity, but I will offer a few thoughts here.
Anything you read or hear regarding Lane Kiffin and the USC job over the next 12 weeks is almost guaranteed to be bullshit. No sitting head coach is going to directly engage with officials from another school during the middle of the season. I am not naïve. I know how these things work. Yes, things happen with agents and decision makers behind the scenes. Sometimes they happen before a season ends, but the notion that Kiffin or any other sitting head coach is seriously going to entertain the idea becoming a coach somewhere else in September or October is just silly.
No one knows what Lane Kiffin is thinking. He doesn’t know any of the local media because he doesn’t need them. No one, with the exception of a couple of national media people, have any real relationship with Kiffin. No one knows what he wants or values in a job or what he would or wouldn’t take. Is the prospect of being closer to his kids something he values? I would think so, but would you take a job at a company that fired you at an airport tarmac seven years prior just to be closer to family? It’s not meant to be a loaded question, but it’s also not a simple answer. Kiffin has spoken publicly, as recently as last year, about how he didn’t feel he was judged fairly at USC, given the NCAA sanctions and scholarship reductions he dealt with from the previous regime. There’s a different athletic director in place, but some of the same decision makers are still there. I don’t think it’s this is the picturesque potential reunion some might try to paint it to be.
The entire thing doesn’t pass the smell test. The most obvious candidates that have already been regurgitated on hot boards across the internet are James Franklin, Matt Campbell, Urban Meyer and Luke Fickell. What do all four of those guys have in common? Conference championship game appearances, division titles, New Years Six Bowl appearances and sustained success over at least a four or five year period at a respective school. Kiffin doesn’t have any of that on the resume (yes, I know he went 10-2 and won the PAC 12 South in 2011 but were ineligible for the postseason). To put it bluntly, he hasn’t done anything yet. He’s 6-5 in the regular season at his first major head coaching gig in seven years. I think Kiffin is a good coach. I think he will build a winner at Ole Miss. I think he’s done just about everything as well as he possibly could in the 20 months he’s been in Oxford. But there’s a base level of winning required to actually be in the mix for the handful of coveted jobs in this sport (yes, USC is in that category even if its overrated in how it ranks amongst other elite gigs) and Kiffin hasn’t achieved that yet. He’s a big name that coaches a fun brand of football. For now, that is all he is. If Lane Kiffin ever leaves Ole Miss on his own, it’s because he won at a level that warrants the attention of better programs. That hasn’t happened yet.
I am not naïve enough to believe Kiffin would unequivocally turn down the USC job immediately upon it being offered, I am simply saying I believe there’s a disconnect between how his value is perceived by fans and media versus administrators with hiring power. Winning will change that, and there are certainly jobs Kiffin would leave Ole Miss for, I just don’t think this whole thing passes the smell test. But who really knows. Nothing surprises me anymore. Again, it’s September. This saga — whether Kiffin ends up wrapped up in it or not — will have plenty of twists and turns before a hire is made. If you’re an Ole Miss fan, there is no sense in agonizing over it. It’s a waste of time.
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Get to know Tulane
The Green Wave demolished Morgan State last weekend and took Oklahoma down to the wire in Norman in week one despite three second quarter fumbles that helped put them in a 37-14 hole. This is the best team Willie Fritz has had since taking the job five years ago. They’ve got a pair of new coordinators, a good quarterback and few capable skill position guys. Here are some notes.
- Chip Long is the offensive coordinator for Tulane, replacing Will Hall, who became the head coach at Southern Miss at the end of last season. You might be familiar with Long’s name. He was a Broyles Award Finalist for his work at the offensive coordinator for Notre Dame in 2018. The Fighting Irish made the playoff that year. Long was fired after the 2019 season in what was apparently a result of a personality clash than more so than a deteriorating on-field product. Long’s offense involves a lot of lateral, pre-snap motion and heavily utilizes running backs and tight ends in the passing game. It’s a lot of bunch formations, crossing routes and misdirection. This will be a tough test of this Ole Miss defense’s discipline. Tulane had receivers running wide open against Oklahoma. At times, it was Wesley McGriff 2018 level wide open, meaning that there was no one within a TV screen of the receivers. You’ve actually seen a version of this offense before. Long was the offensive coordinator for Memphis in 2016. Ole Miss beat the Tigers 48-28 in Oxford.
- The quarterback is Michael Pratt, a lightly-recruited kid who won the starting job just three games into his career last season. Pratt tossed 20 touchdowns and 10 interceptions after replacing Southern Miss transfer Keon Howard as Tulane’s starter. The 20 touchdowns were the most by a Tulane quarterback since 2017. A lot of Long’s offense hinges on Pratt’s decision making both with his arm and his feet. Pratt was the team leader in carries in the loss to Oklahoma. He threw for 296 yards with three touchdowns as well, but was responsible for those three costly fumbles in the second quarter. He’s a good quarterback that makes good decisions. This scheme, with Pratt in the driver’s seat, will be an interesting match up with Ole Miss’s newly-minted 3-2-6 defense.
- Tulane lost its all-time leader in sacks in defensive end Patrick Johnson from a year ago, but will still boast a pretty formidable defensive front. The weak point is on the back end in the secondary, which is one hell of a concern when going against this Ole Miss offense.
- Tulane’s defensive coordinator is Chris Hampton. He replaced Jack Curtis, who had been Fritz’s DC for seven years dating back to their time at Georgia Southern. The reason for the change had to do with Curtis growing stale amongst the players and because of Tulane’s putrid third and fourth down defensive numbers. Last year, the Green Wave were actually a decent defense on first and second down, but gave up a staggering 40 percent of attempted third down conversions and 48 percent of fourth down conversion tries. Woof. Those are two horrendous numbers.
- One guy to watch is redshirt freshman running back Tyjae Spears. Last year, Spears was electric for ten quarters. He totaled 274 on 37 carries (7.4 yards per rush) through two-and-a-half games before tearing his ACL on a touchdown run against Southern Miss. The coaching staff has maintained Spears is fully healthy, but he only got six carries against Oklahoma (likely a product of Tulane playing from behind) and one last week against Morgan State. It doesn’t take a genius to presume Tulane will center its focus on running the football against an Ole Miss defense that has not yet been tested in that capacity this season. If Spears really is healthy, he will likely see more carries in this game than he has in their first two games combined. Fritz’s calling card is to regularly use four running backs on offense and a healthy Spears would make sizable difference.
I will have more notes tomorrow. Don’t mistake this segment as me cooking up the incredibly unoriginal ‘trap game’ or ‘overlook game’ take. Tulane is a capable football team. It is a good American Athletic Conference team. Tulane may be better than Louisville. There’s no way to really know. If Ole Miss plays well, it will win by two scores or more. If the Rebels play poorly, Tulane is definitely good enough to win.
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Magnolia State Golf Update
I spent months writing this segment, wondering if there was any real interest in it, hoping for a week like this. There are three Mississippians teeing it up on the PGA Tour this week, another going through Korn Ferry Tour qualifying school and college golf’s fall season is getting underway.
The PGA Tour kicks off the 2021-2022 season this week at the Fortinet Championship in Napa. Three Mississippians are in the field.
Tupelo native and Mizzou alum Hayden Buckley tees off 4:22 tomorrow and 11:12 on Friday. This time a year ago, Buckley held partial status on the Korn Ferry Tour and was entering an offseason of practice before preparing to Monday qualify into as many events as he could. Now, he’s a PGA Tour rookie. Buckley won the first event of the 2021 portion of the Korn Ferry Tour wraparound season as the last man in the field. He was an alternate at the LECOM Suncoast Classic in Tampa, got in the morning of the first round and won the entire thing. That helped propel him to a 32nd place finish in the Korn Ferry Tour regular season standings, just outside the 25 that are awarded PGA Tour cards. Buckley cemented his card via 4th and 7th places finishes in two of the three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events.
Fulton native and Mississippi State alum Chad Ramey also tees off at 4:22 and 11:12, but is in a different group off opposite tees from Buckley. Ramey is looking to continue a nearly two-year-long run of absurd consistency. He’s made 26 straight cuts dating back to August of 2020. He earned his first professional win at the Live and Work in Maine Open in June and finished 3rd in the Korn Ferry regular season standings. If you’re new here, 26 straight made cuts is an absurd number. Ramey is a machine. He’s a great story, too. He practices at his hometown nine-hole track that doesn’t have a driving range. I feel pretty safe in assuming he is the only PGA Tour player who prefers a setup like that. Great dude, incredible golfer.
Hattiesburg native and Alabama alum Davis Riley tees off at 3:38 tomorrow afternoon and 10:28 on Friday morning. This is a long time coming for Riley. He won twice on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020 and was a victim of the pandemic-induced wraparound season. Riley’s ascent in professional golf has been remarkably quick. He’s on a path to stardom.
The first stage of Korn Ferry Tour Qualifying School began this week
Q-school is scattered across a number of different host sites. Two of the 11 first stage sites got underway this week. The others will follow suit over the course of the next two weeks. Roughly 20 players from each site will qualify for second stage. An undetermined number of players (decided based off scoring and how the tournament plays out, as best I understand) will move on from second stage to the final stage. Every person who makes it to the final stage of q-school gets a Korn Ferry Tour card. The final stage decides quality of status and priority with regard to getting into tournaments. It’s a complicated matrix that I won’t even try to explain, but basically, just view it as not all Korn Ferry or PGA cards a create equal.
Jackson native and Alabama alum Wilson Furr is at the Kinderloo Forest (Valdosta, Georgia) host site. Furr is in third place and three off the lead after rounds of 68 and 70. With two more rounds to go, Furr is in great shape to move on to second stage.
Ole Miss alum Ben Wolcott is at the same site. He’s T-65 and eight shots back of the current projected qualifying number.
Johnson wins Annika Intercollegiate
Julia Johnson is off to a hell of a start to her senior year. She just won the ANNIKA Intercollegiate and used a final round 70 to hold off South Carolina’s Hannah Darling. Johnson fired a pair of 5-under 67s in the first two rounds of this 54-hole event. The defending National Champions are going to be very good again.
On the horizon:
- Friday picks on the podcast with LBs Greg and a lot of football talk
- A couple more newsletters
That’s all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join the fun by clicking subscribe below. It’s free. Back with more tomorrow.