Szvetitz: Focus not on Ole Miss yet

HOOVER — Houston, we have a problem.

We can’t hear you over all noise coming from outside the room.

What’s that? You’re Ole Miss team is the favorite in the SEC West?

Huh? The Rebels are a top-five preseason pick?

Excuse me? Did you say “I think our team is on the rise. There’s some good things that are happening” during your meeting with the press Thursday at
SEC Media Days?

You’ll have to forgive us Coach Nutt, we’re really trying to pay attention, but we just can’t. Did you know Nick Saban is in the building?

Oh, you did? Yeah, I know, the four fully armed guards escorting him through the mass of Crimson humanity in the lobby was hard to miss. Oh, yeah, and the camera guys are pretty vicious, too. They’d knock over their own mother just to get a shot of Saban walking (excuse me, gliding) from the radio room to the print room.

He’s just so popular.

“My daddy always says, ‘You only have a problem if no one’s asking for your autograph,’” Saban said Thursday. “When there’s not a stir downstairs, I got problems.”

What do you think, Coach?

Wait, say that again, we missed that last comment because we were trying to keep track of where Urban Meyer is. Wait, he’s still at Florida. Right?

OK, carry on.

Mr. Nutt, again, all our apologies. It sounded like you said you’re excited about this football team and this season, and you’re ready to face all the challenges that come along with all this hype, but we were distracted by Tim Tebow’s smile.

Yeah, we like him, too. He’s just such a good kid. And sweet. The kind of guy you’d want your daughters to marry, right?

He’s a man of his word, that’s for sure. Especially the promise he made after you guys beat him last season.

“What you love about Tim Tebow, not only does he make the promise, he carries it out, and he puts his team on his back,” Nutt said. “It was awesome. I have an awesome respect for that.”

Again, Houston, we’re trying to take you and your Rebels seriously this season, because you do have a lot of talent returning and you guys should be able to build on the success you had last year (remember, you won your last six games, were the only team to beat Florida, and one of seven teams to beat Auburn), but we just can’t stop thinking about which coach didn’t vote for Tebow as the SEC’s No. 1 quarterback in the preseason poll.

It wasn’t you, was it?

“I voted him first team. I think Langston Rogers, my SID, will verify that.”

OK, just checking.

You sure? OK, OK, we believe you.

But you should be used to having people second guess you, I mean, we’ve been doing it all offseason. You know you’ve heard it all before: Nutt can’t win when he’s the favorite. He’s never been able to handle the pressure. He’s better at being an underdog than the top dog.

“I think if you go back and look at the times we were picked high … we had some major injuries. Not as an excuse, but part of it. It’s a blow.,” he said. “I disagree with that a little bit. But if you go back and study it, you’ll see some major contributors weren’t on the field.

“(After the season we had last year) … there’s going to be some attention. Now you got to embrace it, handle it. The way you handle it is going to work.” 

And we’d love to talk to you all about it, really, because your team will probably be one of the most interesting stories in college football this year, but Nick Saban just adjusted his tie, so … we gotta go.
MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at or 737-2513.