As former players, we sort of stand back. But here's one time I'm
going to say how I've been feeling the last three, four or five years.
It's going to be my first time saying it. It's going to be my last
time saying it. Here goes:
University of Mississippi Romaro Miller
played for Tommy Tuberville and David Cutcliffe at Ole Miss, helping
the Rebels to four bowl bids during his career.We've got a major
problem at Ole Miss. Everybody talks about how it starts from the top
down. Right now we have the most divided fan base I've seen probably
in football history. Dan Jones has been here 2-3 years and he has
shredded every bit of school spirit we have out of this fan base. Can
he repair it? I think it's beyond repair by him. Now you go to the
next guy, Pete
Boone. Listen to all the ex-coaches. You've got
Tuberville's staff of 10 guys and 10 guys don't like him. You've got
Cutcliffe's staff of 10 guys that don't like him. You're got Orgeron's
staff of 10 guys that don't him. You've got Nutt's staff, and I'm
hearing there are a lot of problems with those 10 guys. So roughly
you've got 44 coaches out there throughout the country who really have
a problem with Pete Boone. If we fire Nutt and let's say we call
Kirby Smart, Kirby Smart is going to call one of these 44 coaches and
these coaches are going to tell him, "Do not come to Ole Miss." So if
Houston Nutt is gone, can Pete Boone go out and make the right hire? I
don't know. As for the coaches, I could care less about Nutt and his
staff. One thing that we've shown in the past is if you don't win
football games at Ole Miss, you're going to get fired. So at the end
of the year if we end up 2-10 or whatever, Houston Nutt will take care
of himself. Being an ex-player, I support the players 130 percent.
Each player that we have on our team had an option to go to another
school. They made a commitment to go to Ole Miss and as a university,
we repay them by giving them a coaching staff that with a minute to go
before halftime runs the ball up the middle with Enrique Davis and
gets stopped at midfield? It blew my mind but it didn't surprise me.
It's what we've been saying all year. A friend was talking to me
about Garrett Gilbert (the former
Texas quarterback who recently
announced he's leaving the Longhorns' program). He said, "Man, do you
think we ought to go get Gilbert?" The guy actually knows the kid. I
said, "Man, I would not let that kid come to Ole Miss. We have no
identity. I don't know if we're a drop-back team, a spread team. We
don't even know what we are." I'm 33. I have a lot of friends who are
55 or 60. They all say, "Ro, I've been following Ole Miss football a
long time. The way you're feeling right now, I've been feeling that
for a long time. I don't know if we'll ever win." I told my wife, "I
don't want to look back when I'm 55 and 60 thinking the same thing."
This morning, me and one of my buddies were walking our dogs. We saw a
guy with an Ole Miss shirt on. I said, "Man, how's it going?" He
said, "Man, I could complain, but I don't think anybody will listen." I
think that pretty much sums it up for our entire fan base. Everybody
knows there is a problem. Everybody's complaining. But the leadership
we have, they don't hear and couldn't care less to hear it. Former
players in the NFL say they're from their high school rather than Ole
Miss. There's a disconnect between the administration and fans.
There's a disconnect between the administration and former players. So
it doesn't surprise me when they claim their high school and not Ole
Miss. There comes a point where if you love the university, you have
to do right by the university. We've got a lot of people running the
university who couldn't care less. The only thing they care about is
their check. And it's time for them to go. Being an ex-player, I talk
to a lot of alumni. I know so many who have stopped donating to the
university. Each alumnus needs to ask themselves how many alumni do
they know who have stopped donating. I was one of the first to sign
on to Forward Rebels. People talk about Forward Rebels and say they're
bad guys, the message is wrong, this and that. My thing is when
Forward Rebels came out with that first ad, it took the chancellor two
weeks to come out with a reply. In his reply, he didn't say anything
about fixing the problem. He said Forward Rebels were evil men. Now
Forward Rebels are growing. You've got LSU fans posting, talking
about they hate seeing what's going on at Ole Miss. You've got
Alabama
fans on Forward Rebels talking about how they hate to see our
tradition being ruined like it is right now. That's tough. Everybody
can see it. You've got all these national articles talking about Ole
Miss and leadership. Sooner or later, there comes a point where if
you love the university, you have to do what's best. Right now, our
leadership is not doing the right thing by the fan base. I have no
confidence. I hate to sound defeated. Eventually it's going to change,
but I hope it's in my prime years. I was asked if I'm hopeless. I
think a change is going to come, but I just don't know when. I love
this school to death. I love those players to death. But I told my
wife Thursday, "After this Alabama game, we have to really evaluate
whether we're going to come back to the
Arkansas game." For me to
think like that, what does that say? It has nothing to do with what
happened on the football field. Alabama has a great team. My thing is,
even if we were losing and everybody was doing what's right for the
university, I would feel a lot better. But when you go down there and
you support and give your last dollar and your last nickel like a lot
of our fans are doing and see the lack of effort, the lack of
leadership from your chancellor, your A.D., your coaches and even the
people behind the scenes, you have to ask, "Do I come and continue to
support this or do I try to reach the leadership another way by not
coming to the ballgames?" I'm quite sure I'm not the only one asking
himself that. Starting this morning until Saturday at 11, my family
and I and a lot of alumni, we have some major decisions we have to
make. Honestly, right now, I don't know. The only thing that keeps me
around is my love for those football players. Those guys, regardless
of what happened Saturday, they deserve way better than what we're
giving. These players could have gone to Alabama, to
Auburn, to
Tennessee. They chose to come to Ole Miss, and look how we repay them.
Dan Jones has a chance to either build his legacy or hurt it the
next 2-3 months. He can either make all the right moves and go down as
one of the best chancellors ever or he can stay the course with what
he's doing right now and go down as the worst.
