That verse was never in the minds of anyone - and lots of people made their mock about it.
Two years ago, the success is no where near where I thought it could get at this point. Although I should remind you what was here two years ago:
- Pete Boone had recently resigned his post at AD (or rather forced out).
- Ole Miss Football had just gone 2-10 and Hugh Freeze was hired by a special committee.
- Ole Miss Basketball went one-and-done in the 2012 NIT.
- Ole Miss Baseball had just made it back to Regionals as a 3-seed after missing the NCAA Tournament entirely the year before.
- Ole Miss Soccer had missed the postseason for the first time in school history.
Just to add insult to injury at Oxford High 2 years ago at this time:
- Oxford had lost to Lafayette in Football 6 straight times.
- Oxford had never beaten West Point (on record anyways) in Football.
- Oxford Football was out of the playoffs entirely in 2011 prior to the 2012 season.
Since from this point two years ago, this has happened at Ole Miss and Oxford:
- Ross Bjork has been the AD at Ole Miss.
- Ole Miss Football has gone to two straight bowl games and won them both.
- Ole Miss Basketball won the SEC Tournament for the first time since 1981 and in turn clinched an NCAA birth for the first time in more than a decade.
- Ole Miss Baseball made it back to a Super Regional for the first time since 2009, and made it to Omaha for the first time since 1972.
- Sam Kendricks is a two-time NCAA Champion Pole Vaulter for Ole Miss and was at one point the No. 1 Vaulter in the world.
- Ole Miss Soccer made it back to the NCAA Tournament and advanced to the 2nd Round.
- Oxford has beaten Lafayette twice - once on National TV - and in both cases have shut them out which neither team has been able to do to the other until Oxford did so.
- Oxford has won at Lafayette for the first time since 2001.
- Oxford has beaten West Point for the first time in so many tries.
- Oxford made it to the State Title game for the first time since 2003.
- Oxford Baseball was allowed to play a playoff game inside O-U Stadium @ Swayze Field which hadn't been done with Pete Boone as AD.
It wasn't all that long ago it seems I was typing out the blog post about Ole Miss Football not being given a snail's chance two years ago (which you can read HERE). In another post, I had noted how Oxford Football got the Lafayette "monkey" off their backs. Ole Miss Football won the Egg Bowl in 2012 and got Dan the Gorilla off their backs (for the time being). Ole Miss Basketball had gotten the "NCAA Ape" off their backs when they won the SEC Tournament. If you have been following Twitter, I had to one-up those and coach Mike Bianco got "Godzilla" off him by punching that ticket to Omaha.
It's' rare that the fans are right with anything regarding coaching or calling plays in a game, but when it came to Pete Boone they were right on and his ousting was needed. It wasn't just the casual fan who once they see a losing streak wants the head coach to be fired, virtually every single person affiliated in some way with Ole Miss (including myself) as a fan or works for Ole Miss that wasn't at the top wanted change at the top.
Two years does not seem like a long time ago, but it seems like forever. The wait for Football Season is a lot shorter with all this winning that has been going on lately. Going to Omaha will do that.