Rebels Better Prove To Be Ready For Prime Time

There are all kinds of pressure to deal with during an SEC football season. The hostile crowd full of drunken cajuns during a Saturday night game in Baton Rouge. Alabama's front seve on defense or high powered passing games such as those featured by Florida or even the Razorbacks.

You've got a murderers row of head coaches to face in Saban, Richt, Miles, Meyer, Spurrier and Petrino. The defenses are tough and the offensive rosters are bursting at the seams with future all-pro talent.

So with all that pressure why would a coach want to add to it by placing his team under even more of a spotlight by putting them on a Reality TV program?

Ole Miss Head Coach Houston Nutt in his infinite wisdom decided to do just that committing the Rebs to take part in a reality TV show on the Tru Tv cable network.

The stated focus of the program according to a press release from Union Square Sports and Entertainment Corp. was to deal with the trials and tribulations of current and incoming football players attempting to make the starting rotation. It also states that it will follow the coaching staff and players both on and off the field and behind the scenes.

Now to his credit Nutt was at least smart enough to only agree to this dog and pony show being filmed during fall camp so at least it won't be a constant distraction during the entire season.

It's not the 10 people that regularly watch the Tru Tv cable network that are the problem. Neither is it the Mississippi State fans that will be watching while hoping to spot violations or a train wreck.

No, the problem will be with the Ole Miss fans that are likely to religiously follow the show.

Is it really wise though to take a program that's coming off its best season in years and put it under the microscope during what many consider the building block to a teams success, fall camp.

It might be different if the Rebels program were firmly established as a winner in the SEC, used to winning championships or at the least division titles then maybe you could justify it by the looking at the positive recruiting advantages that could positively spring from it.

Therein lies the problem. There are no guarantees of the Rebels season being any more than what they experienced last year and with the heightened expectations they'll be facing this season that's not likely to be near good enough.

Sure they have the junior college out of conference schedule to fall back on and yes they have tons of talent at the skill positions including maybe the best drop back passer in the conference.

Don't beat the likes of Alabama and LSU or stumble against the likes of South Carolina or Vandy, much as they did last year, and all the hope and expectations of the Rebel fans will quickly crumble. Fail to even live up to last year and it might get really ugly.

By engaging in the distraction of placing his team on Reality TV Nutt has set himself up for the criticism that is sure to come with it if his team fails to live up to it's hype on the field. Sort of high risk, low reward.

Rebels fans better hope there's no fall cancellation.