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Boise State Vs. Ole Miss. - Faulkner, Football, and The Southern Novel

"Some days in late August at home are like this, the air thin and eager like this, with something in it sad and nostalgic..." - a quote from William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury. Faulkner's alma mater is Ole Miss.

It is hoped the sound and the fury will be from BSU running backs and wide receivers streaking past flatfooted Ole Miss defenders thinking of something sad and nostalgic. And footballs like a burning missiles hiss into the sure grip of blue clad gloves (Maybe orange, wouldn‘t that be cool!).

Fury! - From the powerful rush of Boise State lineman charging like unrestrained bulls viciously snorting, pawing, and attacking trembling diminutive mortals ignorant of the power, speed, and wrath of the quickening beast as they scurry away down the streets of Pamplona.

Well, it's good to hope.

Ole Miss is stacked this year, a good team. They have recruited well the past two years. Their quarterback, Bo Wallace, is formidable. Last year he faced some of the best defenses in the nation and put up some decent numbers.

They return 16 starters, 10 on defense. This might spell problems for a BSU offense whose last two years have been Moore-less and they seemed to have lost their way.

Yet, Ole Miss has been suspending players faster than Stalin eliminated rivals during the Great Purge. It is difficult to judge the mood of the locker room and practice field from what is posted on blogs and read in newspapers, but it appears Ole Miss is concerned and not very confident.

This year's Boise State quarterback, Grant Hedrick, will have his hand on the throttle and wheel. If he comes into the season confident in his receivers and play calls he may have one of the most incredible seasons a quarterback has had at Boise. He is fast and elusive, not Johnny Manziel-like, but a problem for over-reactive defenses.

Likely Ole Miss will key on Jay Ajayi, who in the past has had problems hanging onto the ball. If Ole Miss tacklers spend their time reaching and grabbing for the ball in an effort to strip it, Ajayi may very well end up with a 200 + yard night.

On paper it looks like an Ole Miss comfortable win. Games are not played on paper. One must be pragmatic. Yet, there is a part to pragmatism that cast hard cold logic aside. There are incalculable variances and possibilities in football. It is like chess; one wrong move by the stronger player detected and exploited by the weaker can mean "mate" for the grandmaster. Football is like speed chess.

Great players emerge from great games. They raise from the wind blown dust and arid flat landscape just beyond Boise. They are created from will, determination, blisters, sweat, tears, blood, mud, grit, and dreams. They quietly assert themselves like a constant gentle snow that becomes a terrifying avalanche.

My fondest hope is that former Boise head coach Chris Petersen will be sitting alone in his entertainment room, wearing purple boxers, guzzling a six pack of Olympia and saying, "I should have stayed another year," as the announcer says, "That's about it for tonight here in Atlanta with Boise State dominating Ole Miss 41 - 21."

Faulkner's writing had a depressing reality; there is little hope in change for the better, life proceeds at a pace too slow for living it with any interest. His style became the epitome of the southern novel. This is a reality I hope to see from Ole Miss during the second possession of the second half; "it takes an awful lot of character to quit anything when you're losing" - Absalom, Absalom, William Faulkner.

This content was not created by OBNUG and therefore may not meet our standards. On the contrary, it probably exceeds them.

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