The Defining Moments of 2008

As you are well aware, its February. And our basketball season has pretty much been about next year for the past two months. And we don't even have a game this week until Saturday. So naturally, we're gonna talk about football. "But" you say, "baseball's starting up soon! You could write about that!"

Well, the guys over at Red Solo Cup are cranking up the baseball coverage just fine, so feel free to peruse their pre-season takes if you're into that kind of thing. Forward Rebels, in the meantime, will do the only logical thing during this slow athletic period and look not to a preview, but to a postview. Backwards, Rebels.

Backwards to a recap of 2008 in the only way we know how. We're not going to pick some title that will tempt the Sports Deities to humiliate us for another five years. We're simply choosing a totally accurate and official list of the Eight Most Defining Plays of the 2008 Season. Note what we're not calling it. "Greatest." "Exciting." "Important." "Orgasmic." None of these adjectives will suffice.

These are plays that we believe best sum up our season. If someone were to put a gun to our head and say "HEY! You have to define Ole Miss's football season by selecting EIGHT PLAYS. Be prepared to defend your answers!!!" We'd be like "Woah. Why eight?" And they'd be like "Because it was 2008 smartass!!!" And then we'd go "OK that just seems a little arbitrary and lazy. I guess it was 2008 and all, but you'd only have to pick 2 more to get to a nice round number..." and then they'd just go "LISTEN dipshit I took Samir Husni and he said its cool to choose non-round numbers in listmaking to increase reader interest by lending an air of creditiblity to the selection process now SHUT UP and do it..." Wait what?

Anyhow, let's start with these two plays. These are listed in decending order, BTdubs, as the rest of the list will appear gradually over the next few days:

8.) Bye Bye WildBoyz. Hello WildRebel. Dexter scampers 32 yards for a TD from new-fangled offensive formation in first game of year.

Granted, in August, no one associated with Forward Rebs was doing nearly as much blog reading / message board lurking as we do right now, but we genuinely don't remember much "Wild Rebel" speculation during the preseason. Surely people were talking about this. Surely people had seen it in practices. But we just don't recall there being that much WildRebel buzz.

Whatever the case, we doubt anyone predicted the formation would debut with such a splash. Jevan had already announced his arrival with a long touchdown pass to Shay, but it was Dexter who put the Rebels up for good late in the first quarter against Memphis.

With the game tied 7-7 Dex took the snap from the shotgun formation, faked a hand off to a scampering Brandon Bolden, and darted around John Jerry's right side before turning north and covering 32 yards for the touchdown. A collective lightbulb went off in Frebs' little corner of the South Endzone. "Woah," everybody seemed to gasp simultaneously, "this could get fun." The play itself foreshadowed a diverse offense that was the lightyears smarter than the Orgeron years and a metric ton more creative than anything David Cutcliffe could envision in the midst of a mescaline binge nightmare.

In the short term, Dex's run foreshadowed the type of trickery that would lead to Bolden's 37 yard pass to Snead later in the game. For the long-term, the play announced a formation that would keep defenses on edge for the next 12 games - which was about the same amount of time it took us to truly appreciate the mad-hattery of Kent Austin.

7.) Peria Places Index Finger Over Mouth: Bryant-Denny Shushes

Of Going Down, And Going Down Swinging

Bryant-Denny Stadium is a pretty underrated place to play when it comes to toughness. No, a 2:30 October kickoff in Tuscaloosa isn't Death Valley at nightfall, but 90,000 + drunks hellbent on a perfect season is plenty enough to cause a ruckus. And you better believe they were rocking and rolling after Dexter McCluster's fumble with 12:00 minutes left in our game this past year.

Understand the context of that moment. We weren't, by any stretch of the imagination, expected to make much noise in that game or on the year. Sure, we had beaten Florida. But that game could be written off as a fluke while the South Carolina and Vandy losses were still fresh on everyone's mind. Bama was coming off upsets over Georgia and Clemson. We were staring at going below .500 on the year while they were eyeing a No. 1 ranking. Also, they put up 24 points in a very ugly first half that saw us trailing by three TDs.

The Rebels had closed the gap to 14 points in the third quarter, and had just begun to make the hometown Tide fans nervous when Dex put the ball on the ground for the umpteenth time in the still young season. Bama's coronation party was back at full force when the Tide offense took the field. Saban played it safe after a short gain on a pass play, electing to send his Senior Glen Coffee up the middle between All-American Antoine Caldwell and Outland Trophy winner Andre Smith.

The Truth shoved Caldwell with his left arm, literally put left guard Mike Johnson on his ass, and met Coffee two yards into the backfield. Coffee lost the football in the midst of that collision, and Kentrell Lockett had recovered it by the time Peria's 300 pounds came crashing down on Coffee's torso. It wasn't until Forward Rebs had replayed the play several times later that night that we realized how quickly the noise in that stadium had gone from deafening to non-existent. It was the closest thing sports can get to the scene from Animal House when Otter walks in on Otis Day and the Knights at the nightclub. Peria's hit was the 'record scratch' noise.

Anyhow, four plays later Snead hit Shay on a stop-fade in the endzone and the Rebs had closed to within one TD. We all know how that turned out, but the statement Jerry made with that one play spoke volumes about the difference in attitude this team would display for the rest of the year. It's worth noting that the Rebs wouldn't lose another game for the rest of the way. Oh to have been a fly on the wall during that Bama halftime speech.

What's that? You thought the Defining Moments would come from wins? Please. The two greatest plays of Forward Rebs' entire fanhood didn't really end ideally. We are Ole Miss, after all. Watch for the rest of the list throughout the end of this week.