McCready: 10 Weekend Thoughts, presented by Harry Alexander

Ole Miss’ Elijah Moore looks for running room after making a catch in the Rebels’ 51-35 loss to Florida Saturday in Oxford. (Associated Press)

1. Football is back in the Southeastern Conference.

Just as we expected, I suppose, it looks weird. It definitely sounds different. But it’s still fun, and on Saturday, it was at the very least a much desired small dose of normalcy.

It’s fun today to do overreactions one day after the start of the season. It’s a helluva lot more fun than talking about viruses and social justice protests.

So, with 10 percent of the season in the books, here are a few overreactions from me:

— LSU can talk about talent all it would like, but I know what I saw Saturday. That is a very average SEC team. The Tigers have average quarterback play and they’re vulnerable on the back end on defense. A winning record isn’t guaranteed in Baton Rouge.

— Mississippi State is interesting. Yes, it’s Mike Leach’s offense, one that is almost completely reliant on the pass. K.J. Costello can spin it. Kylin Hill is a threat and the Bulldogs play with some edge on defense. Mississippi State won’t be an easy out.

— Tennessee is steady but not spectacular. The question going into Week 1 was about the Vols’ ability to be the third-best team in the SEC East. The answer, I think, is affirmative.

— Auburn and Georgia have defenses that are going to keep those teams in games. Bo Nix has made improvements. Georgia has quarterback issues. The Bulldogs need J.T. Daniels to get ready fast.

— Florida’s Kyle Trask is the real deal, and the Gators’ collection of wide receivers are incredibly talented.

— I hereby resolve to never fall for the Texas A&M preseason hype ever again. Ever.

2. Ole Miss football is fun again.

After years of NCAA turmoil, coaches on the hot seat and seasons that felt like drudgery, Ole Miss is, at the very least, a fun, compelling story again.

Lane Kiffin gets it. He wears a baseball jersey to the game. He gives shout outs to Barstool Sports and the late Kobe Bryant with his face masks. Kiffin knows how to relate to young people, and his rebuild of the Ole Miss program is going to be built around relating to young people. There are no guarantees in sports. It might work. It might not. Based on what I saw Saturday, I’m not betting against Kiffin.

Some other observations from Ole Miss’ end of a 51-35 loss to Florida:

— Matt Corral looked the part. Kiffin and Jeff Lebby set him up for early success and it looked like Corral gained confidence as the day went along. By the end, he was making plays. There were times Florida could have blown the game open but Corral never let it happen. Instead, he made play after play.

— Jerrion Ealy and Elijah Moore are studs, and Kiffin/Lebby spent Saturday getting them the football. That’s what good play-callers do.

— Kenny Yeboah is a weapon at tight end. Look for him to be more involved earlier in games, starting with Saturday’s contest at Kentucky.

— Ole Miss was really good up front on the offensive side of the ball Saturday. Corral was protected well and there were running lanes for running backs. Florida is good. Don’t let anyone tell you the Gators aren’t. The Rebels’ offense is going to be explosive, I suspect.

— The defense needs a talent infusion. It’s as simple as that. Kiffin and Co. are going to mine the grad transfer and transfer market next spring and summer, I would think. The speed of the rebuild will be dependent on attracting defensive talent.

— Multiple games are winnable. With that defense, of course, they’re losable too. It should be an entertaining season.

— If I’m a recruit, I’m intrigued, at the very least.

3. Here’s my weekly ranking of the SEC:

1. Alabama — The Tide was terrific for a half at Missouri.

2. Florida — I’m enamored with Trask and those Gators receivers.

3. Auburn — The Tigers are solid; they’ll get tested at Georgia Saturday.

4. Mississippi State — Laugh all you might like, but the Bulldogs were impressive in Baton Rouge.

5. Georgia — Kirby Smart’s team was in some trouble in the third quarter in Fayetteville.

6. Tennessee — The Vols are good. Not great, but good.

7. Kentucky — I know the Wildcats lost at Auburn, but they put up a strong effort for the better part of three quarters.

8. LSU — This is benefit-of-the-doubt stuff here. I think I know what I saw.

9. Texas A&M — See No. 8.

10. Ole Miss — The Rebels’ offense was impressive. The defense has work to do.

11. The Gamecocks could’ve beaten Tennessee. This far into the Will Muschamp era, could’ve and should’ve won’t satisfy.

12. Missouri — The Tigers did some things in the second half they could possibly build on.

13. Vanderbilt — The Commodores were in it in the fourth quarter in College Station. Color me shocked.

14. Arkansas — The Hogs aren’t good, but they’re better than they’ve been. Of course, I don’t think they believe that yet.

4. I could never have an Associated Press Top 25 ballot. No way. After all, I’m just a scrub running a fan site and hosting a potato log podcast. But if I had a ballot, mine would look like this today:

1. Clemson

2. Alabama

3. Florida

4. Miami

5. Notre Dame

6. Auburn

7. UCF

8. Mississippi State

9. Georgia

10. Virginia Tech

11. North Carolina

12. Cincinnati

13. Tennessee

14. BYU

15. Texas

16. Memphis

17. Oklahoma State

18. Louisiana-Lafayette

19. Pittsburgh

20. Marshall

21. SMU

22. Virginia

23. Arkansas State

24. UAB

25. Kentucky

5. The NBA Finals begin this weekend in The Bubble in Orlando. The Los Angeles Lakers have won the Western Conference and the Miami Heat finished off the Boston Celtics Sunday night to set up an intriguing championship series.

My pick, as crazy as it sounds: Heat in 7.

6. The Major League Baseball regular season, all 60 games of it, ended Sunday.

First, credit goes to MLB for getting it done. There were COVID setbacks and pressure to cancel, but the league held firm and got a season in, helping blaze a trail for other sports leagues, including college football.

Here are my individual award winners:

American League Rookie of the Year: Kyle Lewis, Seattle

American League Manager of the Year: Rick Renteria, Chicago White Sox

American League Cy Young Award: Shane Bieber, Cleveland

American League MVP: Jose Ramirez, Cleveland

National League Rookie of the Year: Jake Cronenworth, San Diego

National League Manager of the Year: Don Mattingly, Miami

National League Cy Young Award: Trevor Bauer, Cincinnati

National League MVP: Freddie Freeman, Atlanta

7. The Major League Baseball playoffs begin Tuesday with an expanded, best-of-three first round. The eight winners will then go to “bubbles” in California and Texas for the traditional playoff format.

Here are my sure-to-go-wrong predictions for the first round series:

American League:

Rays over Blue Jays in 2

A’s over White Sox in 2

Twins over Astros in 3

Indians over Yankees in 3

National League:

Dodgers over Brewers in 3

Braves over Reds in 3

Cubs over Marlins in 3

Padres over Cardinals in 3

8. I won’t belabor this point, but I’ve been bothered by both sides of the social protest story on Saturday in Oxford.

Before the opening kickoff, players and coaches from both Ole Miss and Florida took a knee in protest of social and racial injustice in the United States.

The two teams decided before the game to make a unified gesture and released a statement about their actions Saturday morning.

“As members of the Florida and Ole Miss football teams, we recognize the impact of our personal platforms and are choosing to amplify the issues that directly impact us,” the teams said in their statement. “Together we have chosen to take the opening series of today’s competition to acknowledge the unrest in our country surrounding the treatment of African Americans. We will continue to support social justice efforts as members of the Southeastern Conference and members of our respective communities.”

Not that my opinion matters, but I fully support that peaceful gesture. The players had every right to come together to make a statement.

However, I also have no problem with those at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium who booed that gesture. That’s the beauty of the First Amendment. Players can peacefully express a protest before playing a game while fans in attendance can voice their displeasure with that expression before watching said game. The two things are not and don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

Burton Webb authors Taste of the Place each week on 10 Weekend Thoughts.
Burton Webb authors Taste of the Place each week on 10 Weekend Thoughts.

9. Let’s eat. Here’s our resident Parisian chef, Burton Webb, with Taste of the Place, Lesson 55 — Vegetable Soup (Kitchen Sink Soup)

Lo and behold it is soup weather again! A staple in any southern kitchen is this soup, or a variation of this soup. Yes, my mom puts hamburger meat in hers, so technically it isn’t a vegetarian soup… It is still good though.

Once you make this hearty soup for the fall season, you can have it for the spring as well with one simple addition, lemon juice. Some recipes are only made at certain times throughout the year. This one, you can alter for two seasons.

Tidbit #1: You might think that your grandmother or someone who cooked vegetable soup went and bought all of the ingredients that day to make the soup that night. Wrong! This soup is usually all of the left-over vegetables in the fridge with some can of tomatoes. So yes, you can put any amount of vegetables in it that you want. Just try to go with a one to one ratio for all of them.

Tidbit #2: Whenever you make soup, it always needs time to cook. So do not be in a rush to have it ready. It is the same equivalent to BBQ, low and slow. Plus, the soup is always better the next day once the flavors have been given a full 12-24 hours to marinate together.

Tidbit #3: As you cook items in a pan or pot, you have two methods: sweating or frying. The difference is the temperature. When you sweat onions for example, it will be on medium heat. It will slowly cook them to extract all of their juices.

Things you will need:

4-6 People

1.5 Hours

Glass of Pinot Grigio with lemon notes

Equipment needed:

1 Work surface with a chef’s knife

1 Large saucepot with lid

1 Vegetable peeler

1 Wooden Spoon

Measuring Cups of 1 cup, 1 tbsp and 1 tsp

1 Stove top

2 Medium mixing bowls

1 Tasting spoon

1 Side plate

Ingredients needed:

2 Large yellow onion, medium diced

2 Carrots peeled and medium diced

2 Stalks of celery, medium diced

1 Cup of white cooking wine

2 Tbsp of dried oregano

4 Roma tomatoes, medium diced

2 16-ounce cans of whole tomatoes

5 Small red potatoes, large diced

1 16-ounce can of yellow corn

1 Tsp salt

1 Tsp black pepper

1 Bouillon vegetable stock

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp butter

Water from the faucet

Directions:

Step 1: Ensure that all of your vegetables are cleaned and peeled. Dice your Roma tomatoes and set in one of the mixing bowls. Add water to the second mixing bowl and place your diced potatoes in it. Set the other vegetables to the side of the work station.

Step 2: Place your saucepot on the oven eye and turn to medium heat. Let it heat up for 3 minutes before adding the butter and olive oil. Add your carrots and begin to sweat them for 4 minutes. Add your celery, continue sweating for 3 minutes. Then finally add your onions and dried oregano. Continue to sweat for 5 minutes.

Step 3: Add your wine to the saucepot. Cook until most of the liquid has evaporated from the bottom of the sauce pot. About 5 minutes.

Step 4: Add the cans of tomatoes, the diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to the pot. Let cook for 15 minutes.

Step 5: Now, add the vegetable stock bouillon along with the diced potatoes and the corn.

Step 5.1: Pour enough water to cover all of the ingredients in the saucepot by 2 inches.

Step 5.2: Increase the heat to medium-high so that the mixture will come to a boil. Once the soup boils, reduce the heat to medium low. Place the lid on top and let cook for 30 minutes.

Step 6: After the cooking process has been completed, take the lid off. Very carefully, take a spoon and dip into the soup, place on your side plate to cool down. Taste. Then adjust for more salt and pepper to your liking. And there you go, you’re ready to have some great soup with the weather finally cooling down. Happy SEC first week! From the Mississippian in Amsterdam, Bon Appétit!

10. We’ll have coverage of Ole Miss’ trip to Kentucky Saturday, recruiting and more this week on RebelGrove.com, beginning with Monday’s media opportunity. Until then, here are some links (this week it’s mostly tweets) of interest to me — and hopefully, to you — for your reading pleasure:

Staples: It felt normal at Auburn on Saturday, and this Tigers team feels special – The Athletic

COVID Test Human Error Blamed For Canceling Georgia State-Charlotte Game – OutKick


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