ESPN Could Have Saved Themselves Some Time

Earlier today, Edward Aschoff, one of ESPN's two SEC bloggers, posted his team rankings of defensive backs in the conference.  At the top of that list, the usuals, Alabama and LSU.  At the bottom of that list, and whatever the exact opposite of shockingly is, raise that to the six billionth power and that's the word I'm looking for, is Ole Miss.  Even giving them the number 12 is probably a little too generous.

12. Ole Miss: This group had to hear about how it was the goat of last season’s 4-8 campaign after allowing 246 passing yards a game. It was a motivational tool this spring, but there’s a lot of work to do. New defensive backs coach Keith Burns was pleased with the spring progress and really liked how JUCO transfer Wesley Pendleton played at corner. He’s competing to take one of those spots from either Marcus Temple, who missed spring with injury, or Charles Sawyer, who had to be pushed at times this spring. The reliable Damien Jackson is back at safety and could line up next to Brishen Mathews, who got good playing time last season, but is still unproven. JUCO transfer Ivan Nicholas and freshman Cliff Coleman will compete for time at safety and corner, respectively.

Instead of spending 134 words saying, well, they were terrible last year, but now they have some new guys who we know nothing about, and they may not be as terrible, but there's only four cornerbacks on scholarship and two of those have never played in a college football game, this picture would have offered a much more succinct and accurate summary of the Ole Miss secondary: