USA Today reported that Mississippi football fans are not happy with their team's performance, and head football coach Houston Nutt is receiving (and to his credit taking) much of the blame. Given his salary of $2,500,000, Ole Miss fans may well be wondering what they are getting for all of those dollars. So let's take a look at how well Mississippi (Ole Miss) has done during Houston Nutt's four year tenure in terms of their productivity.
In 2008, Mississippi won 8 regular season games (plus their bowl game against Texas Tech), finished as the 29th ranked offense; and the 22nd ranked defense and as the 25th overall ranked team in terms of production for that season.
In 2009, Mississippi won 8 regular season games (plus their bowl game against Oklahoma State), finished as the 48th ranked offense; and the 18th ranked defense and as the 29th overall ranked team in just production for that season.
In 2010, Mississippi won 4 regular season games (no bowl game), finished as the 72nd ranked offense; and the 97th ranked defense and as the 87th overall ranked team in terms of production.
This year Mississippi is currently 2-3 overall (with wins over Southern Illinois, a non-FBS team, and Fresno St., which is currently ranked 85th in the nation in terms of their overall productivity), and 0-2 in the SEC. Ole Miss is currently the 105th ranked offense; and the 70th ranked defense and as the 96th overall ranked team in terms of production - all well below average. On top of that, it is not as if Ole Miss has had that tough a schedule to date. In fact, they have had one of the easiest schedules in the SEC so far. It will only get more difficult as Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, LSU and Mississippi State are upcoming and not looking favorable for Mississippi.