Sunday morning coffee....

It's a rainy Sunday morning in Fondren. The coffee is hot and strong. I'm watching Ryder Cuppers start to warm up, and reflecting on what I watched last night flipping channels between the Monsoon Bowl in Hattiesburg and Ole Miss-Bama in Tuscaloosa.

• Really hard to make definitive observations about Louisville-USM because of the playing conditions, which were horrid. No. 19 Louisville waded out of The Rock with a 21-17 victory. I do know Charlie Strong, Louisville's fine coach, has to be proud of his team to come away with a victory because all the ingredients for a huge upset were present.

Looked to me like Louisville, after being gashed by USM's running game in the first half, just brought everybody to the box in the second half and dared the Eagles to throw. USM could not; not sure anybody could have in those conditions. Great effort by Elllis Johnson's team. After the Western Kentucky game I wondered if the staff might have lost the team. Clearly, they have not.

• Ole Miss, a 33-14, loser at Bama is making strides. The Rebels looked like they belonged on the same field with Alabama, the best team in the country. You have to be impressed with the coaching on both sides of the ball. Dave Wommack's defense really took it to Bama. Reminded me of the way some of Wommack's defenses played at USM.

Offensively, Ole Miss is maximizing what it has. At one point, you had a quarterback, who was playing juco ball last year, handing off to a running back, who formerly played juco quarterback, for a 10-yard touchdown against the best defense in college football. It was impressive.

Would love to be a fly on the wall in Nick Saban's film review today. He has teaching moments aplenty and will point out at length how Ole Miss out-hustled his No. 1 ranked Crimson Tide.

Never thought I'd write this in 2012 but six victories is not out of the question for Ole Miss, if the Rebels can stay healthy.