BARNEStorming: Ole Miss vs. Tulane and thoughts around the college football world

OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss has gotten off to a 2-0 start in Southeastern Conference play and steps out of the league this week.

With LSU looming next week at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, it would be easy to look past a Group of Five opponent Saturday.

Rebels, do not sleep on Tulane.

This one is big for Tulane, a win over a ranked Ole Miss would the Green Wave in the driver’s seat for a College Football Playoff berth.

Coach Jon Sumrall, a former Ole Miss assistant, is a hot commodity. Every big school athletic director tunes into Tulane games in hopes Sumrall would be interested in his future coaching vacancy.

Tulane has a lot to play for this week.

ANOTHER GOOD GAME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Saturday, Arkansas will look to put the Ole Miss loss in the past when the Razorbacks go to Memphis.

Like Tulane, the Tigers can stay in the playoff hunt. Memphis and Tulane are in the same conference and play one another in November. The Tigers also play a one-loss South Florida.

Memphis-Arkansas is televised and it is a good thing. The Liberty Bowl Stadium is under renovation so the capacity this season is only 30,000.

EARLY COACHING VACANCIES

Last week, UCLA and Virginia Tech decided to fire their coaches after only three games. With most possible coaching candidates still playing through the end of the season, who will these two try to pursue?

For Virgiinia Tech, the Hokies must make a run at South Carolina’s Shane Beamer. The son of Tech’s hall of fame coach, Frank Beamer, the Gamecocks’ coach could be lured home.

But he has a good thing going in Columbia, so it is unlikely. Also unlikely is former Hokies’ star Michael Vick. He is now the head coach at Norfolk State but is too inexperienced for the Virginia Tech job.

Two candidates who are available immediately are Jon Gruden and Jimbo Fisher. Gruden has been unofficially campaigning for a new job and Fisher is a native of West Virginia.

One thing Tech has going against it is it has the lowest operating budget for a football program at a public Atlantic Coast Conference school.

UCLA is at the bottom of the Big Ten now, and like VT, the Bruins do not have the excess resources to throw at the football program.

Gruden would be a splash hire, but one that makes more sense is Dan Mullen. He is currently at UNLV, a team that beat UCLA two weeks ago. Besides UNLV, he has coached at Mississippi State, so he knows how to build a program with limited resources.

ANOTHER OPENING SOON?

Could Florida have a coaching vacancy in the near future? The Gators have lost to South Florida at home and LSU in Baton Rouge. It does not get any easier for coach Billy Napier. This week the Gators have a trip to Miami followed by games with Texas and Texas A&M.

Again, Gruden, who lives in Tampa, would be a splash hire.

But how about Washington’s Jedd Fisch? A quality coach who happens to be a graduate of the University of Florida.

Or, perhaps Tulane’s Sumrall, mentioned above. Coach Kiffin, when asked about the Green Wave head coach on this week’s SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday, said he believes the Tulane head coach is on track to head an SEC program in the near future.

“It’s funny you bring that up,” Kiffin said. “I told my staff yesterday, I said, ‘I feel like I’m going to be in head coaches meetings in the conference’ — I think our first one is in January — ‘with Coach Sumrall.’ So, it’s funny you bring that up.”

AN UNEVEN SWAP

In the offseason, former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava transferred to UCLA. Prior to the start of the spring drills in Los Angeles, Joey Aguilar joined the Bruins from Appalachian State. Once Nico went west, Joey came east to Tennessee.

Iamaleava has thrown for 608 yards with three touchdowns and three interceptions. He has also been sacked six times.

Since UCLA fired coach DeShawn Foster, Nico has the chance to transfer again. His performance with the Bruins may limit his options. But the point of the transfer out west was money and he cannot complain about that. His NIL was reportedly $1.2 million. To put that into context, his deal was worth $400k for each of the touchdowns he threw for the Bruins.

Aguilar has thrown for 906 yards, nine touchdowns and two picks while only getting sacked one time.

Another big difference between the two quarterbacks is Tennessee played Georgia last week with over 100,000 fans in Neyland Stadium.

Last week, UCLA lost to New Mexico in the Rose Bowl in front of a whopping 31,000 fans.