NCAA Football Odds: Look for Jeremiah Masoli to Start at Ole Miss

An NCAA loophole means Jeremiah Masoli is eligible at Ole Miss. (AP Images)

College football coaches are paid to win games first and foremost. That’s not exactly an earth-shattering revelation but perhaps it helps explain why Mississippi coach Houston Nutt is taking a chance on the troubled Jeremiah Masoli – and Nutt is being mostly ripped for it. Of course Masoli was a star quarterback at Oregon and would have been on any short list of Heisman candidates this year but was booted off the Ducks’ team because of some arrests and lying to school officials about it.

Nutt offered Masoli a chance to walk on and he has accepted it. Masoli can play immediately under NCAA rules because he has earned his undergraduate degree and is enrolling in graduate school. And don’t rule out Masoli winning the starting job despite the lack of time with the program -- Rebels newcomers report Aug. 8. Ole Miss of course lost two-year starter Jevan Snead to graduation and also lost top recruit QB Raymond Cotton, who recently decided to transfer. That leaves only Nate Stanley and incoming JC transfer Randall Mackey on the current roster. Both are unproven, although Stanley is the current No. 1 option after going 11-for-23 for 163 yards with a TD and interception in very limited time last year.

Masoli, meanwhile, led Oregon to its first Pac-10 title since 2001 and first Rose Bowl appearance since 1995. He threw for 2,147 yards and 15 touchdowns and rushed for 668 yards and 13 touchdowns last season.

"I told him I have zero tolerance,” Nutt said to reporters. “I have a hairtrigger. I know he knows I will pull the trigger so fast."

The Rebels open their season against Jacksonville State University on Sept. 4 and they aren’t considered much of a threat in the SEC at 40/1 on Bodog’s college football odds to win the conference after being a chic pick last year. It’s unlikely Masoli makes Ole Miss a conference contender but he certainly could make the Rebels much more dangerous.

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