Nutt like Shackelford (a lot)

Speaking on his turn of the SEC media teleconference, Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt was asked about freshman linebacker D.T. Shackelford, a 2009 graduate of Austin High School. The coach no doubt had plenty of love for his young defender.

“Well, I’ll tell you, I’ve never seen a young man come in here as a true freshman in the summertime, and just fit in so well. Everything is ‘Yes sir, no sir.’ He’s so far ahead of so many of the freshman. (He’s) a tremendous leader, tremendous passion.

“His high school coach said that from Day 1. It’s the best player he’s ever coached. He hustles, his attitude. That’s what he has: He has tremendous attitude with tremendous passion and he caught onto everything.

“It’s a shame he got hurt. I hope he will eventually get back to full speed. He has a very high ankle sprain and he was an exceptional player on special teams and we’ve had him in the rotation.”

About Shackleford’s recruitment:

“He had originally committed to Tennessee and I think we won the family. We won the mother, the dad. We convinced him this was their best home, that we were going to treat him like he was our own son. He felt good. He’s always felt good about Ole Miss when he got on campus. He always felt good about our academic support group, but once I got in that living room there in that last week, and we convinced his mom and dad this is his home and this is where he needs to be.

Gamesmanship in Oxford?

In an interesting twist, Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt closed practice to the media for the rest of the week. That’s a first in his short tenure in Oxford.

Is it gamesmanship? Are they working on trick plays? Is it all smoke and mirrors?

I guess that will be a secret since the Great Wall of Secrecy has now been erected around the Rebel practice fields.

From reading this blog by Ole Miss beat writer David Brandt of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, reporters typically saw 30 minutes of practice. It mostly consisted of stretching and warm-up drills. So the question is why send such a message?

We haven’t been closed off from the eight or so minutes we see Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

Austin’s Shackleford is Ole Miss ‘Wild Man’

Just doing a little research on Alabama’s next opponent when I came across a nice story about a local making a big impact as a Rebel freshman. D.T. Shackelford, an Austin High School graduate, is enjoying his big year after flying under the recruiting radar.

Read more about his recruitment and first few games at Ole Miss by clicking here. You’ll read about the “Wild Man” nickname his teammates gave him.

It’s not all good news for the former Black Bear. Rebel coach Houston Nutt talked about injuries to Shackelford (sprained ankle) and teammate Andy Hartmann in his Monday news conference.

“They both jogged around a little bit better yesterday. I hope they get a little bit better by tomorrow. We will see how they practice. We are planning on both of those guys practicing. We will see how that goes. They are looking better. You just don’t know how close to full-speed they are. We planned on playing D.T. but he just couldn’t cut.”