Ole Miss Vs. Fresno State Preview: A Long Road to Hoe for Houston Nutt; Plus, This Week's Cupcake

Mississippi Rebels vs. Fresno St. Bulldogs, 9:15 p.m. ET, ESPN2

What do you say about Ole Miss anymore? This is one of three games between now and the end of the season that look winnable for the 1-3 Rebels, and the likelihood that they sweep those games is not very large. And this might be hardest of the bunch -- on the road, against a decent WAC team, and after an 0-2 stretch to open conference play that has Ole Miss' entire season on the ropes.

And Houston Nutt seemingly standing on a knife's edge. If the Rebel Black Bears are competitive in this game, that might be enough to buy the embattled coach the rest of the season. But if they lose and lose big, he might not be the head coach by the time he disembarks from the team plane in Oxford.

It wouldn't be entirely unjustified. The Rebels are no better than 102nd in the nation in a major offensive category, and are fourth from the bottom in quarterback efficiency after yet another year of an unsettled situation under center. Nutt might have done some good things in his time at Arkansas and during his first two years with Mississippi, but things have gone downhill south.

For Pat Hill's Bulldogs, in their final season in the WAC, this is the last chance this year for a win over a BCS AQ team, something Fresno has a bit of a history of doing. Which is not to say that there's no chance the Bulldogs are going to be looking ahead. After all, next week's game against Boise State is a future Mountain West game, and another shot against a team that has too often proven to be the Bulldogs' undoing.

What might be most important, though, is that Fresno is still a team with something to play for. Ole Miss is a team that's already playing out the string, and in this case far from home. That's not enough on its own to bridge the difference between an SEC team and a WAC squad, but it's close enough.

Fresno State 39, Ole Miss 33

BONUS CUPCAKE COVERAGE: Buffalo vs. Tennessee, 12:30 p.m. ET, CSS
We don't have more than one cupcake game to protest this week, so we'll just tuck into the other nonconference game. If Buffalo's entire student body wanted seats to a home game, and no one else attended the game, only 36 would not be able to find a seat. Tennessee 35, Buffalo 10