ESPN College Football

Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low

Nobody really remembers the first half of Ole Miss’ season a year ago.

The truth is that it was pretty ordinary. The Rebels killed themselves with turnovers and lost at home to South Carolina and Vanderbilt.

But tucked in the middle of all that mediocrity was the huge upset win at Florida in September, providing a glimpse of what the Rebels were capable of and offering hope for the rest of the season.

The Rebels (4-2, 1-2) find themselves in a similar situation this year as they get ready to kick off the second half of the season Saturday at home against Arkansas.

The only difference is that they’ve yet to beat anybody that counts.

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt readily admits that he’s disappointed with the season to this point, but he’s not disappointed with this team.

“I think we played two good football teams and I think that is the bottom line,” Nutt said of Ole Miss’ losses to Alabama and South Carolina. “I don’t really worry about anything else except for the next game. You just want to get better each week. You’re disappointed because you wanted to win those games, but you can’t do anything about that now. It’s time to move forward, and I think our guys did that last week and we got better.”

The Arkansas game is where it turned around for Ole Miss a year ago. An emotional Nutt went back home to the Ozarks and squeaked out a 23-21 win, and the Rebels never lost again.

It was also the start of Jevan Snead’s brilliant close to the season. He threw 16 touchdown passes and just three interceptions during Ole Miss’ winning streak. He’s thrown 12 touchdowns and nine interceptions in his first six games this season.

“I definitely think that it was kind of our springboard game and kind of got us on a roll,” Snead said of the win over the Hogs last season. “I’m hoping last week may have been that game for us this year and we can pick up and get rolling. I know they’re going to play with a lot of intensity.”

At this point, it’s almost a game Ole Miss has to win to keep this season from being anything other than a huge disappointment. A second straight SEC loss at home could easily send the Rebels on a downward spiral that could end with five or six losses.

But a win could help uncover that team a lot of people picked in the Top 10 to start the season.

“If you recall, we went to Atlanta twice (at Arkansas) and one of those times, there were three losses involved,” said Nutt, ever the optimist. “This league is so crazy any given Saturday. You just can’t say that it’s locked up and done, not in this league. You can’t do it. I think you just keep working hard and see what happens.”