Houston Nutt will have to dust off the Matt Jones playbook for Jeremiah Masoli

In a move that came as no surprise to anyone, Jeremiah Masoli has enrolled at Ole Miss and the quarterback will now get the opportunity to squeeze one more season out of his college football career.

But David Brandt of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger explains why it’s not necessarily a totally done deal as of this morning:

He has applied to enter the Parks and Recreation graduate program at Ole Miss, but hasn’t been accepted as of Sunday evening. The NCAA also has to waive a one-year residency requirement, which is usually granted if the athlete chooses a graduate program not offered at his previous school. (USA Today)

I think these are pretty much all formalities, though, unless some crusty old dean in the Parks and Recreation school starts bitching and moaning about the sanctity of his academic program being undercut by the evil specter of college athletics.  But thankfully for we college football fans, those Jan Kemp types are few and far between.  Screw book learning, I want to see that kid throw a football!

Speaking of Masoli’s on field endeavors, here’s what Brandt had to say:

The San Francisco native will almost certainly help the Rebels on the field, giving the team a dynamic 5-foot-11, 220-pound playmaker who should fit well into Nutt’s offensive system. He passed for 3,891 yards and rushed for 1,386 more during his two years with Oregon, accounting for 51 total touchdowns. (USA Today)

I wholeheartedly agree, Masoli is indeed a dynamic playmaker.  But does he fit that well into head coach Houston Nutt’s current offensive system?  The Ole Miss starter last season, Jevan Snead, bolted for the pros after a miserable junior year.  Much to Snead’s chagrin, nobody drafted him.

That was after playing two years in a college offense that was tailored to his strengths.  Here’s the problem for Nutt this close to preseason drills starting: that offense he set up for Snead doesn’t really cater to his new quarterback’s skill set.

Masoli operated almost exclusively out of the shotgun at Oregon while Snead took damn near every snap from under center at Ole Miss.  And while above average, I don’t think Masoli’s arm is suited for the type of play calling that Nutt emphasized the last two seasons.

What’s that mean?  It’s time for Nutt to pull out the playbook he had for Matt Jones during his days at Arkansas.  In that type of scheme, where a quarterback can make plays with his feet, Masoli can most certainly thrive.

But it’s a hell of a gamble trying to get everyone on the offense to switch gears in a compressed amount of time, which is what Nutt will have to do.  It’ll be very interesting to see how all of this plays out.