If there's one player I can't wait to see in action Thursday night, it's the new and improved Dr. Bo. All signs point to this being a great season for Wallace. He has two years of experience, is surrounded by dynamic play makers and he's finally healthy. I'm expecting big things from Wallace this year. Really big things.
"I like the demeanor he has right now," Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. "I like the leadership he’s trying to show and the way he’s studying film. It’s his last chance and he has a chance to do something special, and when you talk about putting him in the arena of breaking records from a guy like Eli Manning that’s pretty lofty. He has those chances."
It's been an up and down ride for Wallace in his first two seasons at Ole Miss. Although he's set records, led the Rebels to consecutive winning seasons and two bowl games, there have also been the interceptions, the loss to Mississippi State and the shoulder injury that just wouldn't go away, but Freeze is right when he reminds people that there's no way Ole Miss goes to two bowls games without Bo Wallace.
Wallace played hurt for much of the 2012 season, had shoulder surgery immediately after the season and was forced to sit out the spring. He was never able to fully strengthen the shoulder for the 2013 season, and though Wallace still put up big numbers, his deteriorating arm strength hampered his play. But those days are finally in the rear view mirror. This off-season Wallace worked out, added a few pounds and even worked with throwing mechanics guru Tom House out in California. After all that Wallace entered August healthy for the first time since he was a junior college transfer competing with Barry Brunetti for the starting job, and all that work paid off.
"I have a lot more confidence this year because I feel like I have had a great camp," Wallace said. "Last year, I felt like I didn’t have a good camp at all. It took me two or three weeks to really get back in the groove of things. From day one, I felt good, and I still feel good. I’m excited about going out there and playing.”
Healthy shoulder aside, the end of Wallace's college career is now out over the horizon, and that knowledge has also been a powerful motivator. Wallace enters his senior season more focused than he's ever been.
"It’s crazy," Wallace said. "You see your last year coming and you see your goals that you want to accomplish. You kind of self-reflect and look at things in the past that may have held you back from those things. For me, it was self-reflection and looking at what I want to accomplish and what I want to be remembered for. There were some things that I needed to cut out and grow up with, and that’s what the difference has been.”
The record books will already remember Bo Wallace as a great Ole Miss quarterback, but this year Wallace has the chance to go down as one of the greatest. He even has a chance to surpass Eli Manning's in parts of the Ole Miss record books. Wallace acknowledges that those statistics are important to him, but there's one record in particular the golden haired Tennessean has his eye on.
"One thing that no quarterback has ever done here is win an SEC Championship (Game)," Wallace said. "I want to be the first one to do that, and that’s the most important thing to me.”
That would be a big thing.
