On Saturday afternoon in Tuscaloosa, I saw a freshman handing off to freshman, and throwing to another freshman, as a somewhat competent Ole Miss team gave it 60 minutes of fight against what might be the eventual national champs.

The Rebels lost, but that was a foregone conclusion. What was obvious is that the Rebels are putting the building blocks in place for the future.

I know some of you don’t like the word “rebuilding,” but to expect anything different is unrealistic for a program only now emerging from NCAA prison.

The Rebels are rebuilding, and I like the idea of what Rich Rodriguez could do a year or even two years from now with the weapons he has only just started to accumulate.

The defense got torched by Tua Tagovailoa and his band of future NFL receivers, but the heart was there. Mike MacIntyre simply needs more players. Only time and good recruiting can seal that massive breach.

Matt Luke has assembled a team of coaches that can rebuild Ole Miss football, and he has also proven to be a pretty good recruiter. It’s going to take time, and it’s going to take patience, but I think we’re seeing the beginnings of progress. It may not be as fast as we would like, but program building from the deepest depths of NCAA prison isn’t going to be fast.

Building takes time.

When I drive in and out of downtown Nashville on my way to and from work each day, I like to count the cranes that dot the skyline. New beautiful skyscrapers are being built at an amazing rate all over Music City, but many of them won’t be finished until late 2020. In two years, downtown Nashville is going to look totally different. It will be a magnificent site to behold.

Yesterday, as I watched Rebs play Alabama I began to think the same thing might be true about Ole Miss.

This is just the beginning.

In two years, if we stay the course, the Rebels will start to look like an SEC giant, but it won’t happen overnight.

Give it time.

There is absolutely no question that the second to last play of the game should have been reviewed by instant replay.

If you listen to the Pac-12’s statement on the game ending officiating blunder all the way until the end of the statement, you’ll hear the Pac-12’s VP of officiating say, “given the closeness of the call, and that it was an end of game scenario, it probably should have been stopped by instant replay for review.”

Thus, putting aside whether Moore actually had a touchdown catch, which I believe he did upon the second his toes hit the turf with the ball tucked in his left hand over the plane, the play should have been reviewed. It was definitely a close enough call that it deserved a look because even sitting here on Monday morning, 48 hours removed from the play, it’s like the blue dress gold dress debate all over again. Different people see different things. Instant replay should have looked.

If instant replay had done the right thing, Ole Miss might not have been given the touchdown, but it would have been given very precious time to organize for its final play,  which probably would have resulted in a better play call and certainly more readiness at the end of game.

The Rebs got robbed.