Wrapping up an unusual Monday presser. …

Ole Miss AD Pete Boone said he met with Houston Nutt on Sunday and later met with the assistant coaches too.

He said he wanted to clear the air, get out of the way and let the coaches coach.

Boone: “I asked Houston if I could talk to the coaches. You know at times like this, I've been around them before, all of a sudden things get a little tentative. We talked about egg shells before. I don't want our coaches walking around on egg shells if they see me, start looking down or looking off somewhere. I want us to step on some eggs. I want us to come out with some fight and some fire. To the extent I can eliminate any barrier that they have to think about during the day and let them focus on coaching and motivating players, I want to try to do that.”

Prior to that he told Nutt he wanted to see more more passion from the team. He said he didn't talk strategy with Nutt.

For his part, Nutt said, “We'll get the right attitude. That wasn't it Saturday. I understand. It's a bad vibe right now.”

The vibe is all about offense. Nutt believes the defense and special teams have played at a level capable of winning games.

As soon as David Lee was hired as offensive coordinator in January, Nutt said he was turning over play-calling duties to Lee.

That hasn't changed, he said, but added, “I will be more involved, especially on offense.”

Nutt was asked if he felt like he was coaching for his job, and he said he's felt like that every day for 14 years.

Nutt: “I want to win for our fans, our players. I don't want our fans to give up on this team. We have 33 freshmen or redshirts playing. I've been here before, and I understand what it takes.”

Regarding the other half of Boone's day, the Forward Rebels ads, the AD had this to say: “I saw the ad. I've been in the business close to 15 years. I'm not paying that much attention to it. There are things that are more important to me than that. We've got a big program here. We've got 350 athletes. We've got a total payroll of … I guess you can count an athlete on payroll now since they're talking about spending some extra money on them, but we've got about 500 or 600 people here that are taking care of the Ole Miss program. That's where my focus is, always has been and always will be.”

Boone said he doesn't consider himself arrogant or overconfident, but he doesn't spend a lot of time thinking about what fans think of him. That would take away time that he should be spending on the department, he said.

Not much by way of daily information, but Nutt did say that backup QB Randall Mackey was properly diagnosed with a thigh bruise and not something worse. Mackey will practice this week and play Saturday at Georgia.

He also said Nick Brassell is primarily defense now and will have an expanded role in the Georgia game.

The quote of the day came from starting quarterback Zack Stoudt, who threw five interceptions in his SEC debut. Nutt met with Stoudt and encouraged him, telling him not all the picks were his fault. It wasn't a good Saturday and Sunday for Stoudt. He said: “It's not OK to lose. I couldn't sleep at all last night or Saturday. I'm not OK with that. We as players need to realize that, wake up and start making some plays.”