College football remains strong on the brain for fans of Mississippi’s football-playing schools. Mississippi loves winners, especially those on the football field. Two of the three big schools are bowl-bound, while the other is trying to rediscover its identity. Delta State, the most successful program year-in and year-out, is working its way through the playoffs with championship aspirations.

Most attention, though, is on the University of Mississippi. The hiring of Hugh Freeze will mark the Rebels’ fourth coach since 1998. There have been pockets of success in Oxford, but no sustained winning. Freeze inherits a program with an identity crisis — Colonel Reb and the Black Bear — as well as a winning crisis.

Freeze, who heads to Oxford from Arkansas State and was an Ole Miss assistant under Ed Orgeron, promised an up-tempo, attack style that is becoming a rage in Mississippi. We hope it works. We also hope the university discovers that the key to winning is consistency. John Vaught coached the team for 23 years. There were hiccups along the way, but Vaught brought consistent winning to Oxford. Changing coaches every four or five years is no way to build a winner.

Mississippi State is bowl-bound for the second straight year under coach Dan Mullen. The Bulldogs are scheduled to play Wake Forest in Nashville on Dec. 30. Mullen is named every year on lists of major college coaching openings, but he has stayed true to Mississippi State. Mullen is a winner and, although this season only produced six wins, the bowl berth will leave a pleasant taste going into recruiting season.

We only wish Mullen’s Bulldogs would have gotten matched up with Southern Miss in the Liberty Bowl. Memphis will play host to a Cincinnati-Vanderbilt game in the spacious Liberty Bowl. How much excitement would there have been for a USM-MSU game in Memphis. It would have been a bonanza.

Instead, Southern Miss will play in Hawaii on Christmas Eve. Many see it as a slap in the face; others a vacation for the holidays. Consider the Eagles Conference USA tie-ins. They could have played in New Orleans, Birmingham, Tampa or Hawaii. It’s not the most prestigious bowl, but the best available.

The Eagles also will be searching for a coach as Larry Fedora left for North Carolina after four years. The Eagles just completed their 18th straight winning season, most of those coming during Jeff Bower’s 17 years with the school. USM will be playing in its 13th bowl game in the last 14 years.

Consistency works. It will work if the Ole Miss faithful have faith in Hugh Freeze. It will work if Dan Mullen stays in Starkville. It will work if Southern Miss finds a coach who wants to be in Hattiesburg.

It will be a wild off-season.