By Ty G. Allushuski - Publisher

2009-06-18

Greg Hardy is on a mission to change the perception held by some that he is not a good teammate, or that he hasn’t worked hard at times over the course of the last three years.

The rising senior from Memphis, Tenn., has shown flashes of brilliance throughout his first three seasons at Ole Miss. One need only look as far as the Alabama game in 2007 when Hardy had 13 total tackles, five for a loss, three sacks and two forced fumbles.

However, even with all the hype and accolades, Hardy has also been plagued at times by injuries, inconsistencies, and the perception that he wasn’t willing to work hard to improve on his God-given ability.

When Houston Nutt arrived on campus prior to last season, a transformation began with Hardy. Not only did he start showing up for all the meetings, he was on time and was not disruptive.

He worked hard to come back from a foot injury that caused him to miss four games in ‘08, all while trying not to draw attention to himself while his teammates were winning games.

Throngs of fellow players all echoed the same sentiments; Greg is one of the guys now.

That transformation has continued throughout spring and summer, and Hardy is now looked to as one of the leaders of the 2009 Rebel team.

“When Coach (Nutt) got here I guess you could say it was an opportunity for me to let people see what actually goes on behind the scenes for me,” Hardy said. “Coach has helped a lot to shed a light on my situation and the whole team’s situation. I just decided to come out and show everybody how hard I actually work and how things get done around here.”

Hardy was name Second Team All-SEC by the league’s coaches last season after he finished with a team-high 8.5 sacks in limited playing time.

The foot injury that curbed his production never healed properly, and Hardy underwent a second surgery this offseason to try and correct the problem. He was forced to miss all of spring practice.

“It’s always frustrating when you’re not able to play and you see everybody out there having fun,” Hardy said. “I got to be out there with the teammates, though, in the same environment having fun.”

Hardy was a visible presence on the Ole Miss sideline this spring, though he was more cheerleader than anything because of the rehab to his foot. But, he could be seen constantly encouraging and joking with fellow defensive linemen in between stretching and drills.

The rehab process has been long and somewhat tedious at times. Hardy wore a protective boot all throughout the spring and is just now able to do some light sprinting.

He had been working on underwater treatments and resistance training to try and strengthen the foot. He hesitated when asked, but said he is mostly pain-free other than normal growing pains.

“It’s a slow process. I’m just getting back into squats and things like that,” Hardy said. “Every week I find myself able to do something more than the last week; maybe side-to-side exercises, forward-to-backward, lateral, things like that.”

A healthy Greg Hardy in ’09 would be a welcomed addition to a defensive line already thought by many to be the best in the SEC and one of the top nationally.

The defensive line won’t be the only unit attracting attention this season. The Ole Miss team collectively has been pegged as trendy pick to contend for an SEC title and a BCS Bowl Game.

Hardy said he and his teammates try not to pay attention to the hype bestowed on them, and this year’s team motto reflects that notion.

“Unsatisfied” is the team motto for the upcoming season and Hardy, along with his fellow seniors, picked the phrase they saw all too fitting.

“Last year we came up with “One Heartbeat,” that was Jason Cook and them seniors, so Coach (Nutt) came to us and asked us to get together and try to do the same sort of thing,” Hardy said. “We came up with ‘unsatisfied’ because last year the Cotton Bowl was the big thing and the big deal. We feel like there’s more to do. We don’t want people to come in and get in our little circle and corrupt minds because that’s the downfall of a lot of great things; corrupt minds from the outside.”

Hardy said the entire team, including all the younger players, has bought into the motto he and his fellow seniors came up with.

The phrase has been almost like a rallying cry throughout the summer as Ole Miss prepares to deal with the most expectations on any single team since a Manning last walked through the Grove.

“We just want to be unsatisfied in everything we do; weightlifting, in our running, in all our training, in our preparations in general,” Hardy said. “Just knowing there’s more out there; we’re not the best we can be yet.”