OXFORD, Miss. — Brent Schaeffer says he never reads newspaper articles about him. Nor does he check out Internet chat rooms that dissect all things Ole Miss football. But he knows there have been grumblings about his inconsistent play this season, and he says he understands the criticism.

"It's not like I'm thinking I'm doing awesome or anything," said Schaeffer, Ole Miss' soft-spoken junior quarterback, who was benched for much of the second half of the Rebels' 23-20 overtime loss at LSU last Saturday night. "But I also know that I'm not going to have my spirits low, because I know I can play."

Last Saturday's loss could have been yet another devastating blow for Ole Miss (3-8, 1-6 SEC), which, despite playing courageously, has uncovered oodles of creative ways to lose close games this season. But during the late-night bus ride home from LSU, several of the Rebels were already talking about the 79th Egg Bowl. They will host Mississippi State (3-8, 1-6) today, and Ole Miss coach Ed Orgeron described Monday's practice as "spirited."

He also downplayed the team's embryonic quarterback controversy — to a degree. He was asked if there would be competition at practice this week between Schaeffer and his backup, junior Seth Adams, who played most of the second half against LSU.

"There's always going to be competition," Orgeron said. "I thought Seth went in there and did a fine job. He made some good decisions, he moved the ball down the field. ... He didn't make very many mistakes. So we'll see. We'll see how the week goes. Right now, Brent's the starter."

Schaeffer, who completed 6-of-14 passes for 72 yards and overthrew several receivers, said he "respected" Orgeron's decision to play Adams most of the second half. The timing was unusual. The Rebels were leading, 17-7, in the third quarter when Adams trotted onto the field. Orgeron and offensive coordinator Ed Werner said Schaeffer was not hurt.

"The decision in the game was just that we felt we needed a little bit of a change," Werner said. "We were stalling a little bit. We wanted to get (Adams) in there. We had talked about it all year, and we felt like that was the time to try it."

On Adams' first series, the Rebels drove 41 yards on 11 plays, and Joshua Shene converted a 45-yard field goal for a 20-7 lead. But on the Rebels' next three series, all quarterbacked by Adams, they netted 13 yards and went scoreless. Overall, Adams played four series and completed 3-of-5 passes for 23 yards.

Schaeffer said he had been told at halftime that the coaching staff might try to show LSU "a different look," but he kept watching the clock. He said it felt strange watching from the sideline.

"I see those guys out there, trying to win, and I wanted to be out there with them," he said. "But I think Seth did a real good job."

Schaeffer, who started his college career at Tennessee, has completed 106-of-225 passes, or 47.1 percent, for 119.2 yards per game. He ranks 98th in the country in passing efficiency.

Orgeron has been asked more than once this year to recall his expectations of Schaeffer at season's start. He usually says something about having anticipated growing pains and a period of adjustment for a quarterback who was new to the system. On Monday, he smiled and offered a revised version of his goals.

"For us to go undefeated, and for him to take us to the Sugar Bowl, and for him to be the hero," Orgeron said. "That's Ed Orgeron-style thinking. Really, I thought he would play a lot better than he has. For some reason or another, it hasn't worked out that way. Does he have the talent to do it? Yes. Do I still believe he is going to be an outstanding quarterback? Yes, but we have some things we have to work on."

As has been well-chronicled, Schaeffer missed spring and summer workouts while he finished coursework at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, Calif. In hindsight, that delay proved costly. He never got a chance to hone his timing with a group of unfamiliar receivers, and he also missed conditioning drills. His arm strength has, at times this season, been questionable.

But these are all facets of his game that can be improved over the offseason, Werner said.

"There's no doubt," Werner said. "That's going to be huge for us. All these receivers and all these quarterbacks will get together over the offseason, spring, summer. You've got to feel there'll be a whole lot of improvement."