Rippee Writes: Ole Miss thrashes Louisville
News, notes and thoughts from a Rebels win, plus a Mississippian headed to the PGA Tour.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. We will have a new podcast out tonight with Weldon Rotenberg rehashing some storylines from last night’s Ole Miss win over Louisville. In a normal week, the plan is to do this on Sundays. We will both try to watch the game a second time and then offer thoughts on the podcast. Of course, this one was a little different with it being Monday and us having day jobs and fun stuff like that. So be on the lookout for the podcast tonight and tomorrow.
There is a ton to dive into today.
Rebels trounce Louisville 43-24
Ole Miss didn’t miss a beat without Lane Kiffin, who was back in Oxford due to contracting Covid-19. The Rebels looked improved defensively and the offense was as good as advertised in a 43-24 win over Louisville. Let’s hit some random notes I wrote down from last night. We will start with the offense.
I did not have this pegged to be the Dontario Drummond Game but that is exactly what it became. He caught nine balls for 177 yards and a score. Drummond was effective out of the slot and Louisville never found an answer for it. In very official football terms, I was most impressed with how consistently wide open he was. I could offer some platitude about route running that I am not actually certain about not having watched the game a second time, but instead I will deduct that he was wide open a lot, and being wide open is good.
Drummond’s hands were also impressive. This play stuck out above the rest (Side note: what an absurd throw by Matt Corral). This is a great sign for Ole Miss and I will be interested to see the different ways Jeff Lebby uses Drummond and how the increased action he saw in the slot affects the rest of the receiving corps.
Matt Corral was awesome. He finished 22-32 for 381 and a score. He averaged nearly 12 yards per completion. The main thing that stuck out to me was that Corral didn’t force the issue. Aside from the second drive of the game, in which he had a pair of tipped balls and a near interception, Corral didn’t try to slip the ball into tight windows very often. Hell, he didn’t have to with how open Drummond and others were for most of the night, but I thought the lack of “oh shit, that was close,” throws was a good sign. This one below stuck out.
This is high level stuff from Matt Corral. You can always tell a poised QB by his feet. He understands the answers to this concept even though his primary read/option is covered. His feet look like the long hand on an analog clock. Great stuff.He clearly wanted to go to the right where the play was (presumably) initially supposed to go. Instead of forcing it, he regrouped and threw a nice ball to Drummond on the left — with a rusher approaching him too. Decision making was the only uncertainty with Corral heading into the season, particularly when teams went with drop eight and other zone coverages. He looked sharp in this regard last night. He also got better as the game went along. He completed seven of his last eight passes in the second half and was 18-24 after the game’s second drive.
Corral was also effective with his feet. He rushed 12 times for 55 yards, which I believe was close to 68 yards gained and 13 sack yards lost (or something close to that). This was important last night because Ole Miss struggled at times to get pieces of its running game going effectively, especially some of the outside run plays. I doubt Lebby and Kiffin necessarily *want* Corral carrying the football 12 times per game, but he reminded all of us last night that he is a capable runner. It was effective and the Rebels running game needed the lift.
We didn’t see a lot of Ealy in the slot, at least not from what I gathered after watching the game live. I hope to watch it again at some point this week and maybe I am misremembering, but other than a nice strike from Corral early in the third quarter, I don’t believe either of his other two receptions were out of the slot. I am not sure there is anything at all to be made of this, I just wrote down that note because it was a storyline throughout camp. It’s also only one game. I just found it interesting.
No one told Snoop Conner he was fourth on the depth chart that was released last week. He carried the ball eight times for 60 yards and two scores, including a man-sized touchdown run in the fourth quarter to put the game to bed. What a luxury Ole Miss has in its backfield with Ealy, Parrish and Conner (and Kentrell Bullock too). That type of depth and versatility will take a toll on opposing defenses. I didn’t think the Rebels had their best day collectively from a rushing standpoint, but 113 of the 188 yards on the ground came in a second half that saw them run the ball 20 times and pass it 12 times (20 passes, 21 runs in the first half). Ole Miss has the ability to erode opposing defenses via the ground game and you saw glimpses of that last night.
Bryce Ramsey saw a lot of action at right guard in place of Ben Brown late in this game. I noticed it on the second to last drive of the third quarter. I have no clue what Brown’s status is or if it is injury related, but it is something to monitor. The Rebels need Brown to be good and healthy.
Caden Costa went 3-3 on field goals. His 47-yard make was just the third made field goal of over 40 yards since the start of the 2018 season (the end of the Gary Wunderlich era) and the first one since 2019. He was named SEC co-Freshman of the Week. The kicking battery looked solid, outside of Cale Nation doinking the first PAT try. I am not sure what was up with that. It seemed like the coaching staff pondered the idea of using a short and long range kicker combination? Maybe Kiffin was trolling all of us? I have no clue, but 3-3 in the field goal department should be refreshing to you.
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Defense:
Chance Campbell is a difference maker. While watching last night, I wondered how many of you forgot what quality SEC linebacker play looked like. Campbell stuck out like a sore thumb in the best way possible. It just looked different to have the anchor of the defense consistently disrupting things in the opposing backfield. He was tremendous. It’s probably a good time to mention Campbell is a Rebel Grove athlete, the second athlete that fine website acquired this offseason.
Mark Robinson drew the start alongside Campbell and looked productive before his first-half ejection for targeting. Ole Miss lost both Robinson and Henry to targeting fouls and still seemed to fare decently well at linebacker. Momo Sanogo — who, if my notes are correct, didn’t see the field until the third quarter — and Ashanti Cistrunk filled in nicely and Austin Keys recovered a fumble. Cistrunk had eight tackles to Campbell’s seven. The depth here is improving.
Otis Reese made a hell of a play on the Keys fumble recovery. He blew up what appeared to be an outside pitch play on 4th-and-2. Reese (along with Cistrunk) led the team in tackles. He was as good as advertised, especially in a run-stopping capacity.
Quinten Bivens played a nice game in the middle of that defensive line. He only registered a couple of tackles, but was a significant factor in Louisville only gaining 81 yards on 23 rushes in the first half. The Cardinals finished the game with 155 yards on the ground on 39 attempts (four yards per rush). They averaged 200 per game at five yards per rush in 2020. Ole Miss hasn’t held a team below its averages very often in the last half decade. Bivens played a nice game.
Malik Cunningham is a better passer than he showed last night. The poor guy couldn’t get anyone to block for him. The Cardinals offensive line was terrible. Some of that should be credited to the Ole Miss front seven, but the UL offensive line was not as good as I thought they would be, particularly on the interior. Cunningham was 22-37 and averaged just five yards per completion as a result. I thought the secondary played well for the most part. Tysheem Johnson saw a lot of snaps as Ole Miss seemed to favor a 3-2-6 look that brings an extra defensive back onto the field. A.J. Finley had a nice pass break-up. I thought Jake Springer looked the part and Deantre Prince registered an interception (chance Campbell pressured Cunningham into a terrible decision). The newfound depth on the back end of this defense was evident last night.
Here’s some advanced analytics for you: Ole Miss registered two turnovers. That is good and is better than one or zero turnovers. This is why you subscribe.
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By the numbers:
This headline is somewhat tongue in cheek, as I am far from an analytics nerd, but here are some numbers I got from Ole Miss media relations (they do a great job) and the notes they put out after the game last night.
Ole Miss has put up at least 500 yards of offense in seven of the 11 games it has played since Lane Kiffin was hired.
Ole Miss has scored on the opening drive in seven of the 11 games under Kiffin. Six touchdowns and a field goal.
The Rebels now have six touchdown drives of 90 or more yards in the Kiffin era.
Ole Miss had 21 plays of 10+ yards last night. In 2020, the Rebels were the only team in the FBS to register 200 such plays in 10 or fewer games (202).
The defense pitched a shutout in the first half for the first time since the Georgia game in 2016.
Final initial thoughts
I thought Ole Miss played a good football game. I think it checked all the boxes in terms of things you were looking for or had questions about. It’s just one game and the Rebels will face far more formidable opponents, but this was a great start. I think that perhaps the greatest sign of the program being competently run is that Kiffin wasn’t able to coach and it wasn’t an issue in the slightest. The team didn’t miss a beat. Corral looked as good as ever. The offense was dominant and the defense played well. That’s a sign of a healthy and stable program.
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Buckley gets PGA Tour Card
Tupelo native Hayden Buckley is headed to the PGA Tour. All he needed was a made cut and a top-45 finish at the last of the three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events. He slammed the door shut in that regard with a T-4 result. Thanks to a pair of low rounds on Thursday and Friday, the weekend was all but a formality.
Buckley is a remarkable story. Six months ago, he stood on the driving range at 5:45 in on a Thursday morning as the first alternate hoping to get into the LECOM SunCoast Classic outside of Tampa. Buckley only had partial status on the Korn Ferry Tour at the time and had failed to Monday qualify for the event that week. Now, he’s headed to the PGA Tour. The former walk-on at Mizzou that neither in-state school would take finished 32nd in the regular season points standings, seven slots shy of earning a PGA Tour Card. With two top-10 finishes in the three Korn Ferry Tour Finals events, he realized his PGA Tour dreams by finishing fourth in the Finals 25.
Buckley will join Chad Ramey and Davis Riley on Tour next year. That’s three Mississippians on the PGA Tour. I’d like to thank all three of them for not making this content item I have written for seven months completely worthless. I am excited to see where their careers go. This is only the beginning for all of them.
Thornberry comes up just short of a PGA Tour Card
Braden Thornberry’s weekend is an example of both the brutality and opportunity in professional golf. Thornberry had a decent wraparound Korn Ferry season. He finished 57th in the points standings, which didn’t merit a PGA Tour card, but easily qualified him for The Finals. He missed the cut in the first two Finals events and was 1-over after his Thursday round in the third and final tournament. A Friday 67 put him in the mix. Somewhere around a top-five finish would have been good enough for him to graduate to the PGA Tour (I keep telling y’all one good week can change your life in this sport). He entered Sunday tied for 17th place and needed a low round to have a shot at cracking the top five. He was 3-under thru 13 holes and had a disastrous double bogey on the 14th. He responded with three birdies in a row, and was briefly projected to finish in 25th place — good enough for a card, but came up just short and finished 28th in The Finals points.
It stings coming that close to realizing a dream and not accomplishing it. But Thornberry is young and is fully exempt for the 2022 Korn Ferry season. There are far worse places to be in professional golf. His time is coming. He will make it to the PGA Tour. I am certain of that. Let’s hope it’s next year.
On the horizon
recap pod
Football heavy newsletters
Mailbag Friday
That is all from me today. Thanks for being a loyal subscriber. Send to your friends and tell them to join in on the fun by hitting the subscribe button below. Back with more tomorrow.
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