Win over South Carolina proved Rebels still have championship components

A resilient win, another daunting task looming, and a team aiming to get back on track

photo credit: Ole Miss athletics

Jaxson Dart couldn’t sleep last Saturday night, as the anguish of a 20-17 defeat to Kentucky dominated his thoughts. He apparently wasn’t the only one. Dart said he and several teammates met up around 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, sat around a fire and discussed the position they’d put themselves in.

“I can’t explain how much it hurt last week,” Dart said. “We couldn’t sleep. We had some tough conversations.”

Moments after Ole Miss bounced back with a 27-3 road win at South Carolina, Lane Kiffin offered a similar sentiment. He remarked that the time between the defeat to Kentucky and Saturday’s triumph over the Gamecocks felt longer than a normal game week.

“I thought this was a really hard week,” Kiffin said. “It’s probably the worst feeling we’ve had after a loss and felt like the most amount of days between a game after a loss since we’ve been here. We just handed that thing away. It was so not like how we thought we were going to play. Our guys battled through that this week. They didn’t let it affect a second game.”

This victory expunged a bad taste from Ole Miss’ mouth, and the Rebels earned the win in dominant fashion in a hostile environment against a quality opponent. As Kiffin alluded to, it just felt like a long week for Ole Miss, between the shock of losing its SEC opener and the back-to-back road tests against teams coming off a bye week that loomed. If the RebelGrove message board is any indicator of the fanbase’s collective state of mind, the anticipation leading up to Saturday’s game felt like being in the waiting room for an impending root canal — anxious rather than excited.

In a game that could’ve pushed Ole Miss’ season to the brink of abject disaster, the Rebels leaned on the pillars they spent the offseason fortifying, most notably the defensive front. The defense held the Gamecocks to just 313 yards of offense and 4.1 yards per play. Ole Miss sacked Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers six times and did not allow a touchdown for the third game this season. The defense suffocated the life out of South Carolina’s offense, as well as the crowd. Ole Miss led 24-3 at halftime and the game felt like it was no longer in doubt after two quarters. It wasn’t a perfect offensive performance by any stretch, but the offensive line did enough to allow Dart time to throw down the field, allowed just one sack against the two best edge rushers in the SEC and scored 27 points on the road.

It was apparent that this team’s toughness was going to be tested this week and its initial response was an emphatic one. It was hardly a flawless performance and much tougher tests await, but Ole Miss looked and sounded like a team prepared to right the ship.

“I am really pleased with our players,” Kiffin said. “It’s one thing to win a one-score game that depends on the ball going in or out, but when you come into a really hard place to play, against a team that was up two scores (against LSU) and on its way to being undefeated if not for a fluke penalty… I am just really proud of our coaches and players for how they showed up today.”

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Ole Miss’ defensive front gives Rebels a chance against anyone

“Defense travels” is an old adage in football that Ole Miss is proving to remain timelessly true. The Rebels’ defensive front was dominant in the win over South Carolina. Walter Nolen is an absolute menace on the interior and is one of the most purely talented defensive linemen Ole Miss has had in a long time. South Carolina double-teamed him and it still didn’t matter. He is an elite football player that has drastically changed this defense. Nolen had five tackles, three tackles for loss and two sacks (which is a remarkable feat for an interior lineman).

Jared Ivey had two sacks. J.J. Pegues, who is clearly not completely healthy, stuffed the failed fake punt behind the line of scrimmage that flipped momentum early in the game. Princely Umanmielen was ruled out with an injury. Suntarine Perkins filled the void in his absence, totaled 12 tackles, a sack and two tackles for loss. Ole Miss was without one of its best defensive lineman and didn’t miss a beat. That’s a sign of real depth.

While Ole Miss is not nearly as deep at the linebacker position, the Rebels have three fast, instinctual players who fly to the football. Chris Paul had three quarterback hurries. T.J. Dottery led the team with 13 tackles, recorded a sack, two tackles for a loss and had a pass break-up. South Carolina had just 125 yards of offense at halftime. The Gamecocks aren’t exactly an explosive offense, but to keep an SEC opponent out of the end zone for an entire game, in their own home stadium, isn’t exactly a common occurrence. When you can limit a team’s rushing attack the way this defense appears to be able to do, coupled with the ability to apply constant pressure to opposing quarterbacks, there are few offenses in college football capable of consistently moving the football down the field despite all of that. It also took the crowd out of the game. Williams-Brice Stadium is a difficult place to play. The game was a sellout. The Juice Wells subplot made the fans even angrier. The defense forced them to sit on their hands for most of the game.

The storyline of the offseason was about how after a blowout loss to Georgia last November, Ole Miss knew it needed to get bigger and more talented on the line of scrimmage in order to compete with the best teams in the sport. The Rebels were successful in adding top-end talent, and, from a defensive standpoint at least, appear to be equipped to match up with any team in college football. Another byproduct of the upgrades is Ole Miss’ ability to take over games against average offenses like you saw on Saturday. That proved to be incredibly valuable for a team on the road coming off of a loss. If the Rebels remain healthy on defense, they will have a shot to beat anyone they play.

Ole Miss cleaned up its defensive penalties

Of the eight accepted penalties against Ole Miss, only two were committed by the defense. One was an offsides late in the game and the other was a pass interference foul on Jaden Canady that negated a John Saunders interception — a call that appeared to be coaxed by a successful flop from the South Carolina receiver. The defense, and particularly the secondary, played a much cleaner game. Kiffin seemed very pleased by this in his postgame press conference.

South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer noted in his postgame press conference that Ole Miss played differently in coverage than the Gamecocks anticipated. Sellers’ longest completion on the day was just 17 yards and only eight of his 20 completions went for 10 or more yards. I am not going to pretend to be smart enough to bullshit you on what Ole Miss did differently in the secondary that confused South Carolina, but I will offer you one anecdote that might hint at the successful strategy: South Alabama transfer safety Yam Banks has played sparingly so far this year. On Saturday, according to Pro Football Focus (PFF), he played 56 of 79 total defensive snaps. Every other regularly-contributing safety seemingly played a normal snap load. As did corner Trey Amos. So, where was the discrepancy? The other presumed starting corner, Isaiah Hamilton only played 27 snaps. Brandon Turnage only played 18. That math doesn’t make sense. What appears to have happened is that, again, according to PFF, Canady played 63 snaps at corner rather than safety. I don’t know what the significance of this is, whether the Rebels found something on the back end or if this was solely match-up specific. Whatever it was, it worked.

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While far from perfect, the offense did enough

Ole Miss is still clearly trying to find the best version of itself on offense. Saturday was another somewhat disjointed yet productive performance.

The Rebels amassed 425 yards of total offense, 285 of which came through the air. Dart was 14-27 for 285 yards. From watching on TV, it looked like Dart was pretty good over the middle of the field and in the intermediate passing game, but struggled mightily throwing the deep ball. He missed Juice Wells on at least one occasion and missed another couple that could have ballooned the score even further. But despite all of that, the 14 completions went for an average of 20.8 yards per reception. Ole Miss was also without Tre Harris for the final two quarters of the game and the offensive line was trying to block Kyle Kennard and Dylan Stewart — which is no easy task in pass protection.

Dart’s going to have to play better going forward, beginning next week in Baton Rouge.

The running game looked pretty similar to last week. Ole Miss ran it 41 times for 140 yards at a clip of 3.4 yards per rush. Henry Parrish carried the ball 21 times for 81 yards. Of those 21 carries, only two went for 10 or more yards and only four went for more than five yards. At this point, the staff is hell bent on only playing Parrish and Matt Jones at running back. Parrish got injured for the second consecutive game and is very obviously not completely healthy. He was a game-time decision before kickoff. I have run out of thoughts and opinions as to why Ulysses Bentley does not play. I still firmly believe he’s going to have to play at some point. Giving Parrish, who is not a big running back, 20-plus carries a game, as he continues to get nicked up each week does not seem like a viable long term solution.

With all of that said, the rushing attack was good enough to win the game. I think that was at least partially due to Ole Miss finding success with Dart running the football. He had eight carries for 44 yards (seven for 52 if you remove the one sack he took). Ole Miss tried to run Dart against Kentucky and was not successful. The Rebels had better luck this week.

“He made a couple that led to key conversions, particularly late, which was really good,” Kiffin said. “I know we were up three scores, but it helped sustain drives as we tried to run out the clock and get out of here with a win. Our defense had played a lot. Jaxson made some good runs. A lot of those were called runs, or, the defense is playing the running back and (Dart) has to pull it.”

The offensive line appears to be getting healthier

Caleb Warren dressed for the second week in a row and Jeremy James dressed but did not play. Now that Ole Miss has those two pieces back and is only missing left tackle Jayden Williams (who I believe will be out for several weeks), I am curious to see how, if at all, the offensive line changes next week in Baton Rouge as well as after the bye week. James didn’t play. Warren only played because Reece McIntyre got hurt and missed seven snaps that required Warren to fill in for him at center. Gerquan Scott, who played mostly center during preseason camp, is still rotating periodically at left guard with Julius Buelow. Micah Pettus is not 100 percent healthy and was injured during this game as well.

With Williams out for a few more weeks, I assume Pettus and Pounds are locked into the two tackle spots. James is the only other lineman (that I am aware of) that has any significant experience at tackle. He started all 13 games at right tackle in 2021 and made four starts there in 2022.

I am curious to see if any changes are made on the interior. Warren has started every game for the last two years, either at center or guard. James is arguably the most experienced lineman on the roster and Scott appeared to be the first team center during camp. It seems unlikely that none of those three will slide into a starting role at any point this year. I am not educated enough to tell you whether there are issues on the offensive line or if the staff thinks the current five is fine. It’s just something I am curious about over the next couple of weeks as Ole Miss now has more guys healthy.

I am not sure how much of the running game struggles are related to running back personnel or due to flaws on the offensive line. I continue to believe Ole Miss is going to have to run the ball better to have success over these final six games and I wonder if any sort of change on the offensive line will help.

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Ole Miss is still very much alive in the playoff picture

This win felt like a collective exhale for a team that put itself in a disastrous spot because of a home loss to Kentucky. These back-to-back road tests (again, against two teams coming off a bye) suddenly felt like must-wins. Despite the chaotic day that ensued in college football — one that was certainly beneficial to Ole Miss as teams ranked higher than the Rebels lost to unranked teams — I don’t think any of the results changed Ole Miss’ immediate future. The LSU game is still virtually a must-win. I don’t see a realistic path to the College Football Playoff for this team without a win in Baton Rouge on Saturday night. Sure, could Ole Miss lose and run the table, notch a 10-2 record and still get in? I guess. But how rational is it to argue that a team that lost to a pedestrian LSU group in Baton Rouge is somehow going to beat Georgia and Oklahoma at home, as well as win all other games? I don’t buy it. With the chaos that ensued in college football over the weekend, is it possible that a three-loss SEC team makes the playoff? I guess. I am not a betting man, but I assume those odds are pretty long.

Ole Miss badly needs to win in Baton Rouge this coming weekend. It will take a titan-like effort. The Rebels are a beat up football team playing their seventh game in as many weeks, against an opponent that got to rest last weekend, in an arena the program has not won in since 2008. Ole Miss is more talented than LSU and should win this game, but the Rebels’ resiliency will be tested yet again. A win and Ole Miss is all the way back, as the youths say. If the Rebels enter the bye week at 6-1 with home bouts against the Sooners and Bulldogs up next, you have to feel pretty good about where things stand despite the Kentucky hiccup. A loss? The path to the only goal that matters to this team becomes hard to see clearly.

How about that chaotic weekend, though? To recap, Alabama lost to Vanderbilt (I am amazed to type that phrase), Tennessee lost to Arkansas, Michigan lost to Washington and USC lost to Minnesota. What did it teach us? That the volatile ecosystem that the sport exists within — with NIL, unlimited transfers, guys changing teams and sitting out at the slightest sign of adversity — has bred a level of parity never before seen in a sport that has historically lacked any semblance of it. As badly as the loss to Kentucky felt, how differently do you view it now? Don’t you think that loss, against a team with a wildly talented defense and a capable offense who will likely be 6-2 entering a showdown against Tennessee, will hold up better than… oh, I don’t know… a loss to Vanderbilt or Arkansas?

College football is as week-to-week of a sport as it's ever been. The name of the game is to survive four quarters, put one in the victory column and hope chaos ensues elsewhere. Part of this makes the loss to Kentucky more frustrating. Think about where the Rebels would be had they not squandered that game? There are about a half dozen fan bases currently wishing the same thing about their team.

Ole Miss has the pieces necessary to compete with every team remaining on its schedule. The ball is in the Rebels’ court to right the ship. Saturday, if nothing else, proved this team refused to wilt at the first sign of adversity.