With GT in the rearview, Ole Miss' greatest challenge awaits: does a different mindset await, too?

Why does Kiffin coach different against Alabama?

photo credit: Ole Miss Athletics

Ole Miss passed its last preliminary test with a 48-23 win over Georgia Tech on Saturday.

Now, as the Rebels enter the teeth of their SEC schedule, beginning with a road game at Alabama, what can be learned from the win over the Yellow Jackets and what is the long term outlook for a 3-0 Ole Miss team amidst a seemingly wide open SEC West?

The running game, while far from perfect, was better

I thought Ole Miss ran the football better in this game than it did in the win at Tulane. There are still concerns on the offensive line. The Rebels continue to rotate seven guys and seem to have at least some uncertainty as to who their best five are, but it did not have much of an impact in this game against an inferior opponent.

Ole Miss ran the ball 37 times for 299 yards, which was good for a clip of 8.1 yards per rush. While it was apparently not part of the initial game plan, Jaxson Dart was a key component in the running game. He carried the ball 14 times for 136 yards and two touchdowns. The total yardage and yards per carry are somewhat skewed by the 68-yard run he popped off early in the second quarter, but Dart was an effective runner and it played a significant role in the outcome.

"Going into the game, I did not think I was going to run as much as I did. After the first few drives I talked to Coach Weiss and Coach Gilbert and they told me it was just going to be that kind of game,” Dart said. I love that part of football. My dad raised me to be a football player before a quarterback and I have always loved the physicality of the game." 

In one sense, this is not an ideal long term solution, as Ole Miss would prefer its starting quarterback — who has been terrific through 12 quarters with a depleted pass-catching corps — not take the hits that accompany carrying the ball a dozen times per game. Dart also admitted he should probably slide more often.

“I definitely need to start doing that more often,” Dart said with a grin. “My mom tells me before every game to slide. She told me on the Walk of Champions. I guess I just forgot. But I will remember next time.”

As if often the case, Ole Miss adjusted to what the proverbial flow of the game called for. Leading up to kickoff. There were doubts about the availability of Quinshon Judkins, who was limited in practice throughout the week with a rib injury. Reading the tea leaves before the game, I was actually somewhat surprised to see Judkins dressed out and on the field for the game’s first drive. That doubt had little to do with concrete information or Judkins’ toughness, but more so due to Kiffin’s closest media confidant, ESPN’s Chris Low, reporting the day before the game that Judkins might not play, and also because of the fact that Ole Miss could’ve won the game without Judkins — and, of course, the fact that Alabama loomed seven days later.

"I commend (Judkins) a lot,” Kiffin said. “To be extremely injured and not able to practice very much and come out and play. I didn't think a lot of times this week he was going to play at all. Then he came out and got to do some warmups and said he was ready to go. So, we played him not quite as much as we normally would with a week off of practice, but he battled in there."

Judkins’ stat line doesn’t jump off the page and this was not the proverbial “get right” game for the talented sophomore running back, mostly due to a limited workload because of his injury. But as Kiffin and this staff have so often accomplished throughout his tenure at Ole Miss, the Rebels adjusted and still managed to run the ball effectively.

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Ulysses Bentley IV played his best game in an Ole Miss uniform

Judkins limited availability resulted in an unexpected positive. I thought Saturday was the best game Bentley has played at Ole Miss since he transferred from SMU in 2022. Bentley tallied six carries for 61 yards. He broke off a 21-yard touchdown run. I thought he looked physical and flashed an explosiveness that we had not yet seen from him.

As we’ve discussed here before, until Saturday’s win, I didn’t feel like we’d gotten to see precisely who Bentley is as a player and what he can offer Ole Miss. He suffered a hand injury that caused him to miss a large chunk of the 2022 season and he never really found his footing in the six games he was able to play in. On Saturday, I thought he showed the potential to be a more than serviceable compliment to Judkins — a role that is similar to one that, entering last season, I thought Judkins (or Bentley) might play behind Zach Evans. That thought, quite obviously, occurred before Judkins blossomed into a freshman sensation, and resulted in an injury-plagued Evans taking a back seat to Judkins. While Bentley is not as talented as Evans or Judkins, last year proved the importance of having two assets at running back. Ole Miss doesn’t win at Texas A&M without a valiant effort from a less-than-fully-healthy Evans, and the 2022 rushing attack as a whole wouldn’t have been as fierce without both Evans and Judkins. I believe Evans will go down as one of the most talented running backs in Ole Miss history — and also a guy who is never fairly slotted in the program’s history due to both his short tenure and injuries.

Bentley was terrific in this game and I think you will see his snap count and workload increase in the coming weeks.

We didn’t learn much more about the injured receiving corps.

I thought Saturday’s game might be telling from the standpoint of how capable an injured receiving corps — without Tre Harris and Zhakari Franklin— could be. That did not turn out to be the case, mostly due to the way Georgia Tech played Ole Miss defensively. The Rebels only threw the ball 18 times. Dart was an efficient 10-18 for 251 yards and a touchdown. Seven of the 10 completions were for 15 yards or more and five of them were for 23 yards or more. The few times Ole Miss aimed to push the ball deep down the field, I thought they were pretty effective in doing so, but the opportunities were seldom.

I don’t think this really means much of anything. As I mentioned, it mostly seemed due to the way the Rebels chose to attack Georgia Tech’s defense. But as Ole Miss enters its toughest test of the season in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, I still think this is something to monitor. Kiffin offered a bit of positive injury news on Monday by stating that Harris and tight end Caden Prieskorn were “out there” at Monday’s practice. Who knows what that actually means in terms of what they did at practice, whether or not they were in no-contact jerseys, and their outlook for Saturday. I figure we’ll have a better idea after Tuesday’s practice. But the sheer fact that both of them were at practice is a positive development.

For over a month, I have directly reported at RebelGrove.com, despite guesses to the contrary camouflaged as sourced reporting, that Prieskorn would miss the first three weeks of the season, and that he would return against Alabama. Whether you doubted me, believed me, or never heard this report until now, is irrelevant, because guess what: I was right, which I knew I was a month ago. It was truly amazing to see the “disputing reports” at the time, despite a very vivid image I had of the kid’s status (and his foot!), I think my favorite moment was every other outlet reporting that surgery “wasn’t definite yet for Prieskorn” multiple hours after we confirmed that he left the operating room :)

From the time Prieskorn had surgery on his foot, the aim was to return at Alabama. I don’t know the specifics of Harris’ injury. I got a couple of initial tips, and based off those, it would surprise me if he played on Saturday — but if he was at practice on Monday, that would lead me to believe it may not be as serious as I initially thought. Again, I will tell you when I am wrong and don’t have something concrete to report. A novel concept.

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Watkins proved that Ole Miss is not bottoming out at receiver

One absolute positive from Saturday was that Jordan Watkins produced a second 100-yard game in three weeks in the win. He caught four passes for 119 yards. When assessing the receiving corps without Harris and Franklin (and really Prieskorn too), one thing is clear: Ole Miss has two dependable secondary options in Watkins and Dayton Wade.

I believe that they are definitively not, nor will they ever be, game-breaking No. 1 receiving threats, but that also isn’t a knock on either one of them. There are very few of those in the entire sport, particularly in the toughest conference in America. It’s a credit to both players and this staff that Ole Miss has developed two sturdy No. 2 options out of a former walk-on in Wade, and Watkins — a Louisville transfer.

The alternative could be what Ole Miss dealt with in 2021, when Matt Corral had Dontario Drummond, a rarely-healthy Braylon Sanders, and Western Kentucky transfer Jahcour Pearson (a poor man’s Watkins). Once Sanders became a repeat inhabitant on the unofficial injury report, it was Drummond and… well, no one, other than Pearson. That deficiency reared its ugly at Auburn on Halloween weekend, when Drummond got injured (as did Corral, if you recall) and Ole Miss was left throwing to a collection of guys I had to look up on the online roster when hell froze over and they actually caught a pass. It was a brutal situation for Ole Miss. The difference between that dire situation and the one the Rebels currently find themselves in can be narrowed down to the sturdy play of Watkins and Wade. Dart spoke about his trust in Watkins after Saturday’s win. He was asked how much trust he has in Watkins.

“I think the perfect example of how much trust I have in him is last year in the Egg Bowl. Fourth down, with the game on the line, I threw it to him,” Dart said. “He is so reliable and dependable. I think I have said this before, but he is like having a coach on the field.”

I wonder how the Tulane game would’ve played out without Wade’s seven-catch, 106-yard performance.

The point here is two-fold. Part one is portrayed here: Yes, Ole Miss desperately needs to get healthy at receiver and tight end, and needs to do so within the next five days before the first snap in Tuscaloosa.

This quote was telling to me.

“Until the end there, we haven’t had a really great passing game since Tre (Harris) has been out,” Kiffin said. “Prieskorn being out this whole time… He was a major staple in our passing offense.”

Kiffin is admitting the quiet part out loud: that Ole Miss is in real trouble if it does not get healthy at receiver and tight end soon. But two things can be true at once. I think the reason he more freely admits this is the fact that he knows he is not totally screwed with what is on the field without Harris, Prieskorn and Franklin — even though he knows his offense is vastly more capable with its full complement of weapons.

That’s why my point is two-fold. The second part is this: Yes, the Rebels badly need to get healthy in this area. But the reason the conversation surrounding Dart’s pass-catching options are not near as panic-driven, and the reason we haven’t written a segment about how Ole Miss is hopeless next weekend in this regard, is because of the dependability of these two guys. Don’t take them for granted, even if they aren’t filling an impossible role you want to see filled. It could be a hell of a lot worse, even if that is no consolation for fans.

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Ole Miss defense was bent as far as possible without breaking

I figured this might be the case. Georgia Tech’s defense isn’t very good. But its offense featured a more than capable quarterback, a couple of decent options at running back and at receiver, and its screen-heavy scheme is difficult to defend. Ole Miss allowed 477 yards of offense but only 23 points. The Yellow Jackets possessed the ball for two-thirds of this game, which was the reason for the strange flow the game had and was in large part due to the Rebels’ inability to get off the field on third down. To the defense’s credit, the unit forced 20 third-down scenarios, but it also allowed 11 successful conversions — that dog will not hunt. It enabled long, sustained drives for Haynes King and the Georgia Tech offense. But the Rebels were decent enough in red zone defense to limit the damage.

At risk of sounding like a broken record, I am still not sure what I think about this Ole Miss defense. I definitely don’t believe it is a bad defense. I just am not sure how good it is. Ole Miss has shown flashes of good, average and bad. I hope this is the last week I have to do this: rather than offering an all-encompassing thought about the defense, I will list some observations.

1. The secondary has far too many coverage busts, but damn, it also made some pretty impressive plays, too.

   Daijahn Anthony’s pass break up on a 4th and goal play from the two yard line was special stuff, as was Zamari Walton’s third down play a drive later that held the Yellow Jackets to a field goal before halftime. The coverage busts must be reconciled before this Saturday. Laugh about Jalen Milroe all you want. He’s not incompetent and will torch Ole Miss for these obvious gaffes. But, with that still being true, the athleticism at corner and ball skills of the secondary has been impressive.

2. To an untrained eye like mine, I thought Ole Miss’ pass rush was pretty good.

   After the game, Kiffin expressed a desire for more consistency in this department. I think that, in reality, the truth is in the middle of my general sentiment and Kiffin’s sharp analysis. On obvious passing downs, when the Rebels brought pressure, they were effective. There was a third down in which Georgia Tech threw a deep ball to the end zone that was sailed due to the pass rush, and resulted in Teja Young making a nifty play to force an incompletion. I think Kiffin’s desire for excellence resides in wanting a more consistent pass rush on non-obvious passing downs, when the Rebels don’t blitz additional guys.

   Kiffn was asked about junior defensive tackle (and Georgia Tech Transfer) Akelo Stone.

   “He’s done a good job of pass rushing when he has gone in there. I like when we get (Ladarius) Tennison goes in. He adds speed. He’s a little undersized playing him at linebacker, but I like how hard he hits and how he runs,” Kiffin said.

   As is a theme in the Kiffin era, he offered an answer that was insightful but also had little to do with the original question. This is not an accident.

   I thought this answer was telling because I think it portrays Kiffin’s belief that there is enough talent and versatility on this defense to accomplish lofty goals, and that he has confidence in Pete Golding’s ability to figure it out as the Rebels enter conference play. Maybe I am reading too much into an innocuous quote. But if Kiffin thought this defense was sunk, had no real pass rush and was going to be a liability, I figure his quote would sound more like this: “yeah, we’ve got to improve there. We have to find guys who can rush the passer. We will just get better each week.” The latter made up quote is profiling a coach with no answers. Kiffin hardly said that, which is the point.

   For the many irrelevant qualms I have about Kiffin, I appreciate the way he answers certain questions with blunt honesty.

3. A week after he barely played in the win over Tulane, Suntarine Perkins’ snap count increased exponentially against Georgia Tech. As I have written about ad nauseam, Perkins is too special of a talent to leave on the sideline, presumably in favor of fear of him making mistakes. I think the best version of the 2023 Ole Miss defense includes finding a way to keep Perkins on the field. Kifin alluded to this in his postgame press conference on Saturday.

   “It seems like every time he is on the field, No. 4 makes plays,” Kiffin said. '“We have to find a way to get him to master more stuff and keep him on the field. It’s hard to get guys to play outside (line)backers and off-backers. There is a lot of stuff to do in college football.”

   I found this to be an incredibly honest assessment of where Perkins stands as far as his role on this team this year. Kiffin alluding to the fact that Perkins has not yet mastered every concept needed to be an every-down linebacker in the SEC was hardly a slight to Perkins. Playing that position in the toughest conference in the sport is hard. It is honestly unreasonable to expect Perkins to be a ready-made SEC linebacker a handful of months removed from his high school graduation. It was the first part of Kiffin’s answer that stuck with me: this staff has to find a way to keep Perkins on the field. What he does and does not know within the minutiae of a gameplan becomes less relevant when his athleticism shines, and the coaching staff knows that. I am not stating an earth-shattering revelation. My point is best surmised by this clip below

   In a span of maybe 1.5 seconds, Perkins ruined a veteran left tackle’s day, teleported a foot to the left and stonewalled a ball carrier in his tracks. I am no football genius myself, and I am not attempting to portray one now, but upon watching the game a second time on Sunday, this play immediately stuck out. I watched it no fewer than five times. After that, I sent it to two NFL scout friends, whose collective response amounted to “yeah, holy shit.”

   The point is Ole Miss has to find a way to keep No. 4 on the field. He’s that special and the Rebels are worse off every snap they play without him.

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So, with Alabama beckoning, now what?

Ole Miss is 3-0, which, for better or worse, the best it could possibly be in the only stat line that matters: the win column. The Rebels will face a Crimson Tide team with boatloads of talent, but one whose collective output is vastly underwhelming in comparison to literally every other Alabama team from 2008 until now.

For as often as Kiffin mentions the “pro mindset” motto he prefers his program to adhere to, his behavior, for better or worse, has turned this game into Ole Miss’ yearly Super Bowl. I don’t mean that as a criticism of a man who has made a once doormat program perennially relevant, but rather as a statement of concrete fact. From the time Kiffin took the Ole Miss job, if you talk to anyone remotely associated with the program, the big-picture scuttlebutt is centered around his obsession with beating Nick Saban and Alabama. Some fans will bristle at that notion and dismiss it, but that doesn’t change reality.

Kifin will never admit this game being an unquenchable desire of his, and I cannot blame him for that. But the reality remains that Lane Kiffin behaves and coaches differently during Ole Miss-Alabama week than he does when any other opponent is next on the schedule. As alluded to a few short paragraphs ago, Kiffin loves to talk about a “pro mindset” and the next opponent being the same as the previous one. I have no reason to doubt his genuine belief in that cause, but it does fly in the face of reality when it comes to this particular opponent.

If you’ve followed Kiffin’s career arc at Ole Miss, I would implore you to recall his most famous soundbytes. The No. 1 seed is probably “get your popcorn.” I need not remind you that this quote was born on the sideline in Tuscaloosa in 2021, moments before the Rebels were run off the field by a more talented Crimson Tide squad.

How about another memory, in Kiffin’s first year, when he was clearly aggravated, yet ultimately appreciative, at a COVID-mitigated crowd, for cheering when the team left the field following a 63-48 loss to the Crimson Tide in Oxford in 2020.

“I told the players not to be happy,” Kiffin said three years ago. “Fans were (giving) a standing ovation while we were walking off, and I was very confused with that. You know, we lost. Not that I don’t appreciate the fans doing that, but make sure the players understand we came here to win. We didn’t come here to play close and cover spreads or any of that crap. I told them they have tomorrow off and they’ve got to come back to work. We’ve got to get better. You just don’t get chances like this, and I think kids don’t understand that. You don’t get many chances to beat the number one team in the country….the best program in the entire country, and it’s right there to take..”

How about this week? The shenanigans have already begun. Kiffin held a rare Sunday media availability in which he accused Alabama defensive coordinator Kevin Steele of not actually running his own defense.

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I am not going to opine on (at least not yet) what Kiffin meant by this comment. In some ways, he reminds me of Captain Ahab, from the popular book Moby Dick. Kiffin, like Ahab, is so intent on killing Moby Dick that he will jeopardize anything in his path, crew included, to achieve this. Again, is this a bad thing? No. Is this a perfect analogy? No. I’m just some asshole with a podcast.

Kiffin very clearly wants this game more than any other else. Is that a bad thing for fans? Of course not. Would you want the head coach who runs your program be obsessed with beating the gold standard in college football — or would you rather have him be complacent and coach-speaking his way thru press conferences to appease those who sign his check? The latter mentality is how you end up becoming Mississippi State in the modern NIL era. Lane Kiffin wants this one badly and this may be his best opportunity to attain it.

Does that mean Kiffin is fully-behind the quote above? I don’t know. I doubt it, and that is not a knock on the reporter, my pal, Ben Garrett for reporting it. The point is that Mr. Pro Mindset, Mr. Rat Poison, coaches this game in a different headspace.

And it is now or never to finally win it… Or else.

What is the ‘or else?’

Literally nothing. April Fools.

Kiffin is one of the three most successful head coaches in Ole Miss history. He’s not going anywhere, assuming his attention span survives another silly season.

The consequence is simply that this is likely his best chance. I hope he seizes the moment.

We will have more later this week.

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