What we know, kinda know, and don’t know: I-20 visitors edition

While getting their teeth kicked in on Saturday night in Athens was a zero-out-of-five-stars experience, the positive from that face-smashing is visual evidence now exists of how big the gap is between Ole Miss and the elite of the elite.

Ole Miss has some DUDES™ and a collection of quality players, but they lack DUDES™ aplenty (shout-out to the Conan O’Brien bit of that name) at every position. During the game, the TV broadcast showed a graphic noting Georgia had 42 players who were 4- or 5-star recruits, while Ole Miss had 18. Significant!

The gap was most noticeable on the defensive side of the ball where Ole Miss offered no resistance to the Georgia offense. Now, the Bulldogs offense* figured themselves out during Brock Bowers’ absence and are rounding into a destructive force, but the Rebels never made it remotely challenging for them.

*They also got healthy and motivated against a team who was not in their bad SEC East schedule.

Ole Miss recorded zero sacks, zero tackles for a loss, and one pass break-up, while giving up:

• 10 yards/play (a first down every play)
• 8.6 yards/carry
• 16.1 yards/pass attempt

Turns out, this was correctly leaning in the right direction:

Defensive issues, to put it mildly, could abound.

Though the Ole Miss defense has come a long way since the end of last season and got a solid injection of talent in the spring/summer, it needs massive upgrades if Ole Miss is to compete with the best.

The good news is none of this matters for the rest of the 2023 season, including the bowl game. Ole Miss could certainly play a good offense in a bowl game and give up plenty of points, but they’re not facing a talent gap like that again.

Even against LSU (elite offense) and Texas A&M (above average), while they gave up a lot of points, they got stops and made it difficult for both of those offenses at times, which was all the offense needed. Unless chaotic hell the likes of which we’ve never seen breaks loose the last two weeks of the season, Ole Miss won’t be once again sweating an offense that gets a first down every time they snap the ball.

What We Know

Having to shuffle the offensive line on the fly: Would not recommend

As noted above, it was a no good, very bad night for the defense, but let us not ignore the offensive sputtering. I thought Ole Miss would have more success on offense, given Georgia was not dominating opponents, particularly against the run.

While the offense wasn’t bad overall, once they didn’t hold serve with the Georgia offense, it became apparent they needed to score on almost every possession, which is an impossible ask. Throw in an offensive line dealing with injuries to two of its top six guys, and their struggles got worse.

For most of the season, this was Ole Miss’ starting offensive line (going from left to right):

• Victor Curne
• Quincy McGee
• Caleb Warren
• Jeremy James
• Micah Pettus

Right tackle Micah Pettus was injured last week in practice, which meant this was the starting offensive line against Georgia:

• Jayden Williams
• Quincy McGee
• Caleb Warren
• Jeremy James
• Victor Curne

On the THIRD OR FOURTH play of the game, Williams was injured and had to leave. Then the offensive line became this:

• Victor Curne
• Quincy McGee
• Caleb Warren
• Eli Acker
• Jeremy James

At various points in the game, the offensive line also looked like this:

• Victor Curne
• Quincy McGee
• Reece McIntyre
• Caleb Warren
• Jeremy James

And this:

• Victor Curne
• Quincy McGee
• Caleb Warren
• Reece McIntyre
• Jeremy James

And this:

• Victor Curne
• Quincy McGee
• Reece McIntyre
• Eli Acker
• Jeremy James

Eli Acker even got a rep in at THROW THE FADE, YOU COWARDS.

This shuffling may be more normal for teams who regularly rotate on the offensive line, but Lane Kiffin has not done that at Ole Miss. Having to do something you don’t normally do against the best team in college football is not ideal.

Season-long questions answered

How will the defense perform against any offense that’s above average to elite?

• POORLY (with a few moments of getting off the field)

How will the defense perform against below average offenses?

• Pretty well!

Will there be defensive improvement with a new coordinator?

• YEP
• For the record, I was wrong on this. While they improved the talent in the spring/summer, I didn’t think it was enough, but they were mostly good at not giving up explosive plays and getting gashed. Ideally, the defense makes a jump next year where only elite offenses give it trouble rather than those above average.

What happens when Jaxson Dart has a full year of starter’s experience?

• He improves as a passer! Wild stuff, but it’s true.

Could Ole Miss reduce Quinshon Judkins’ workload to keep him a little more fresh?

• As of right now, he’s on pace for about a game’s worth of fewer carries (counting the bowl game). Ulysses Bentley IV is not putting up Zach Evans numbers (few could), but the Ole Miss passing game is improved, which means the Rebels aren’t rushing at a rate that mimics a service academy like they did in 2022.

Offensive line will be better right?

• CORRECT

Does having tight end production help?

• It does. Caden Prieskorn, due to an injury, only played in five games and caught 10 passes, but he’s averaging (AVERAGING) 20.6 yards per catch. Again, as a tight end.
• Kiffin has talked about his contribution and splits on versus off the field in the run game, but his presence in the passing game is one more thing defenses have to consider.

We love a good Bash QB GT Counter

Ole Miss shifted into this formation and call after checking with the sideline. In this call, “bash” means the running back goes away from the lead blockers, who are the left tackle and guard.

The center, right guard, and right tackle all block down to their left, and Quincy McGee (left guard) and Victor Curne (right tackle) lead the way.

Dart fakes the handoff to Judkins, who sucks up the attention of the safety/linebacker, and Dart follows Curne through the hole.

Upon reflection, Dart probably should’ve scored, but he followed Curne’s pointing back inside, where the other safety caught him. Had he stayed to Curne’s right, he walks in.

It mattered not because Ole Miss scored on the drive, but this was a really nice call from Kiffin after seeing a look/personnel he thought they could take advantage of.

What We Kinda Know

Response to getting PASTED

After losing a winnable game at Alabama that saw Ole Miss fade miserably in the second half, Kiffin’s group responded with five straight wins. The Georgia loss was a different kind of loss because it almost certainly eliminated them from college football playoff talk (again, barring chaotic hell), and it was a beatdown of the highest order.

They can sleepwalk through the Lousiana-Monroe game and get a win, but they have to show up with some degree of energy and drive to beat a bad Mississippi State team in Starkville. Their response after the Alabama game says they probably will, but not all losses are the same.

What We Don’t Know

Terry Bowden is at Louisiana-Monroe because why?

From 2012 to 2018, Bowden was the head coach at Akron, where he compiled a 35-52 (23-33 MAC) record. During that time, he had one (1) winning season and one (1) .500 season, while having two (2) winning conference records and one (1) .500 conference record.

After being fired in 2018, Bowden was an unpaid intern at Clemson in 2019 while getting his master’s degree (great story). Louisiana-Monroe, following an 0-10 season in 2020, decided to see if Bowden had any Auburn Jesus left in him.

He, so far, does not. He’s 10-24 (5-18 Sun Belt) and staring down the barrel of a perfect 0-8 season in the conference unless the Warhawks can upset Louisiana-Lafayette the week after playing Ole Miss.

I know Louisiana-Monroe is in a tough spot 100 percent of the time, but BUDDY, this cannot be the way.