Rebel rushing attack may face toughest test yet in Texas A&M

The two headed monster of Quinshon Judkins and Ulysses Bentley has led the Ole Miss rushing attack as the gauntlet of SEC play enters the final month of the season

In the one loss of its season, Ole Miss struggled against the Alabama front seven to control the line of scrimmage and rushed for only 56 yards (its lowest for the season). By contrast, here are the Rebels rushing totals against SEC opponents not housed in Tuscaloosa:

• LSU: 317 yards rushing, three touchdowns
• Arkansas: 196 yards rushing, two touchdowns
• Auburn: 223 yards rushing, three touchdowns
• Vanderbilt: 177 yards rushing, three touchdowns

Needless to say, things have gone well in these games as Ole Miss is 4-0 in case you have been living under a rock the last month.

On the flip side, TAMU has a front seven that is “NFL calibur” according to Lane Kiffin and is going to present a huge challenge. Very clearly from looking at its opponents rushing totals, the Aggies clog up the middle to try and force long third downs and less rhythm on offense.

Opponent rushing totals vs. TAMU

• New Mexico: 91 yards, 1 touchdown
• Miami: 77 yards, 0 touchdown
• ULM: 127 yards, 0 touchdown
• Auburn: 144 yards, 0 touchdown
• Arkansas: 42 yards, 0 touchdown
• Alabama: 23 yards, 0 touchdown
• Tennessee: 232 yards, 0 touchdown
• South Carolina: 33 yards, 1 touchdown

So Tennessee cracked the code out of all of these teams, and I would think its partly due to the fast tempo it offers plus a mobile quarterback. Sounds kind of familiar, right?

The challenge in my opinion for Ole Miss is its coaches finding ways to get ball carriers space in a creative way to get up the field. There’s got to be some new wrinkles shown this week if the Rebels are going to be able to run the ball and get on its schedule for piling up first downs.

For Rebels fans, Saturday’s game is likely going to look a lot like the Alabama game where the run game could not seem to find traction consistently. It could put the fate of the game into Jaxson Dart’s hands and arm to score enough points to get past the Aggies.