Ole Miss’ run defense will get lots of reps
OXFORD – What does Southern Illinois do on offense?
“They run the ball,” Ole Miss defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff said. “If that don’t work, they’re going to run it again. If that don’t work, they’re going to run it again.”
The Rebels face an offense this week that’s pretty much the opposite of what they went up against last week. Texas Tech was known for its air raid offense. Southern Illinois rushed for 295 yards against Murray State last week and logged just 18 pass completions. For a Rebels defense that has put a large emphasis in the offseason on stopping the run, the matchup provides an introduction before having to face any run-heavy SEC offenses this season.
“I’ll tell you, the first thing I felt great about,” McGriff said after Ole Miss’ 4727 win over Texas Tech last week, “was I didn’t walk in and think, 'Man, how many times the running back just ran down the field wide open.'”
He had seen those kinds of big runs against his team last season. In general, Texas Tech’s ground game was designed just to gain a few yards here and there anyways, but Ole Miss was able to hold the Red Raiders to an average of 4.2 yards per run.
“What we’re getting ready to see this week is totally different than what we just saw last week,” Ole Miss linebackers coach Jon Sumrall said.
that’s the challenge, especially for a really young group (of linebackers), is, alright, we saw a lot of 10- and 11-personnel, and now we’re going to see maybe more tight ends and maybe more of a pro-style attack, more of a conventional, almost NFL-type of offense. So it presents different challenges and issues with your eyes.”
But, in Sumrall’s eyes, that’s also the exciting part of preparing a linebackers room that includes just two upperclassmen for Saturday’s game.
“That’s what makes it fun, and seeing those guys have to learn and grow and hopefully stretch themselves to grow from a football IQ standpoint,” he said.
One of those upperclassmen, senior Detric Bing-Dukes, is set to see more playing time than originally expected with freshman Kevontae’ Ruggs (concussion) doubtful for the game as of Wednesday evening. At 6-foot-1 and 254 pounds, Bing-Dukes matches up well against a team like Southern Illinois, whose offense doesn’t revolve around exploiting space in the way a spread offense does.
On third downs, however, freshman Jacquez Jones is more likely to be in at middle linebacker.
“One thing we did talk about,” McGriff said, “… on third down, let’s get some more faster guys on the field.”
Those faster guys' experience level won’t matter in that situation either. Last weekend 16 Ole Miss players made their debuts. Of those, 11 were defensive players.
“You look at the current trend right now in college football, and you’re going to play 100, or maybe north of 100 snaps,” McGriff said.
That ever-rotating and relatively young defense will get to test their discipline against the run with Southern Illinois Saturday before facing Alabama (No. 3 rushing offense in the SEC and No. 13 in the country last year) the following weekend. Two weeks after that they get LSU (No. 5 rushing offense in the SEC in 2017).