How Ole Miss stacks up against Alabama defense
OXFORD – Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly dropped back and scanned the field. Wide receiver A.J. Brown had a man on him, but Kelly trusted that the freshman would come down with the jump-ball. He reared back and threw it 37 yards.
Brown saw Alabama defensive back Marlon Humphrey slow, and turn toward the ball, but Brown had a better read on it. Humphrey stumbled, and Brown jumped, reaching over his opponent to reel in the catch deep in the endzone.
“I just remember the stands going crazy, and it was really exciting,” tight end Dawson Knox said Wednesday when asked about that 2016 touchdown. “Obviously everyone just got a boost of adrenaline. And I think we’re all looking forward to that same type of energy this Saturday.”
Brown is the only member of the current Ole Miss roster that has scored a touchdown on Alabama, who the Rebels are set to
face at 6 p.m. Saturday. He was also the last Ole Miss player to make it through the Alabama defense and into the end zone. Ole Miss went touchdown-less in the teams' meeting last year. The year before, the Rebels came less than a touchdown short of upsetting the Crimson Tide. And it was Brown's touchdown catch that brought Ole Miss that close to victory. The Rebels trailed the Tide by two scores with 2:59 on the clock. That's when Kelly lofted a long throw to Brown to cut Alabama’s lead to 48-43. Right then, it seemed as if an upset was within reach.
“Any time that you have a freshman that’s making plays in SEC play,” Ole Miss coach Matt Luke said Wednesday, “I think you know you’ve got someone that’s special.”
Two years after that touchdown, the Ole Miss offense has started the season off strong. Even with a few red zone blips in the season opener, the Rebels scored 47 points on Texas Tech, a team that turned around and shut out the Football Championship Subdivision’s Lamar the next weekend. Ole Miss then scored 76 points on FCS opponent Southern Illinois.
Alabama, however, sports the most high-profile defense the Rebels will see all year. Since the beginning of the 2009 season, the Tide has allowed the fewest touchdowns of any team in college football (187).
“It’s tough enough to complete a throw and then pop a run against them at midfield,” Ole Miss offensive coordinator Phil Longo said, “when you have a smaller field and they can play closer to the line of scrimmage [in the red zone], you can’t extend them vertically the way you can out in the middle of the field. It constricts what you do. And it's always been an advantage for the defense — and that’s no different here — it’s just a greater advantage when you’re as good as Alabama is defensively.”
It will also be the first time quarterback Jordan Ta’amu faces the Tide. He was still Shea Patterson’s backup when Ole Miss traveled to Tuscaloosa to suffer a 66-3 loss last season.
“No different conversations than the normal one,” Longo said of how he’s getting Ta’amu ready.