3 questions Ole Miss must answer during bye week
OXFORD — It's hard to complain about where Ole Miss is in the big picture right now.
Even coming off a loss last weekend versus Auburn, the Rebels are 5-3 at their bye week with all three of the losses coming against teams that have spent time ranked in the top-10 this season. Sure, there are some glaring issues with the team's performance, especially on defense. But scoring 38.4 points per game and throwing for 350 yards per game covers up a lot of those problems.
It'd be foolish to say that Ole Miss doesn't have areas where it needs to improve. But during an open week, those problems aren't as concerning as the ones that time can heal. With that in mind, here are three questions Ole Miss needs to address during its bye week.
How healthy can the Rebels get?
Ole Miss coach Matt Luke talked about healing up on Monday, saying he expects to get some key contributors back by the time the Rebels return to action on Nov. 3 versus South Carolina. That list includes defensive linemen Victor Evans and Ross Donnelly, tight end Dawson Knox and defensive backs C.J. Miller, Javien Hamilton and Ken Webster.
In particular, Luke listed Miller as "probable" to return for South Carolina after missing the last two games with a leg injury and said he expects Hamilton and Webster to play despite the nagging injuries they re-aggravated versus Auburn.
Barring the players who've suffered season-ending injuries, Ole Miss has a chance to be 100 percent healthy by the time Nov. 3 rolls around. Which would be the biggest win of the bye week.
How do you coach for stamina?
As Luke pointed out on Monday, the Rebels end the season on a gauntlet, playing four games in 20 days. All four of those games are against SEC opponents with .500 records or better. That makes Ole Miss one of four SEC teams that doesn't have another non-conference game on its schedule this year, and the team in that group of four that has the fewest days to prepare for its final game.
Having a week off to recuperate before this stretch is vital. But the Rebels are going to have to build up enough stamina during this week to finish the year strong without wheezing out during the final third of the season.
Is the secondary getting sorted out?
Because of a string of injuries in the first half of the season, Ole Miss' secondary is as thin as any defensive backfield in the conference.
Moving running backs to defense to improve depth was a quick fix. But now with a bye week, the Rebels will have more time to teach those inexperienced transplants the ins and outs of the position.
On top of that, getting Miller, Hamilton and Webster healthy should help. But Ole Miss' secondary needs to do more than heal to get to where it needs to be. And a ton of the focus this week should be on achieving that task.