OXFORD — Following a heartbreaking home loss to Kentucky, No. 12 Ole Miss doesn’t have much time to lick its wounds. A completely different challenge awaits in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Rebels (4-1, 0-1 SEC) face South Carolina (3-1, 1-1) Saturday afternoon at Williams-Brice Stadium. It will be the first chance for Ole Miss to rebound from its 20-17 loss to the Wildcats, a game where the Rebels were held to a season-low 353 yards on a season-low 56 offensive plays. Kentucky held Ole Miss to 1 of 10 on third downs, and the Wildcats held the ball for nearly 40 minutes of gametime. It was in stark contrast to the Rebels’ first four games of the season, where the offense scored with ease, receivers ran wide open and the running backs had massive lanes to work with.
But last Saturday is in the past and can’t be changed, and head coach Lane Kiffin let his team know that the ultimate goal is still within reach.
“Just because you get all those questions, understand (that) everything that you want to do is still there,” Kiffin said.
South Carolina was off last weekend but notched an impressive 31-6 over Kentucky earlier in the season and nearly took LSU to overtime. While the Gamecocks’ quarterback situation remains in-flux — starter LaNorris Sellers was injured against LSU but is atop this week’s depth chart, and Robby Ashford played the rest of the LSU game and started against Akron — it is their defense that has been a calling card thus far in 2024.
The Gamecocks are tied for 30th nationally at 17 points per game allowed and feature one of the best pass-rushing duos in the nation with senior Kyle Kennard and freshman Dylan Stewart. Kennard is tied for the SEC lead with 5.5 sacks, and Stewart, who was a five-star recruit in the 2024 class, has 2.5 sacks, which is second-most among freshmen in the conference. South Carolina is tied for sixth nationally with 3.5 sacks per game.
While Kentucky was able to cause havoc with size and strength, the Gamecocks create chaos in a different way, Kiffin said.
“Polar opposite, and then very different schemes, too. Kentucky (is) ultra-sound, keep the ball in front of you, really big bodies. Stoops built that defense that way,” Kiffin said. “ … These guys are built differently. They’re more built on speed and twitch. So, both present problems.”
Ole Miss senior quarterback Jaxson Dart threw for a season-low 261 yards last weekend, looking frequently for senior Tre Harris. Harris leads the nation with 804 receiving yards on 49 catches. The next closest receiver on the Rebels’ roster is sophomore Cayden Lee with 16 catches for 275 yards. After catching six passes for 125 yards over the first two games, senior tight end Caden Prieskorn has just four catches for 56 yards the last three games, with 42 of those yards coming on a single play late against Kentucky.
“We have two really good tight ends that rotate in there, and so play count’s less than it was (at the) end of last season. And, sometimes numbers happen not by design. Sometimes coverages roll a certain way,” Kiffin said. “ … Again, I would love for everybody to touch the ball and have great statistical games. But it doesn’t work that way, especially when you go for 1-for-10 on third down and don’t get off the field on defense very well, and now you’re (at) 50-something snaps. So, there’s only so many balls … a lot of times, especially when you lose, (everybody) has these answers like, ‘Well this guy needs the ball, this guy needs the ball.’ ‘OK, well who are you going to take it away from?’ I always say to people, ‘So, where are you going to get those touches from?”’
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