OXFORD — For the second time this spring, weather forced the University of Mississippi football team indoors for practice Tuesday, but the change in scenery didn’t affect the team’s intensity and energy.
The football program also held its Faculty/Staff Appreciation Day, as more than 75 professors and administrators watched practice and ate dinner with the team and coaching staff after practice.
“I loved the energy,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “I thought everybody was flying around and playing with great passion, and that’s what we’ve got to have to get where we want to get in year one. I’m really pleased with this padded practice before we have to go one more non-padded before Saturday. I thought there was great competition. Offense won the first competition, defense won the team pass by a landslide then the offense came back and won a close one at the end on the first down one so it was a great day.”
After having a chance to review the game film from the team’s scrimmage Saturday, Freeze said he already saw improvement Tuesday at practice, but he added there are still improvements that need to be made.
“Offensively we do not have an awareness of staying on schedule,” he said. “From quarterbacks to receivers to running backs, second and threes become third and sixes because we don’t understand it’s second-and-3 and we have to stay on schedule. I thought there was some better play on the offensive line in the run game in the scrimmage. When we went to our tempo stuff, the defense got tired and got a little sloppy other than that they really dominated the series. Some of it is they may still not be playing free and fast and are having to think too much, and that will come, but I wish it would come a little faster.”
Freeze also commented on his quarterbacks Barry Brunetti and Bo Wallace.
“Brunetti threw for a few more yards, but I thought Wallace did a few more things to keep us on schedule,” Freeze said. “It’s not so much you are getting huge gains, but getting 1-yarders instead of a minus five. We just can’t take a negative play in this offense and survive.”
When it comes to the run game, Freeze said the offensive line has improved throughout spring drills.
“I really had very little preconceived notions because they lost Bradley Sowell and Bobby Massie,” Freeze said. “I think (co-offensive coordinator/offensive line coach) Matt Luke has done a wonderful job in preparing them. I think our first group right now has no doubt improved in the run game. We are still a long way away in pass protection and we have to have some of that second team improve in the off season.”
Kickoff for Saturday’s BancorpSouth Grove Bowl is set for 1 p.m. Stadium gates will open at noon. CSS will televise the game live.
Available through the athletics ticket office, tickets are $10 general admission, $40 for the southzone club level, and free for Ole Miss students, faculty and staff. All proceeds benefit the M-Club’s J.W. “Wobble” Davidson Scholarship Fund.
Saturday’s festivities will kick off with tailgating at 10 a.m. in The Grove with food, merchandise, and children’s games. At 10:45, the team will tread the traditional Walk of Champions. At 11 a.m. on the Grove stage, Eli Manning will headline a group of Rebel greats set to take part in an awards ceremony and panel discussion on the NFL.
Other events of Grove Bowl Week are a softball doubleheader against the University of Kentucky at 4 p.m. today, the Southeastern Conference Women’s Tennis tournament, which will run Thursday through Sunday; the Chucky Mullins Award Banquet at 7 p.m. Thursday.; a free concert in The Grove with Gavin DeGraw and special guest Craig Morgan at 8:30 p.m. Friday; and a baseball weekend series against the University of Arkansas.
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