After turning things around Saturday in a 23-3 victory against then-No. 15 Texas A&M, the Ole Miss football team hopes it can continue those positive vibes when it hits the road for another Southeastern Conference game.
No. 19 Ole Miss (6-2, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) will take on Auburn (4-3, 1-3) at 11 a.m. Saturday (ESPN) at Jordan-Hare Stadium in Auburn, Alabama.
Ole Miss snapped its two-game losing streak with a dominating performance against Texas A&M. Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze was proud of the way the Rebels responded.
“It’s always great when the scoreboard validates your efforts,” Freeze said. “That’s not always the case in life or in football, but this time it validated our efforts and performance.
“The goal and the challenge is to carry that over to this week, to carry the positive things that we do really well and continue to build upon them and correct the negatives.”
Ole Miss held Texas A&M to 192 yards of offense and overcame four turnovers.
“A lot of great efforts, I thought it was our most complete defensive performance of the year,” Freeze said. “Offensively, we were balanced. We had too many penalties and didn’t take care of the football, which has to improve, particularly going on the road against a very hungry Auburn team. This will be our ninth straight game; that presents its own challenges with just trying to manage, in my mind, what is best on how to adequately prepare our team, having played that many games in a row.”
The return of All-America tackle Laremy Tunsil, who missed the first seven games with eligibility issues, bolstered the strong showing by the offense.
“Laremy is arguably the best tackle in America,” Freeze said. “If you play defenses like you play the other night, it is important to have him. I think that allowing people to move them into their normal positions gets them to a more confident level as well. Playing right tackle is different than playing left tackle. Fahn (Cooper) played his best game, too. He really played well.
“I don’t know if that is confidence from having Laremy back and moving back to right for the majority of the game, but he played very well, as did Aaron Morris and Javon Patterson. They all did some really good things. It is nice to have him back.”
Auburn began the season as a consensus-top 10 team. However, inconsistent play at quarterback has plagued the Tigers. Auburn returns home after dropping a 54-46, four-overtime decision at Arkansas on Saturday.
“This Auburn is a scary team,” Freeze said. “(Auburn) coach (Gus) Malzahn does a phenomenal job with a great staff. His kids are right there at the edge and are really close to having the success that they desire. They have playmakers, and their quarterback is playing really well. It will be a great challenge. Again, on the road we have not been ourselves, so that’s another challenge that we’re anticipating answering and hopefully playing our best road game of the year.”
Ole Miss knows it can reach the SEC title game by winning out.
“There are a lot of teams that control their own destiny,” Freeze said. “I know LSU still controls theirs. All of that is great, but let’s just win one at a time. I know that is in the back our kids’ minds. Hope is a great thing in life. You have to maintain that hope, whether you are going to end up on top or in the middle.
“I like to take it one week at a time. We got our team ready to play very well at times, and sometimes we haven’t. The challenge I always look at is how do I get them ready to play at Auburn on Saturday to give us the best chance to win.”
n In related news, WCBI will broadcast the Ole Miss-Arkansas game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, in Oxford. The game will be the first of the year for the Rebels on CBS. … Senior Mike Hilton was named Monday one of 16 semifinalists for the 2015 Jim Thorpe Award, which is given annually to the top defensive back in college football. Hilton, a 5-foot-9, 184-pound athlete from Fayetteville, Georgia, has been a starter at every defensive backfield position during his four years in Oxford. … Senior safety Trae Elston was named SEC Defensive Player of the Week, and sophomore defensive end Marquis Haynes was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week. Elston had a career-high five pass breakups and also notched three tackles with a tackle for loss. Haynes had three tackles for loss, two sacks, a forced fumble, and a pass breakup.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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