OXFORD — Bo Wallace knows a little about timing.
Even though he spent only one season as quarterback leading the East Mississippi Community College’s fast-paced offense, Wallace understands how everyone has to be in sync for an attack to click. Wallace understood that concept so well that he led EMCC to a NJCAA national championship and first-team All-America honors.
In his first season at the University of Mississippi, Wallace said there are similarities and differences between how things worked at EMCC and how new coach Hugh Freeze wants to run his offense.
“(Freeze) can think of some crazy stuff,” Wallace said. “You will see some trick plays and crazy stuff he comes up with. He really is an offensive genius.”
Freeze’s offensive acumen will be judged in time, but the players agree their new coach is honest in his approach, explains things in a way that is easy to understand, and has helped foster team chemistry and camaraderie by getting everyone to buy into his thinking.
Wallace, a sophomore, and junior Barry Brunetti are involved in a competition to decide which player will be the Rebels’ starting quarterback. Freeze has hinted throughout the preseason there is a possibility Ole Miss will go with two quarterbacks this season. Last season, Brunetti, Randall Mackey, and Zack Stoudt split time at the position and guided an offense that was 11th in the Southeastern Conference in scoring (16.1 points per game) and 11th in the league in passing yards per game (151.7).
This season, Freeze hopes to use a hybrid offense that includes concepts from a host of schools to best utilize the talents of Wallace and Brunetti. On paper, it might appear Wallace, who set NJCAA single-season records for passing yards (4,604), total yards (4,810), and touchdown passes (53) last season, would be the “passing” quarterback, while Brunetti, who rushed for a team-high 109 yards in the Grove Bowl, would be the “running” quarterback. But players and coaches have taken pains in the preseason to say that isn’t the case.
Instead, Wallace said the Rebels will have to execute whatever plan the coaches elect to use. To do that to the best of their ability, everyone will have to be accountable.
“He feels as if you put the person next to you before yourself that will make you play that much better because you have something to play for and it is harder to let somebody you care about down, so you will give that much more effort,” junior linebacker Mike Marry said.
Marry has heard Freeze talk about accountability in a way everyone has experienced. He said Freeze has related the example that someone should pick up a piece of trash if they it in the parking lot. That mentality fits with the approach Freeze wants his players to take on the football field. On a dry erase board in a team meeting room, Freeze left the words “You decide who plays, You decide how good we can be,” and “There are no limitations.”
“He always wants you to be accountable for everything you do, from the small things to the big things, so when you mess up on the small things it is just like you mess up on a big thing,” Marry said. “It all has the same weight. It makes you pay attention to more of the small things that you might overlook if you didn’t have a coach who was like that.”
Marry reiterated the anecdote about picking up the trash when asked another question about accountability. He said Freeze’s comments have helped him realize there are things he should have been doing.
“Sometimes it takes a person to open your eyes and let you know the small things you’re overlooking and make you start doing them,” Marry said.
Wallace said those little things are going to make a difference in the offense. While former Noxubee County High School standout wide receiver Vince Sanders said earlier this month at the team’s media day that the football will be in the air a lot this season, Wallace said fans can expect the Rebels to use unique looks. He said the offense will have the flexibility to be run-dominated one series and pass-heavy the next because the Rebels are going to run a lot of plays this season. That’s the same mind-set Wallace experienced last season at EMCC with a scheme that relied on timing and players to be in the right places.
“I think coach Freeze’s offense is always evolving,” Wallace said. “You’re never really going to see the same thing from week to week. We have one play and four things can happen based on the defense. It is pretty much a pick-your-poison offense. It is something I don’t think the SEC has seen.”
“One-two-three, you better get rid of it or it is six going the other way. … It is not as similar to what we did at EMCC. At EMCC we were two by two and five wide all the time. We didn’t use a tight end. Here, we’re going to use a lot of tight end and H-back type stuff.”
Freeze hopes Ole Miss will be able to replicate systems programs like Oklahoma State, the University of Oregon, and the University of Oklahoma have run in the past few years. How that will pan out remains to be seen, but Freeze feels the players understand the program is in rebuilding mode and that they will be ready to play. He feels the “buy-in factor” begins with something as simple as picking up trash in the parking lot or in the locker room. If the players are attentive to those details, the timing will follow.
“We understand where we are and that we will have some uphill climbs in some games, on paper anyway, but I do think we can create a confidence throughout fall camp that will give them the confidence that they’re going to go in and compete,” Freeze said. “If I could stand here and tell you I have the immediate fix, I probably would be doing another job somewhere. But I do believe when you surround yourself with people who are doing it right and are making it uncomfortable for somebody to do it the wrong way, it certainly helps. That is what we’re trying to do. I can’t say I am any better at it than any other coach who has tried it. I know what I have done at the places I have been that has helped us turn things around and give us the confidence to win and a swagger and a belief in each other. We’re going to stick to that plan. I do believe whole-heartedly you can get it done here, and I refuse to think any other way. The guys I have with me believe that also.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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