Ole Miss didn’t fix its secondary in one night, but it finally looked like a group moving in the right direction.
After two weeks of coverage busts, free runners and too many moments where nobody seemed within five yards of a receiver, Saturday against LSU felt different.
It wasn’t perfect, and Pete Golding will probably circle plenty of corrections when he gets through the film, but fans should walk away encouraged. For the first time this season, Ole Miss’ defensive backs looked connected, disciplined and capable of doing more than just surviving a game.
“For the most part, I thought they did a really good job. I put a lot on them. There were a lot of checks and things like that,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said in his postgame press conference. “It wasn’t always perfect, and it wasn’t going to be perfect going in. But they’ve taken a beating lately and they’ve been really, really coachable. They made some plays when they had to. It wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t perfect either. We’ll look at the tape, but I’m really excited for them tonight to get that win.”
The numbers back that up. LSU didn’t disappear through the air, but it never found rhythm.
Sam Leavitt finished 16-of-27 for 158 yards, averaging just 5.9 yards per attempt. That’s not the profile of a quarterback carving up a defense.
LSU did hit four explosive pass plays, but those four completions all went to the same two players, Winston Watkins Jr. and Trey’Dez Green. Those chunk plays accounted for 87 of LSU’s 158 passing yards.
More than half of the Tigers’ production came on four snaps. Outside of those, LSU completed 12 passes for only 71 yards. That’s the kind of math a defense will take every week.
The secondary also erased two of LSU’s most reliable targets. Jackson Harris caught one pass on seven targets for five yards. Eugene Wilson III caught two passes on five targets for four yards.
Combined, they were targeted 12 times and produced three catches for nine yards. That’s not just solid coverage. That’s a game plan executed exactly the way it was drawn up.
Sharif Denson, making his Ole Miss debut, was one of the busiest players on the field, finishing with eight tackles, seven of them solo, plus a tackle for loss and a quarterback hurry.
“He came out of spring and summer as our guy. He’s kind of our bell cow back there,” Goldings said about Denson. “He has a ton of experience in this league. He’s a really good football player and he’s super smart.”
Edwin Joseph added a pass breakup against Harris.
Jaylon Braxton contributed everywhere, showing up as a blitzer early and as the closer late. His quarterback hurry helped stall LSU’s opening possession. His interception ended LSU’s final one.
That last drive summed up the night well. LSU moved the ball, and an Antonio Kite pass interference call gave the Tigers a boost, but once they reached the red zone, Ole Miss tightened up. On fourth down, Kam Franklin tipped Leavitt’s pass at the line and Braxton caught the errant pass.
No coverage busts. No free runners. Just a defensive back being in the right place at the right time.
Ole Miss isn’t done building this secondary. It still gave up a handful of explosives, and Golding will want cleaner execution in the middle of the field.
But the overall picture is a unit that played sound football, forced LSU into a narrow passing plan and came up with the defining play when the game was on the line.
After the first two weeks, Ole Miss needed to show progress. Saturday night, it did. And now there’s reason to believe more improvement is coming.
