Florida’s 24-point win exposed plenty of flaws in the Ole Miss defense.
The Rebels had an entire bye week to fix their tackling, run fits and defensive communication. They spent the week off by not actually taking it off.
Ole Miss practiced in full pads and didn’t even run any defensive plays in one practice. It was all geared toward getting back to the fundamentals.
Now, we’re less than 36 hours away from finding out if those fixes worked.
Vanderbilt’s offense has enough similarities with Florida’s run style to pause for concern. There’ll be multiple personnel groupings, shifts and motions and quarterback-run concepts.
That’s why Saturday is, essentially, a midterm exam on everything Ole Miss spent the bye week trying to correct.
Fifty-two points is a lot of points scored no matter how they’re scored. But the how now serves as a potential blueprint for future teams to beat Ole Miss on the ground.
Of course, Vanderbilt doesn’t have a running back like Jadan Baugh and Diego Pavia isn’t about to walk through the door. So, it’s not as simple as “do what Florida did” but the tools are there for the Commodores to use.
“They do a really good job formationally, very similar to Florida with multiple personnel groupings, shifts and motions to be able to run the football,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said Monday. “Their bread and butter is the G-lead on offense, and they’re not hiding it. They’re going to find multiple different ways to get to it.”
But the Rebels can set those blueprints on fire by passing this midterm. The bar isn’t too high after giving up 302 rushing yards, 498 total yards, 6.6 yards allowed per play and let Florida keep possession for 36:59.
The questions are easy to predict, which makes studying a lot easier.
Is the tackling better?
Ole Miss has 62 missed tackles that’s led to 482 yards, nearly 70% of the rushing yardage allowed in four games.
The Rebels had a pretty intense study session on this topic during the bye week. That practice without any defensive calls being made was spent striking blocks, running, tackling and playing physically.
If Ole Miss keeps missing tackles, we could be in for a repeat of what we saw in Gainesville.
Do you miss correctly?
Golding was asked at his Monday press conference about specific corrections that were focused on during the bye week.
“A lot,” he said.
But the biggest was leverage and where you miss. Doesn’t make sense? We’ll let Golding explain.
“When you talk about defense, it’s numbers-based. It’s leverage, angles, eye control, balance and body control. But the base thing is striking a block, leveraging the ball and understanding where my help is. It doesn’t matter whether it’s the run game or pass game. You have 11 guys, and things are designed to take away certain things. Everything isn’t designed to take away everything. You have to understand where to miss. If I’m an outside-in piece, I have to miss outside. If I miss the tackle, he has to cut back. If I’m an inside-out player and miss the tackle, it’s missing inside-out. Make the ball bounce because I have a fence outside. There are so many examples of us not using all 11 guys and a lack of understanding. You’re not going to be perfect. You’re not going to make every play. But where do I miss? Those are things you’ve drilled and set up that have been ingrained since spring, summer and fall. These aren’t new concepts or new drills, but obviously it wasn’t taken.”
Make sense now? Good. It’s an 11-man sport and all 11 have to work in unison.
Are defenders communicating with one another?
Golding already stated that Vanderbilt and Florida’s rushing attacks are similar. There’ll be motions and formation changes to create favorable numbers and force defenders to exchange responsibilities immediately before the snap.
Overcoming that requires communication, even when the communication between the coach and player is shut off. Players have to adjust on their own.
If there’s communication, the Rebels should look a lot better.
Who is administering the exam?
Vanderbilt has two quarterbacks Ole Miss must prepare for and the offense looks different depending on who is in the game.
“It’s almost like two different offenses,” Golding said. “Obviously, Curtis is super talented. He has a big body and a really live arm. I think he does a good job at his age of taking what people give him and taking away free access. He has a really good quick release. From a scramble standpoint, once he gets those feet moving a little bit, it’s kind of scary as well. He moves the pocket and throws really well on the run.”
However, Curtis landed on the injury report this week, putting his availability in doubt. That could lead to Blaze Berlowitz leading the offense.
“You can feel the New Mexico influence and the reason why he came with the coordinator,” Golding said. “It feels much more option-generated, numbers and grass.”
Who lines up behind center and how Ole Miss reacts will be very telling about how the game will unfold.
Final thoughts
Florida already graded Ole Miss once.
The result was 302 rushing yards, 52 points and two weeks for Pete Golding to study everything that went wrong.
Vanderbilt won’t present the exact same exam Saturday. The questions will look different. The formations will change. There may even be two quarterbacks asking them.
But many of the answers are the same: leverage the football, communicate, tackle and trust the other 10 defenders to do their jobs.
Ole Miss has had two weeks to study.
Now comes the retest.
