{"id":27354,"date":"2015-09-19T02:41:35","date_gmt":"2015-09-19T07:41:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=27354"},"modified":"2015-09-21T17:35:07","modified_gmt":"2015-09-21T22:35:07","slug":"untested-rebels-look-to-find-cracks-in-alabamas-armor-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/untested-rebels-look-to-find-cracks-in-alabamas-armor-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Untested Rebels Look to Find Cracks in Alabama\u2019s Armor Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1966AlaOleMissProgram-bigger\"<\/a>It\u2019s not every year that Ole Miss<\/strong> wins a football game against Alabama<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not every other year. It\u2019s not even, like, leap years or something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2014, Ole Miss notched its tenth win in program history against Alabama. We got to double digits against the Tide 120 years after starting the series.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s not good, y\u2019all.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s as many wins as Vanderbilt <\/strong>has over Florida<\/strong>. Kentucky<\/strong>\u2019s beaten Georgia<\/strong> twice more. Mississippi State <\/strong>has beaten Alabama eighteen times.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"2014-AfterAlabama\"<\/a>Looking at the numbers, you start to get an idea why last year\u2019s victory was so earth-shatteringly massive for the Rebel fanbase. The ESPY awards seem justified. You begin to see why pieces of the torn-down goalposts were selling online for exorbitant sums of money.<\/span><\/p>\n

So the question is: can Ole Miss do it again? The Rebs have never beaten Alabama in back-to-back seasons, and a win in Tuscaloosa while breaking in a new quarterback in front of a national TV audience would pretty well cement the notion that Ole Miss can contend with the SEC\u2019s big boys on a year-in, year-out basis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"AlabamaFootball\"<\/a>Of particular note in this year\u2019s game in the manner in which Alabama has adopted the up-tempo offensive style that Nick Saban<\/strong> so publicly opposed throughout his career. Offensive guru Lane Kiffin<\/strong> has the Tide<\/strong> churning at a faster pace than even Ole Miss; Alabama actually averages more plays per game than the Rebels do (though this can partially be attributed to the Rebs\u2019 unreal offensive efficiency and capacity for breaking big plays).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the keys to this game will be an unprecedented test to the Ole Miss defense in massive running back Derrick Henry<\/strong>. This year\u2019s model of \u201coversized and unstoppable Nick Saban<\/strong> running back\u201d is already generating Heisman buzz, and the Rebs\u2019 front six has yet to be tested by a running game of this caliber. The Tide will trot out an offensive line that Hugh Freeze<\/strong> described recently as \u201cas good as [he\u2019s] seen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, Alabama is not invincible. Kirby Smart<\/strong>\u2019s defenses have shown a repeated tendency to give up yards to teams that push the tempo and mix things up on offense, and Bo Wallace<\/strong> was able to carve up their secondary last year to the tune of 251 yards and 3 TD.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, Wallace was aided by a stingy defense and a blind side protected by All-American LT Laremy Tunsil<\/strong>, whose eligibility remains in doubt in light of NCAA investigations. These are currently question marks for the untested Rebels, with Hugh Freeze repeatedly claiming that he \u201cdoesn\u2019t know\u201d if his team is ready for conference play.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ChadKellyTouchdown_TLV\"<\/a>If Kelly\u2019s crazy efficiency can continue (at press time, he holds the #1 QBR in college football), and if the defense can come up with an answer for Henry and co., the Rebs stand a solid chance of pulling the upset and setting the tone in the SEC West.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, it\u2019s true that history likes to repeat itself in the tradition-rich SEC, and Ole Miss has never won a night game in Tuscaloosa.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That said, this Rebel team doesn\u2019t seem to care much for historical trends.\u00a0 \"The<\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not every year that Ole Miss wins a football game against Alabama. It\u2019s not every other year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":27359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-athletics","category-ole-miss"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/alabamaFEAT.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/251"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}