{"id":28552,"date":"2015-10-26T15:34:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-26T20:34:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=28552"},"modified":"2015-11-02T17:40:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T22:40:25","slug":"rebels-trending-upward-heading-into-teeth-of-sec-schedule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/rebels-trending-upward-heading-into-teeth-of-sec-schedule\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebels Trending Upward Heading Into Teeth of SEC Schedule"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following his team\u2019s emphatic 23-3 win over Texas A&M<\/strong> at home last week, Ole Miss<\/strong> coach Hugh Freeze<\/strong> credited a renewed sense of energy around the team for its return to form \u2013 particularly for the Landshark Defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

After saying that his staff put an emphasis on physicality in practice, Freeze noted that \u201cwe ran to the football like we\u2019ve been known to do,\u201d and that \u201cthere were a lot of times that [Freeze] didn\u2019t think there was anywhere [for Texas A&M] to throw the football.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe ran basically four things instead of fourteen, and just made sure that our kids were going to play hard and be in the right spot. Sometimes it just clicks in the game plan.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for his offense\u2019s success rushing the ball, he credited the return of Laremy Tunsil<\/strong> with galvanizing his offensive line and instilling those starters with confidence and comfort at their original positions. But one unsung advantage that his offense had was support from their defense and special teams.\"Hugh-Freeze-4351\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReally, this is the first game we\u2019ve gotten off the field on 3rd down [on defense],\u201d Freeze explained. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really even go tempo, and we got 93 plays. When you get 93 plays, you\u2019re getting more opportunities on offense. You\u2019re going to get more carries and more guys [involved].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He also had high praise for his special teams game plan and execution, saying that the Rebels<\/strong> chose to \u201cmove the kickoffs around\u201d and \u201cuse two different punters, depending on what hash and area of the field we were on.\u201d Ole Miss downed two punts inside Texas A&M\u2019s 10 yard line, and another inside the 20.<\/span><\/p>\n

He hopes that the team will play with the same fire and execution in their tilt at Auburn<\/strong> this weekend, another in a crucial string of conference battles to end the season.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t been ourselves on the road, and so that\u2019s another challenge we\u2019re anticipating answering, and hopefully playing our best road game of the year,\u201d Freeze said.\u00a0\"Photograph<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were good our first road game. I thought our energy was good. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s being on the road, so much as it is the fact that we\u2019ve lost some confidence somewhere.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In injury news, Christian Morris<\/strong> suffered a neck contusion that will keep him out for an indefinite period of time. Although the defense should be bolstered by the return of Tony Conner<\/strong> (who is running on grass again this week), Robert Nkemdiche<\/strong> is still undergoing concussion protocol, which Freeze described as \u201csomething you can\u2019t fool around with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had our share of injuries and issues,\u201d said Freeze. \u201cI\u2019ve kind of got in a mindset of \u2018next man up.\u2019 Let\u2019s get [Robert Nkemdiche] well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Also of note Monday<\/span> morning was Freeze\u2019s take on the University\u2019s decision to remove the Mississippi state flag from campus. The highly-publicized decision has been a national talking point, but Freeze stated his belief that \u201cit\u2019s the right thing for this university, and hopefully [the state of Mississippi] also will follow suit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it demonstrates adequately our core values of, really, who we want to be,\u201d Freeze noted. \u201cI talked to [interim chancellor] Morris Stocks<\/strong> this morning, and just hearing how the process went, that was very positive the way everyone handled it here at our university.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s time we all move forward together.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ole Miss will take on Auburn at 11 AM<\/span> on Halloween, October 31<\/span>, at Jordan-Hare Stadium<\/strong>. The game will be televised by ESPN.\u00a0\"The<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following his team\u2019s emphatic 23-3 win over Texas A&M at home last week, Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":28221,"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":[1119,4104,3994,40,2292,41,7351,4916,2084,5,6884,7067,4,700,1645,2311,2087,4399],"class_list":["post-28552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-athletics","category-ole-miss","tag-auburn","tag-christian-morris","tag-espn","tag-football","tag-halloween","tag-hugh-freeze","tag-jordan-hare-stadium","tag-landshark","tag-laremy-tunsil","tag-mississippi","tag-morris-stocks","tag-ole-miss","tag-oxford","tag-rebels","tag-robert-nkemdiche","tag-sec","tag-texas-am","tag-tony-conner"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/ole-miss-vs.-memphis.jpg?fit=534%2C401&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28552","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=28552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}