{"id":29079,"date":"2015-11-12T17:33:59","date_gmt":"2015-11-12T22:33:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=29079"},"modified":"2015-11-23T12:45:48","modified_gmt":"2015-11-23T17:45:48","slug":"ole-miss-stars-must-align-one-final-time-at-home-in-magnolia-bowl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/ole-miss-stars-must-align-one-final-time-at-home-in-magnolia-bowl\/","title":{"rendered":"Ole Miss Stars Must Align One Final Time at Home in Magnolia Bowl"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am paid to write about <\/span><\/span>Ole Miss<\/b><\/span><\/span> Sports. I have watched almost every down of Ole Miss Rebel football for as long as I can remember. In the offseason, I scour the internet for recruiting news, rumors from spring practice, any sort of hint as to how this team will perform in the fall. Just like you, faithful Rebel fan, I know this team inside and out.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I still have no idea what will happen when <\/span><\/span>LSU<\/b><\/span><\/span> comes to town, and neither do you.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t for lack of football smarts. This isn\u2019t due to unfamiliarity with the team. It\u2019s like being asked to guess whether Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde is going to show up on any given Saturday\u2014I can\u2019t find any rhyme or reason to it. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

You were there when Ole Miss gave up the final 2 of 53 points that let <\/span><\/span>Arkansas<\/b><\/span><\/span> take the win in <\/span><\/span>Vaught-Hemingway<\/b><\/span><\/span>. You watched as a traditionally run-heavy offense ran the same play action sweep over and over again, torching the Rebs\u2019 finally-healthy defense to the tune of 442 yards and 6 touchdowns through the air. You watched soft coverage all night, and you lost track of the number of one-on-one battles Rebs lost.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

But you were also there when Ole Miss held <\/span><\/span>Texas A&M<\/b><\/span><\/span>, one of the more prolific offenses in the conference, to under 200 total yards. You saw the Aggies tack on one measly field goal in the second quarter while all-everything DT <\/span><\/span>Robert Nkemdiche<\/b><\/span><\/span> sat on the bench. In retrospect, it\u2019s baffling.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So far be it from me to guess which defense shows up next week in an effort to shut down one of the best rushing attacks in the country, led by star RB <\/span><\/span>Leonard Fournette<\/b><\/span><\/span>. But I can tell you this: the matchup between the <\/span><\/span>Landsharks<\/b><\/span><\/span> and the <\/span><\/span>Tiger<\/b><\/span><\/span> offense will be the key to the game.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"LSUstoryChadKelly\"<\/a>I say this for a couple of reasons. First, we are currently witnessing one of the best single seasons any Ole Miss quarterback has ever put together. <\/span><\/span>Chad Kelly<\/b><\/span><\/span> was widely regarded as a mystery upon his arrival in Oxford; many pegged the quarterback position as the one glaring deficiency on an otherwise-loaded roster. Turns out, that couldn\u2019t be farther from the truth. Kelly has had his way with opposing defenses this year, alternately slinging the ball to a talented fleet of wide receivers and getting hard-earned yards on the ground, en route to a 1st-Team-All-SEC-caliber performance. Take into account the shoddy offensive line play against <\/span><\/span>Florida<\/b><\/span><\/span> and <\/span><\/span>Memphis<\/b><\/span><\/span>, and his successes are all the more impressive. With a healthy supporting cast, I expect Kelly to get his due vs. a talented Tiger defense.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Second, it became evident in their loss to <\/span><\/span>Alabama<\/b><\/span><\/span> (their only blemish on the season at press time) that LSU is a one-dimensional offense. When you\u2019ve got arguably the most talented running back since <\/span><\/span>Adrian Peterson<\/b><\/span><\/span> on the roster, you\u2019re right to get him his touches. But when Fournette gets shut down, as he did vs. the Tide, to whom can the Tigers turn? LSU quarterback <\/span><\/span>Brandon Harris<\/b><\/span><\/span> has shown proficiency with the deep pass this year, but other aspects of the passing game have yet to get off the ground. As \u2018Bama showed, if you\u2019re able to stop Fournette, LSU doesn\u2019t have a lot of answers\u2014they didn\u2019t even substitute another back but for a single play.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I do suspect, even with the disappointing way this \u201cdream season\u201d has played out, that Ole Miss will be \"OleMissLSU\"<\/a>able to muster up some fight when LSU and <\/span><\/span>Mississippi State<\/b><\/span><\/span> come calling. Regardless of the records, these are always the two most important games on Ole Miss\u2019s schedule. But, as evidenced in the loss to Arkansas, all the heart and grit in the world can\u2019t make up for poor execution. The Magnolia Bowl won\u2019t be decided by who wants it more\u2014it will be decided by which team is able to exert their will on the other.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question that the talent is still there for the Rebs, but it will be interesting to see if this coaching staff (and Rebel Nation) will be able to coax another masterful performance from some of the best talent Ole Miss has ever had on campus. It\u2019s likely the last time that names like <\/span><\/span>Tunsil<\/b><\/span><\/span>, <\/span><\/span>Treadwell<\/b><\/span><\/span>, and Nkemdiche will be called over the Vaught-Hemingway PA. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s hoping they\u2019re able to put it all together, one last time. \"The<\/a><\/span>
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am paid to write about Ole Miss Sports. I have watched almost every down of Ole Miss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251,"featured_media":29080,"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-29079","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\/11\/LSUFEAT2015.jpg?fit=620%2C349&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079","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=29079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}