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HOOVER, Ala. – Lane Kiffin’s first year as a coach at Ole Miss has been a roller coaster of epic proportions. The offense – something Kiffin made his career in – racked up 555.5 yards per game, the SEC’s best. He produced 18 plays from 40 yards or more – three behind Alabama, which played three more games than the Rebels. The Rebel defense, however, did not hold its end of the bargain. He gave up 519 yards per game, the worst in the league, which made each of those offensive yards a necessity.
Translation: Ole Miss are the most volatile team in the country, which will make them a staple on television in 2021.
Quarterback Matt Corral is quite capable of lead your team up and down the field at will. The SEC’s top passer from last season returned to lead a gun-laden offense. The team’s top five rushers from last season are back, including starter Jerrion Ealy, who has 785 yards and nine touchdowns in 10 games. Elijah Moore is gone, but three established receivers – Jonathan Mingo, Dontario Drummond and Braylon Sanders are all back to stretch the field for Corrall. Then there’s the X-factor. John Rhys Plumlee, a quarterback who led the SEC two years ago with 113.67 yards per game, can play any field for Kiffin. Corral’s transformation into master of Kiffin and offensive coordinator system Jeff Lebby turned him into a superstar and the offense into the SEC’s scariest offense.
“They changed my whole thought process, man,” Corral said Tuesday on day two of SEC Media Days. “They changed my whole thinking process about how I look at a defense and how I approach the game and how I prepare for a game. It’s something different that I don’t have. did two years ago when I was in first grade. Now it has become a habit. Really, I am blessed – I got lucky with them. I did. “
Defense, of course, must change. Kiffin lost 30 pounds in the offseason and told reporters he won’t eat until Ole Miss starts playing defense. There is hope for an early recovery. The truncated offseason and shift to a 3-4 defense played a big part in Ole Miss’s defensive incompetence last season.
“I think our last two games, the two games we won, the Egg Bowl and the Bowl, started to give us a little confidence,” said defensive back Jaylon Jones. “Also too, having a spring this season. The spring prom went well. Like I said before, our second year on this program, it gives the guys a lot more confidence. of guys coming back. So we’re going to be a more experienced defense this year. “
Even if the defense struggles, there is still hope. Kiffin has embraced football analysis over the past few years and associated it with understanding the feel of each game in his decision-making process.
“I think part of that is the analysis and just understanding how the games unfold,” Kiffin said. “Again, when you follow him and then if you have a team, like we were, when we were much better in attack than in defense a year ago, you have to be really aggressive, and you are aggressive. in your game It’s not just fourth downs. It can be fakes, tricks and taking more shots on the field, sometimes playing more aggressively on defense, knowing, hey, there are strong chances that they will score, so let’s actually be more aggressive in trying to create some revenue rather than letting them evolve in the field. “
If Kiffin stops fasting at some point in the near future and starts gaining more weight, it could lead Ole Miss to return to conflict in SEC West. All he needs is a few defensive saves to drastically change his team’s fortunes.
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