Ole Miss' Run Game Has the Ingredients to Be the Best in the SEC
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For all the talk about the Ole Miss passing attack, star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss will be working with a new cast of wide receivers.
It seems the Rebels' running game is going under the radar.
That is even despite the ingredients it possesses that could give Ole Miss the best rushing offense in the SEC this coming season.
Ingredient No. 1: Best Returning Running Back
It's the obvious answer here: the return of Kewan Lacy for a junior season, despite reported interest from now-former head coach Lane Kiffin, gives the Rebels an instant chance at boasting the SEC's top running game.
He transferred in from Missouri, where he played behind Ahmad Hardy, and then supplanted him as the best running back in college football, winning the Doak Walker Award with 1,567 yards rushing and 24 touchdowns.
After getting the head coach job at Ole Miss to replace Kiffin, it was beyond obvious that priority No. 1 needed to be retaining Lacy and his running mate, Chambliss.
Ingredient No. 2: A Potential Running Mate?
There's no questioning the pecking order in the Ole Miss backfield; Lacy will be the go-to option, especially with the game on the line. However, given his undoubted NFL aspirations, the Rebels will look for help to shoulder the load.
They added both Makhi Frazier and Joshua Dye via the transfer portal this offseason, both of whom were productive in their respective previous stops. Now, as they enter the season in Oxford playing behind Lacy, they could play a valuable role between carries.
Frazier is fresh off leading the Michigan State Spartans in rushing with 520 yards on 116 carries, while Dye rushed for 1,831 yards and 28 touchdowns in his lone season at Southern Utah.
Neither will be asked to lead the way for Ole Miss, but rather to offer a potential change of pace against defenses already run down by Lacy and the Rebels' offense.
Ingredient No. 3: The Scheme-Induced Conflict
While neither Kiffin nor Charlie Weis Jr. will be calling plays offensively, the offense isn't changing wholesale. New offensive coordinator John David Baker knows what worked the first time in Oxford and found what worked for him at East Carolina before returning in January to see how Weis and Co. evolved.
He's already stated his intentions to keep things mostly the same and just add nuanced tweaks to what works.
This indicates that the Rebels' way of running high-tempo and spreading defenses out with their wide spread receivers will not be going away. Ole Miss's offense naturally forces defenses into conflict; they either play with a lighter box, leaving them susceptible to the run, or bring in another defender and risk the pass.
It's not a 1-for-1 comparison to what Tennessee does offensively, but it is similar. The Volunteers used the same type of conflict to lead the SEC in rushing in 2022 and 2023.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/olemiss as Ole Miss' Run Game Has the Ingredients to Be the Best in the SEC.
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