An Ole Miss Reset Needed During Bye Week

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The Ole Miss Rebels have a bye week coming up during week five of the college football season. For the Rebels, it likely comes at a good time, as they pulled off an emotional win at home vs. LSU, and then followed that up by getting embarrassed by Florida in The Swamp. So now, with the roller coaster of the last two weeks, the question remains: can Ole Miss reset during their bye week?

The tough side of the bye week coming up is that the Florida loss featured very few positives in any facet of the game. That leaves a variety of improvements that need to be made as they get ready to travel to Nashville to take on Vanderbilt in two weeks.

What are the improvements, and can the mistakes be fixed in time?

Can Ole Miss Reset During The Bye

Offensive Play Calling

This is a minor concern, but a concern nonetheless. The play calling from offensive coordinator John David Baker during the Florida loss was head-scratching at times. Facing a team that at the time had the 98th-ranked secondary in the nation, Ole Miss didn’t really try to attack that unit until the second half. When they finally did, they saw success.

So was the decision to try to rely on the run early on simply an oversight by Baker? Was it a plan to try to catch the Gators off guard, seeing as starting running back Kewan Lacy was out? Whatever the answer is, it didn’t work. The Rebels couldn’t get anything going on the ground, and by the time they opened up the passing game, Florida had snatched momentum, with no intentions of giving it back.

Put simply, Baker needs to be more aggressive. With one of the best quarterbacks in the country in Trinidad Chambliss, and with the passing attack being the strength of the offense, against a below-average secondary, you have to take advantage.

So while the play calling wasn’t the reason the Rebels lost, it certainly didn’t put them in the best situation to win the game.

Getting Lacy Healthy During the Bye Week

Coming into the season, Lacy was projected to potentially find himself in the Heisman conversation. Through four games, he’s only rushed for 191 yards, with four touchdowns. Despite the below-average numbers, he’s still averaging nearly five yards per carry.

The issue has been his health. In the season opener against Louisville, he missed much of the second half with a bone bruise. Two weeks later, against LSU, he again missed most of the second half with a shoulder injury. That injury ultimately sidelined him for the entire Florida loss, as well.

The Ole Miss offense looks much more efficient and explosive with Lacy on the field. Everything seems to flow better. So during this off week, one key has to be finding a way to get him back in the starting lineup, as well as figuring out the best way to keep him healthy for the rest of the season. The schedule doesn’t get any easier for the Rebels moving forward, so having Lacy available is going to be a big key to their potential success.

Can Ole Miss Reset the Defensive Woes?

There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the Ole Miss defense was pathetic. In the win against LSU, it looked like they had finally turned a corner from struggles in the first two weeks of the season. In the loss to Florida, they took about six steps back.

They struggled in the secondary, the defensive line failed to get pressure, and they couldn’t tackle anybody. Gators running backs Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark combined for 268 yards rushing. Of the 268 yards, 200 came after contact with Rebel defenders. That’s not a bad scheme; that’s bad execution. To further prove the disaster of a defensive performance, Florida scored 35 points in the second half, and quarterback Aaron Philo only completed five passes in the half.

Regardless of who you play in the SEC, if you give up over 300 yards rushing yards as a team, you’re going to struggle to win football games. So whether they just need to work on practicing tackling drills, or change up the personnel on the defensive side of the ball, Ole Miss is going to have to come up with a major reset on the defensive side of the football if they want to have any chance of being a contender as the season progresses.

Special Teams Problems?

This is a topic that typically goes under the radar, but special teams can have a huge impact on games. For Ole Miss, they have an above-average place kicker in Lucas Carneiro, as well as a viable punter in Oscar Bird. But none of that matters if the Rebels’ special teams coverage unit acts like they don’t want to be on the field. Florida kick returner London Montgomery returned three kicks on Saturday for 128 yards. That’s an average of nearly 43 yards per return. One of those was a 41-yard return to put the Gators in good starting field position following an Ole Miss touchdown that cut the lead to three.

Florida scored on that drive. Ole Miss returned the favor, cutting the lead to three, once again. On the ensuing kickoff, Montgomery this time took the return 74 yards, giving his offense great field position again.

In today’s football, it’s rare to find kickers that can’t kick the ball through the end zone. And we know Carneiro has the leg to. This leaves the question of whether he is dealing with an injury that is being kept quiet, or whether the game plan was to go with shorter kickoffs to allow possible returns.

If it turns out there’s a possible injury, that’s one thing. If it was a coaching decision to allow more returns, following the first long one, then that’s borderline coaching malpractice.

Moving Forward

The good news is that the season is far from over. Even with one loss, the Rebels still have the opportunity to make the College Football Playoff. But knowing that a three-loss team is likely to make it, it did cut their margin of possible error the rest of the way down to one. And with a schedule that still features Texas, Georgia, and Mississippi State, that’s no easy path.

But if this past weekend was any indication, none of that will matter if we don’t ultimately see a full Ole Miss reset during their bye week. Because the team that showed up against Florida is extremely far from a team that deserves a playoff spot.

Main Image: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

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