Cedric Johnson calls defensive line the 'strength of the defense'

Cedric Johnson anticipates big things from his unit this season. The Ole Miss defensive linemen pulled back the curtain on his expectations for the Rebels’ defensive line.

“It’s going to be the strength of the defense. I personally believe that. We’ve grown a lot. We got a lot more depth. We got few great freshmen guys, all of them look great. Cham-bo [Campbell], DeeJay Holmes, Myles [Saulsberry] coming in. We got a lot of great guys. Stephon Wynn, Isaac [Ukwu]. We got a lot of great depth, a lot of guys being able to play. I just love the way we’re looking right now,” Johnson said.

If Ole Miss’ defensive line is far better than last season, it will be dangerous. In 2022, the team recorded 35 sacks, ranking top 30 in the nation. Conversely, however, the team struggled to stop runs in the backfield, recording just 66 tackles for loss last season.

Worse, the Rebels allowed 168 opponent rushing yards per game, good for 90th best in FBS. Johnson isn’t to blame. The 6-foot-3 defensive end recorded 32 tackles last year, adding 4.5 tackles for a loss and four sacks.

Johnson hopes to see those numbers only improve this year under new defensive coordinator Pete Golding, who joined Ole Miss in January 2023 after serving five seasons at Alabama in the same capacity.

“My role, I feel like I’m going to be moving a lot more, might be dropping back some, coming off the edge like I usually do,” Johnson said at SEC Media Days. “It’s going to be a lot more fun for me, just the D-line in general.”

Golding’s history is a far cry from Ole Miss’ recent subpar defense. In 2022, Alabama ranked ninth in scoring defense (18.2) and 13th in total defense (318.2 ypg). The Crimson Tide allowed just 4.6 yards per play last season, which led the SEC and ranked No. 4 nationally.

Head coach Lane Kiffin might be even happier than Johnson about the new addition.

“That was like the No. 1 coaches portal guy, we have the player portal, we got him to go in the portal,” Kiffin joked on “SEC Now.” “That was really neat to have a chance to get Pete. He’s got a background in the SEC, in the area of recruiting also, besides just being a brilliant mind in the game.

“It’s been awesome to work with him already, I knew a lot of people that have worked with him and talked so well about him, so bringing him in is really big. And we have a really big challenge of a new system and a lot of new players on that side of the ball trying to fix the issues we had down the stretch.”