Matt Corral issues warning to Ole Miss ahead of Egg Bowl

Matt Corral and the Ole Miss Rebels could not have asked for a better start to their senior night, as Ole Miss’ first drive saw the offense use just five plays to march 65 yards and score a touchdown in 1:07 of game time.

Ole Miss looked to be in a position to dominate the Vanderbilt Commodores on Saturday, and the next two possessions — a three-play, one-yard, three-and-out for Vanderbilt, followed by another field-goal drive to extend Ole Miss’ lead to 10-0 — continued to swing in the Rebels direction.

From there, though, it went downhill.

After the first ten points of the game, Ole Miss barely outscored Vanderbilt by a 21-17 margin, winning 31-17 in a game where the Commodores’ defense gave Corral everything he could handle. The Rebels were far from perfect on Saturday night, despite being heavily favored as a top-15 team hosting a bottom-dwelling SEC program. And now, as Ole Miss prepares to travel to Starkville for an Egg Bowl matchup against a dangerous, 7-4 Mississippi State team, Corral issued a warning to his teammates.

“All I’m thinking about is tomorrow and getting ready for [Mississippi] State,” Corral said, when asked of the emotional toll from senior night. “Just because it was a sloppy win today. You don’t really have to know football to see that. You can just see it in our play. We’ve just got to get better.

“This was nothing to celebrate,” Corral told his teammates postgame. “If we’re being honest, last week, we didn’t have the best practice Monday and Tuesday. … When we play teams of our caliber, they’re going to win. So, if we play like that against Mississippi State, we’re going to get blown out. That’s just the reality of it.”

Corral said Ole Miss had a sloppy week of practice, and many of the Rebels looked to be competing at 80 percent effort in preparation for Vanderbilt, and he said “it showed.”

Ole Miss may have amassed 470 yards of total offense, but it managed just 175 yards in the second half. The Rebels failed to punch in a first down on all four of its second-half third-down attempts, forcing Lane Kiffin to punt four times, and Vanderbilt’s offense got in a groove under its new starting quarterback Mike Wright.

Though Mike made a handful of mistakes, he gave Ole Miss’ defense trouble; Wright completed 22 of his 44 passing attempts for 241 yards and an interception, while rushing 13 times for 61 yards. By threatening to run the ball himself, Wright opened up holes for Vanderbilt running back Rocko Griffin, who had his best game of the season, taking 26 carries for 117 yards and a touchdown.

If Ole Miss’ offense continues to stall against Mississippi State in the upcoming Egg Bowl, Corral thinks the Rebels will be in for a close game. And if the defense lacks against Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense, it may not even be close.