Ole Miss has its own Matt Jones; Ole Miss fans are mad at our Matt Jones
On Saturday, Matt Jones will take the field in Oxford, but it won’t be the founding father of this website and radio show. Our Matt Jones will be at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this weekend — and is becoming well-known among Ole Miss fans, which we’ll cover later — but the Matt Jones I’m referring to is the Rebels’ junior tailback.
Jones has 30 carries for 201 yards and three touchdowns this season, which is No. 2 on the team behind starting running back Henry Parrish Jr. Jones is a former walk-on who earned a scholarship and has already graduated with his degree in general business. The Jackson, Mississippi native has appeared in 20 career games. Last week vs. Georgia Southern, Jones had eight carries for 36 yards and a score. In the season-opening 76-0 win over Furman, he had a team-high 68 rushing yards and two touchdowns on just three touches.
At 5’7″, 200 lbs., their Matt Jones may be a little guy, but he can scoot:
Ole Miss’ passing game is the main reason why the Rebels have the No. 1 offense in the country (55 points per game), but they also rank No. 12 in rushing yards per game (248). Kentucky will be focused on slowing down the Rebels and limiting explosive play; however, they’ll have to keep an eye on No. 0 too.
Ole Miss fans are big mad at our Matt Jones
On yesterday’s show, our Matt Jones talked about his experience at the Ole Miss vs. Kentucky game in Oxford two years ago. That game also kicked off at 11 a.m. local time, so Vaught-Hemingway Stadium wasn’t 100% full at kickoff as fans made their way in from the Grove. That said, as someone who was also there, I will say it didn’t take them too long to finish their mimosas and get through security.
A ton of Kentucky fans made the trip, making the atmosphere inside the stadium a little friendlier to the Cats, who had the Rebels on the ropes and should have left Oxford with a victory. As I’m sure you remember, that didn’t happen, but Matt’s comments made the rounds yesterday and Ole Miss fans are big mad about them.
If you’re a KSR+ member, you can read multiple threads about Matt’s comments on the OM Spirit message board. Rebel fans seem most hung up on the fact that Vaught-Hemingway Stadium has a larger capacity (64,038) than Kroger Field (61,000) but I think we can all agree that neither atmosphere ranks among the best in the SEC.
Regardless of reputation, Vince Marrow said he and the staff are making sure the Cats will be ready from the jump on their first road trip of the season.
“These young guys and some of these guys coming from other schools in the Big Ten, I’m telling ’em it’s different. These games are like NFC games, them old NFC games between the Cowboys and Redskins where it’s going to be a physical game and the atmosphere, especially down there at 11 o’clock. The last time we went down there, thought the crowd might not be there, but they were there and ready to go. I guess they got the bars open at 7 am. They were juiced up ready to go. They’ll be ready for us.”
Kentucky vs. Ole Miss: How To Watch, Listen
- Kickoff: 12:00 p.m. ET
- TV: ABC (Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy, Molly McGrath)
- Watch college football games live – try Fubo for free! Click HERE NOW.
- Local Radio: UK Sports Network (Tom Leach, Jeff Piecoro, Dick Gabriel)
- AM: 840 WHAS, 630 WLAP
- FM: 98.1 WBUL
- Online: iHeart Radio
- Sirius XM: 374 (UK); 106 or 190 (Ole Miss)
- Live Stats: StatBroadcast
You can also keep up with the game and chat with other fans on our game thread on KSBoard, with Nick Roush, Adam Luckett, and Drew Franklin providing updates from Kroger Field and the rest of us from home.
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