‘It’s part of it’: Outside criticism of Ole Miss offense hasn’t fallen on deaf ears
Outside criticism hasn’t fallen on deaf Ole Miss ears.
Lane Kiffin and the rest of his offensive staff are fully aware of the Rebels’ myriad issues. Actually, they spent most all of their bye week on them.
The Rebels will put their work to the test on Saturday. No. 18 Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2 SEC) hosts Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3) Saturday at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.
“This is a really big game for us,” Kiffin said on Monday. He was holding his weekly press conference. “Big matchup to have Oklahoma coming here. Playing great defense (and) just changed their offensive staff. Looks like they changed their quarterback. Sounds like getting some receivers healthy.
“This is a big challenge for us. Excited to be back in front of our home crowd and get back on track.”
The Sooners have had their own offensive struggles. However, they do have some defensive punch. Oklahoma is tied for third nationally with 25 sacks. R Mason Thomas has six — the third-most in the SEC. He’s 10th in college football in the category.
“The time off was good for a number of guys, whether they had been out or not full speed, like JJ Pegues and Henry Parrish,” Kiffin said. “Both those guys played really hurt over the last game or two.”
The Rebels have spent most of their post-LSU preparation time focusing on themselves.
Ole Miss, specifically, has been out of rhythm offensively, starting with an inexplicable, SEC-opening loss to Kentucky at home when the Rebels managed just 17 points.
“We worked on things and maybe movements and even starting spots,” Kiffin said. “We’ve got a lot of stuff to work on ourselves. What we worked on during the bye and focused on was continuing to play really good run defense and better pass defense. Get less penalties and have a better rhythm on offense. Feel like we’ve been our of rhythm for a little bit here.”
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The Wildcats haven’t won an SEC game since the upset in Oxford. Florida nearly hung 50 on them in a win over the weekend.
“Watching stuff this weekend, everybody’s got problems,” Kiffin said. “Doesn’t seem like there’s any perfect teams. Maybe a year ago there were some.
“I feel like there’s a lot of issues with all teams. Year before we played a lot of close games and won them. Now we had two that were both very similar and went the other way.”
Ole Miss offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr., has seemingly drawn most of the fire lately.
“That’s part of his profession; he grew up in it,” Kiffin said. “He’s fine. Even though he’s younger, he’s been through it with his dad. It’s always part of this profession, more now than ever.
“It’s not even, ‘What have you done in the game?’ Now it feels like, ‘What have you done that quarter of a game?’ It’s part of the world we live in now, especially with social media.”
