John Saunders, Jr. showed in the Grove Bowl he is a valuable addition to the Ole Miss defense
There was a not a lot of defense, or standout defensive plays, in this past weekend’s Grove Bowl as was by design of head coach Lane Kiffin. Though there were some nice plays made by new additions, including John Saunders, Jr.
Saunders used the spring scrimmage to introduce himself to the Ole Miss fans as well as show he is going to be a key player in Pete Golding’s defense come this fall. The Miami (Oh) transfer finished with the most tackles on the Red or Blue teams and hauled in an interception.
Only one person finished with double digit tackles — which is a loose term given how the defense was handcuffed due to the Grove Bowl format — and that was Saunders with 13.5. No other player finished closer than six tackles behind him.
“For me, I just try and do my job,” Saunders said. “Even though we had a couple base calls I was still just trying to make plays within the framework of the defense. Even though we had a few calls I just trying to do my job every play within that call. Just controlling what I can control, honestly.”
Saunders also picked off Spencer Sanders off a tipped pass by cornerback Zamari Walton in the endzone. He returned it 44 yards.
“Zamari Walton was playing amazing defense and then he got the ball off and I just came over and got the tipped pass,” Saunders said. “Any opportunity to get a turnover is amazing for the defense to give the ball back to the offense.”
With the defense limited to base calls it was hard to get a judge on them but Saunders was happy with their effort.
Despite that Saunders felt the defense still succeeded in what was asked of them in the Grove Bowl. The offense took some liberties with the rules and were a little more “competitive” than expected to be, according to head coach Lane Kiffin.
Though the defense did allow a combined 802 passing yards and seven touchdowns between the Red and Blue offenses. While it is was a spring scrimmage meant more to entertain the fans in attendance at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Saunders still expects more from his play and the play of his teammates.
“I think we played pretty good, but we got to make some more plays,” Saunders said. “I felt like we left some things out there like allowing receivers to catch some contested passes. That’s something that I don’t like. Like, I don’t like giving them no passes at all. I’m going to watch the film and critique it. Just come back and just continue to get better every day.”
This spring also brought change on the field in the form of moving to a new position.
Saunders switched from cornerback to safety since coming to Ole Miss. The move is a new one and added more to his plate to get a quick grasp on.
Over the course of the 15 spring practices Saunders grew comfortable in his new position and the responsibilities that come with it.
Though, there are still come learning curves to overcome.
“It’s going pretty well. Just getting used to more communication,” Saunders said. “That’s like the main adjustment. It’s pretty much very similar to corner. Just man on number two for the most part and just dealing with the adjustments like the motions. Because there’s been a lot of motions going on from the boundary to the field. So just getting used to them and rotating with the other safeties.”
