Ole Miss DE Jared Ivey wants to right some wrongs in this upcoming bowl game
Ole Miss finished the 2022 regular season with an 8-4 worksheet and an invitation to the Texas Bowl where they fell hard to Texas Tech 42-25 to continue their downward trend at the end of that season.
Senior defensive lineman Jared Ivey remembers that game all too well and is going for some bowl redemption December 30 when No. 11 Ole Miss takes on No. 10 Penn State in the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, near his hometown of Suwanee, GA.
“We felt like we deserved a New Year’s Six bowl with our 10-win regular season, “ Ivey noted. “Now the focus has shifted from the regular season to trying to win our bowl game. We had a lackluster performance in our bowl game last year and we want to right those wrongs and get better results.”
Jared will be heading back “home” as the Rebels (10-2) take on the Nittany Lions (10-2).
“I’m anxious to get back home and play, but my phone has been blowing up. Seems like I need 30,000 tickets,” Ivey smiled. “I’m going to get as many as I can. It will be exciting to play in front of family and friends in the Peach Bowl.”
Ivey has made his decision to come back next year to Ole Miss known.
“I left some stuff on the table. It was a good season as a team, but my personal performance wasn’t where I would like it to be coming out,” said Ivey. “It was a tough decision, but hearing that a lot of the guys who could have left to try to NFL motivated me to stay as well so we can try to make a run at bigger things together. I wanted to be a part of what is going to happen here next year.”
What did Ivey, in his words, leave on the table?
“I want to improve my versatility and learn more techniques,” he stated. “I want to get stronger at the point of attack. We will handle those things in the offseason.”
Ivey came back to Ole Miss in no small part due to some of the particular players who decided to come back for another run at a title.
“J.J. (Pegues) is my dog. He was one of the first guys to take me in when I first got here. He’s a guy everyone gravitates to and loves,” Jared added. “We’ve grown closer and closer, as well as everyone in our position room. When I knew he was coming back, it helped with my own decision.
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“Also, when you have Tre (Harris), (Caden) Prieskorn, Jordan (Watkins) and other guys who that stature coming back, you want to be a part of that. It should be a lot of fun. I know NIL is the elephant in the room, but coming back was way more than that. We’ve got some studs coming back and that makes me super excited to come back for another year.”
The Rebels are practicing now for the Peach Bowl, something Ivey believes can be a start to next year.
“If we win this bowl game, we can use it as a catapult to next season for sure,” he closed, “but it’s also humbling to know how close we were to the really big stage and that’s our goal moving forward. We will definitely use this game as fuel to close the gap with the teams ahead of us.”
#15 has done a lot of good things for the Rebels since he has been at Ole Miss and his “coming back” for an extra year means there will be a lot more.
Even bigger and better.
