Ole Miss defense used a winning performance to alter the rest of its season
Following a Saturday in October where the scoreboard at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was nearly put on tilt after the game between Ole Miss and Arkansas, the Rebel defense knew a change was needed.
The Rebels won the game, 52-51, but allowed the Razorbacks to put up video game-like numbers in the process.
What transpired over the final seven games was a defense that went from the punchline of the football team to one that was vital in the Rebels winning 10 regular season games.
That game against the Razorbacks, where each team finished with over 600 total yards of offense, was a turning point.
Many of the players, including Sam Williams and Chance Campbell, have voiced their reasons for the turnaround with the most popular answer being simply a mindset reset.
On Tuesday, co-defensive coordinators D.J. Durkin and Chris Patridge met with the media for their Sugar Bowl availability and provided their perspective of what’s happened since the Arkansas game.
“This goes back to something we really built in the offseason,” Durkin said. “It was really a matter of taking ownership of the problem and knowing we have to play better. Our players, total credit goes to them. They’ve really bought into that and bought into playing together.
“After that game we really leaned hard on them. We really went back to the things that we had talked about and built on and said, ‘Man, we put a lot into this thing. We’re not going to let it slip away.’ To our guy’s credit they responded the right way.”
Since the Arkansas game, the defense clamped down and held their final seven opponents to an average of 426.4 yards per game.
The only team to finish with more than 467 total yards was Auburn with 483 — the only game the Rebels lost the rest of the regular season.
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Giving up 676 yards to Arkansas was something the Rebel defense did not hide from or never bring up again. They embraced and after a tough film review, a lot of personal reflection and reflection as a unit took place.
“We were asking guys to play 99, 100 snaps a game so we had to adapt and do some different things,” Partridge said. “We all looked at ourselves after that game because we felt we had a pretty good defense. We all looked at ourselves after game and pushed ourselves to get up and get better.”
Part of that adaptation and change was choosing to be more aggressive and put pressure on the quarterback.
Sam Williams was one player who benefited from getting to pin his ears back and get after the quarterback. Williams finished with 7.5 of his record-setting 12.5 sacks following the Arkansas game.
“We’re just trying to create negative plays,” Durkin said. “We’re trying to get offenses off track, which I think is the key fundamental of defense. We have some great guys that do a great job of winning some one-on-ones and our sack number has gone way up and negative plays have gone way up.”
