Ole Miss holds its first scrimmage of fall camp on Saturday and is 'more important' than most
Ole Miss is two practices into its second week of fall camp and Tuesday saw the full pads come out, but it is how the week ends that has the attention of head coach Lane Kiffin.
Saturday is the first — and only — open practice for fans of training camp and is also the first true scrimmage for Ole Miss inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium this fall.
Through six practices there have been team periods and 7 on 7 drills but in a very controlled setting. Saturday will provide the first game-like environment for team that with nearly 45 percent of its roster made up of transfer or high school signees.
“I think you put more weight into the scrimmage than ever,” Kiffin said. “Because of the quarterbacks being young and because of all these portal guys everywhere that haven’t played together. As far as with us we haven’t seen the defensive guys tackle and some are in different positions maybe than what you’ve seen them at different places. I don’t know fall scrimmages being more important than these coming up.”
Ole Miss’ scrimmage of camp is one that has high expectations but Saturday cannot be underscored enough.
Starting at the top with the ongoing battle at the quarterback position between Jaxson Dart and Luke Altmyer. Both had strong days on Tuesday with Dart connection on deep passes to Malik Heath and J.J. Henry in the later stages of practice.
But then both still continue to make similar mistakes. This is causing very little separation to the naked eye and continuing to have to leave it up to Kiffin and his staff to make the decision behind closed doors.
“I know I sound like a broken record. They do some things really well and at times they look young again,” Kiffin said of his quarterbacks. “It takes some getting used to having a new quarterback. Losing a veteran that was our leader on the field.”
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Another area that might have the interest to those in attendance Saturday is the play of the special teams unit.
Ole Miss’ special teams group this year has a new look with the need to go find a new place kicker in the portal and a young punter tasked with replacing a veteran.
With no new updates on the situation of Caden Costa and the appeal to his year-long suspension the kicking duties have fallen squarely on the shoulders of transfer Jonathan Cruz. The former Charlotte kicker is one Kiffin has history with.
“Brought in another kicker being in the situation that we’re in and we’re familiar with,” Kiffin said. (Cruz) beat us at FAU years ago on a 50-some-yard field goal. He’s done a good job out there and got a young punter that very talented and just got to adjust to the game.”
The punter being freshman Fraser Masin. The Australian punter chose Ole Miss after playing at St. Joseph’s Nudgee College in Boondall, Au.
Martin is replacing Mac Brown who was an All-SEC punter during his Ole Miss career. Not much has been seen of Martin during the early practices of camp but Cruz did connect on some longer field goal tries at the end of Tuesday’s practice.
