Ole Miss needed just two games to make its special teams great again
As a general rule, Ole Miss third-year head coach Lane Kiffin doesn’t like taking credit.
So, leave it to the Ole Miss Spirit to give Kiffin his due, because he absolutely deserves at least partial praise for the quick turnaround of the Rebel special teams in the last two games.
Ole Miss is 3-0 after thoroughly dominating at Georgia Tech, 42-0, on Saturday. Among the heroics, veteran defensive end Cedric Johnson blocked a punt to position the Rebels’ deep in Georgia Tech (1-2) territory midway through the first quarter.
Ole Miss, a few plays later, punched in the second touchdown of the day for an early 14-0 advantage.
“We were actually in punt safe when Ced just made a great play,” Kiffin said. “I could be like every other coach and be like, ‘Yeah, we worked on that all week. It was all us.’
“That was just a really good player making a really good play.”
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True, but Kiffin was just a really good coach challenging his team after Troy.
Ole Miss easily won its season opener, 28-10, but the Rebels sleep-walked through two of the three football phases. The defense was the exception, putting up the first of three straight dominant performances to kick off 2022.
Ole Miss has held eight straight opponents to 21 points or less dating back to last season.
Kiffin had plenty to say afterwards, but he made a point to specifically point out the overall play, energy and effort (or lack thereof) of the Ole Miss special teams.
The unit responded with three turnovers in a 59-3 drumming of Central Arkansas, including a Ladarius Tennison’s scoop-and-score first-quarter touchdown of a bad snap on a UCA punt attempt — the second such touchdown in as many seasons for the Rebels.
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They last blocked a punt in back-to-back games in 1998, and Ole Miss has multiple blocked punts in a season for the fourth time since 1998.
The Rebels last pulled off the feat in 2007 (Memphis and Alabama).
“We actually need to work on (Johnson) not picking the ball up when his knee is on the ground or else he would’ve scored, too,” Kiffin joked. “But no, special teams has played really well the last two weeks.
“That’s the third part we say about playing on the road: Run game, defense, special teams.”
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Also encouraging, Charlotte transfer Jonathan Cruz has stabilized kicker.
Ole Miss lost freshman All-American Caden Costa to an NCAA suspension, and while Cruz missed a 50-plus-yard field goal attempt on Saturday, the fact Kiffin — who’s notorious for usually only going for three points as a last result — trusted him to try is notable in and of itself.
Cruz is 1 for 2 on the year, with a long of 41, not to mention he had seven touchbacks on kickoffs at Georgia Tech.
Fourteen of his 18 kickoffs this season have gone through the back of the end zone.
“When you’ve got new quarterbacks, everybody’s got to play well around them,” Kiffin said previously. “It’s not just the offensive players. It’s defense and special teams, and it’s going to get harder as we go on the road.”
