The Ole Miss defense is continuing its renaissance turnaround under Lane Kiffin and Chris Partridge
The Ole Miss defense managed to bottle up its strong close to the 2021 season and use it in the early going of this year, with a lot of success.
What was once a worry and a concern for head coach Lane Kiffin is now a badge of honor and something proud to boast about. No longer is there the concern that the offense has to score on every possession.
Now it is an Ole Miss defense that is making hard on opposing offense to knock the zero off the scoreboard. Through three games the Rebels are tied with Iowa for the second-best scoring defense, holding opponents to 4.3 points per game.
Only No. 1 Georgia is better with a scoring defense that is giving up 3.3 points a game.
When Kiffin arrived at Ole Miss one of the top items on his to-do list was to improve a defense that had more holes in it than swiss cheese. In 2020 it was next to last team in total defense, giving up 519 yards per game.
Since then it has dramatically improved to where Ole Miss is currently the 16th best defense, holding opponents to 264.3 yards per game. The Rebels are the fourth best defense in the SEC behind Alabama, Georgia and Kentucky.
“We got good players. That helps,” Kiffin said during his weekly appearance on the SEC Coaches Teleconference on Wednesday.
“Coach (Chris) Partridge has done a great job in giving people problems and we’ve got the best personnel we’ve had on defense. It’s dramatically different from the first year we were here in what we had. Credit to our guys that recruiting those guys and credit to those guys for playing well.”
Related: The Ole Miss secondary gets its first test with the high-powered Tulsa offense
For an offensive mind such as Kiffin’s it has taken some time to adapt his ways of overseeing a defense as head coach.
The strategy is not simply standing out of everybody’s way after hiring a coaching staff, led by Partridge, and players.
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But having all of the experience Kiffin has accumulated over his coaching career, the perfect formula he has created at Ole Miss could be what is leading to this year’s success.
“I think there’s different models, different ways of doing it,” Kiffin said. “You can be completely hands off, especially if you’re running the other side of the ball as the main play caller like I have before. Now I oversee everything more than a long time ago. There’s more ideas in the offseason and stuff to go study or implement that I push them to now more than I did back before.”
This molded approach has led to the Ole Miss defense carry and start several streaks this season.
No opponent has scored more than 21 points against Ole Miss in its last eight games and none of the first three teams this season have score more than 10.
Ole Miss has held opponents scoreless for seven of the last eight quarters and pitched shutouts in nine of the 12 quarters this season.
Other notable accomplishments by this year’s Ole Miss defense include the 13 total points allowed being the lowest through three games since the 1963 season, tying the same mark.
We never really talk about it together,” said Deantre Prince on Tuesday. “We process everything and we prepare every week a different way. We’re trying to get to the point where we’re the best defense in the SEC.”
