The Verdict: Match Ole Miss on the outside

South Carolina football superfan Chris Paschal writes a weekly column during the season for GamecockCentral called “The Verdict.” Chris is a lawyer at Goings Law Firm in Columbia.

Ole Miss looked like it was playing a video game through the first four games of its schedule.

Rebel quarterback Jaxson Dart had thrown for 1,554 yards, 12 touchdowns, and had rushed for another three scores. Ole Miss running back Henry Parish was averaging just shy of 7.5 yards per carry. Rebel receivers were making plays all over the field, led by Tre Harris who is on pace to have close to 2,000 yards receiving by season’s end. 

Lane Kiffin built this 2024 roster through not only decent high school recruiting, but through an elite transfer portal class. The Rebels brought in Florida defensive lineman Princely Umanmielen, Georgia Tech defensive lineman Jared Ivey (in 2023), Texas A&M defensive lineman Walter Nolan, Arkansas linebacker Chris Paul, Jr., Alabama cornerback Tery Amos, and on and on and on.

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And while former Gamecock Rashod Amos is also on this Ole Miss roster, it’s another former Gamecock who is getting all the attention, all the hype, and to be quite frank, all the hate. Juice Wells will return to Williams-Brice Stadium after a roller-coaster career in Columbia. He was one of Carolina’s favorite sons in 2022, only to allegedly string the team along in 2023.

No matter the truth, Juice will run out of the opposing tunnel to what will almost certainly be some of the harshest boos seen in recent years. And while his departure may warrant some heckling and booing, his play on the field is what I am most worried about.

Juice, along with so many talented Ole Miss skill players, have feasted on lesser competition. While those aforementioned stats are impressive no matter whom the opponent, they were racked up against Furman, Middle Tennessee State, Wake Forest, and Georgia Southern. 

In their first SEC game, the Rebels struggled to sustain and build drives. They lost the time of possession battle, the turnover battle, and were a putrid 1-for-10 on third-down conversions. And even in all of that, Parrish averaged close to five yards per carry, Dart completed 67% of his passes, and Tre Harris hauled in over 175 receiving yards. 

This Ole Miss offense is coming to Williams-Brice with some dangerous playmakers. This game reminds me of the 2022 Tennessee matchup. In that contest, Tennessee came in with a high-powered offense with playmakers all over the field.

And like this game against Ole Miss, Tennessee also had a wide receiver who most of the crowd had an interest in, Jalin Hyatt. (Obviously for completely different reasons.) All season, defenses struggled to slow down the Tennessee offense. Cornerbacks couldn’t match the athleticism of Tennessee pass-catchers, and front sevens couldn’t keep pace with the up-tempo scheme employed by Josh Heupel. 

The same thing can be said for this 2024 matchup with Ole Miss. Can OD Fortune, Vicari Swain, and Judge Collier keep up with Tre Harris, Cayden Lee, and Juice Wells? Vegas doesn’t believe so, with Ole Miss a near double digit favorite. ESPN’s predictor has Ole Miss’ projected win percentage at roughly 75%. Just like the LSU game, the eyes of the nation will be on Columbia, South Carolina with most people outside the Palmetto State thinking Carolina does not stand a chance. 

[Win two tickets to the South Carolina-Ole Miss football game]

I think the nation will see a defensive backfield that is a lot meaner, a lot longer, and a lot more athletic than they assumed. 2022 Tennessee became frustrated in a sold-out Williams-Brice Stadium as they watched Cam Smith and Darius Rush play solid pass defense. There was no hope, however, inside Williams-Brice Stadium going into the 2022 Tennessee game, and there was also not a pass rush that could cause issues for even the best of offensive lines, which Ole Miss is not. 

If Dylan Stewart and Kyle Kennard can feast on these Rebel offensive tackles – which I think they will, especially the right tackle who struggled against Kentucky – that will make the secondary’s job even that much more manageable. 

On offense, Carolina needs to have its own wide receivers cause headaches for opposing defensive backs. Despite Kentucky’s lackluster start to the season, the Wildcats clearly have some great players littered throughout that roster, especially at wide receiver. Barion Brown and Dane Key played like grown men in Oxford this past weekend. With an Ole Miss front seven that got after Kentucky in the pass rush, Carolina is going to need a playmaker or two to emerge this Saturday. 

While games are usually won on the lines of scrimmage, I feel confident Carolina can at least hold their own if not slightly nudge out the Rebels in that battle. If that ends up being the truth, the game will come down to who plays better football on the outside.

Can Carolina effectively tackle out on the perimeter? Can Carolina effectively block out on the perimeter? Is Tre Harris or God-forbid Juice Wells just going to make our defensive backs look foolish? The answers to those questions will decide the game. 

(As a brief aside, I want to send my best wishes to anyone impacted by this horrible storm. I was in Asheville this past weekend, and I am thankful to be alive and back in Columbia. The devastation truly cannot be described in words. I hope all of our Gamecock Central friends are safe, and I have all of those affected by these horrible past few days in my prayers.) 

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