Ole Miss defensive end Victor Evans expects No. 15 Auburn to challenge Rebels with ground attack
OXFORD, Miss. – Last month, Alabama was able to exploit Ole Miss’ struggles at stopping the run, as Damien Harris rushed for 144 yards and Jalen Hurts raced for 158. Two weeks later, Arkansas had success with Rawleigh Williams, who ran for 180 yards against the Rebels. And after Leonard Fournette’s 284-yard rushing performance for LSU last Saturday, Ole Miss defensive end Victor Evans expects No. 15 Auburn to try and use the same tactic.
Auburn’s ground game is one of nation’s best
Auburn fullback Kamryn Pettway (36) during the LSU at Auburn game. Photo by Bill Wilson / The Anniston Star
The scary thing is Auburn may be better than all three of the above teams at running the ball. Gus Malzahn’s Tigers lead the SEC in rushing, averaging 302.9 yards per game which ranks them third in the nation. Alabama sits at No. 9 nationally, while LSU (following Fournette’s outing last Saturday) is ranked 19th.
Conversely, the Rebels (3-4, 1-3 Southeastern Conference) are going into Saturday night’s game ranked 113th in the nation in rushing defense, giving up an average of 226.9 rushing yards per game.
Last Saturday against the Razorbacks, Auburn had its most memorable effort running the football this season as the Tigers amassed 543 yards on the ground, which is now a school record for an SEC regular-season game. Their running attack is led by Kamryn Pettway and Kerryon Johnson; the duo has rushed for 1,235 yards and 12 touchdowns thus far.
Against then-No. 17 Arkansas, Pettway rumbled for 192 yards and two TDs as Auburn dismantled the Hogs, 56-3. Freshman running back Kam Martin rushed for 80 yards and one score on seven carries. Stanton Truitt had scoring runs of 20 and 31 yards.
Eli Stove broke free for a 78-yard touchdown on Auburn’s first play of the game.
The 6-foot-3 Evans knows the Rebels will have their work cut out for them.
Auburn’s a great team. They’re clicking. They really look like a good team. We’ve got to approach them how we approach everybody else. It’s going to be an issue.
Ole Miss DE Victor Evans
Victor Evans causes the LSU fumble that was picked up by Marquis Haynes. (Photo credit: Dan Anderson, The Rebel Walk)
Outside of Kamryn Pettway, the Tigers (5-2, 3-1) used many of their backups to put up huge numbers on the ground against Arkansas.
Auburn was without Johnson, who dressed out and participated in pregame warmups but was held out of Saturday’s matchup due to a right ankle injury he suffered on October 8 against Mississippi State.
Tigers’ head coach Gus Malzahn said on Tuesday that he expects the sophomore to play against an Ole Miss team that is currently ranked 107th in the nation in total defense.
“I’m sure they’re going to come out and see it as a weakness to run the ball,” said Evans, who’s confident in the Rebels’ defensive turnaround. “But we’ll handle it. We’ve got to handle it.”
While Evans is mentally preparing for Auburn’s rushing attack, the Dallas, Texas native is focused on the mental state of his teammates, which he sees as the main issue for the team’s struggle to prevent explosive plays.
Evans believes leadership will be the only way Ole Miss will break out of its defensive woes.
It’s really all about shaking back and overcoming it. We already have people that are going to make sure that we’re going to shake back. The leaders need to step up and become leaders at this point so it won’t become a snowball effect. We’ve just got to all step up.
Victor Evans
Evans reflects back on Saturday’s sideline confrontation
During Saturday’s game in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, some of the Rebels’ defensive players appeared to be arguing on the sideline out of sheer frustration for giving up explosive plays on the ground. Evans mentioned that the defensive unit is a family—despite what everyone else saw.
Families argue, and we’re not always going to see eye to eye sometimes. We all try to do what we’ve got to do to get on one page. Unfortunately, we got caught in that moment on TV. It doesn’t look nice. It doesn’t look pretty. But we already know that we all have each other’s best interests.
Victor Evans
Players-only team meeting
As Evans’ suggested, the Ole Miss football team appears to be a family committed to working out any differences they may have had. On Wednesday, the Rebels gathered for a players-only team meeting where they were able to acknowledge their frustrations, as well as work to get back on the same page with one another.
Senior tight end Evan Engram described the get-together after practice Wednesday. “Today we had a great team meeting and we were able to be transparent with each other,” he said. “It was just us guys in here talking it out, and I think it helped us a lot.”
(Feature image credit: Dan Anderson, The Rebel Walk)
Courtney Smith
Courtney is from Memphis and received his Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts from the University of Memphis in May of 2014. He began his journalism career covering the Memphis Tigers Men's basketball team, which landed him an intern position on 730 Yahoo Sports Radio and a position with Rivals.com. A freelance writer for the Associated Press, Courtney is also a member of The Rebel Walk team and reports regularly on Ole Miss football and basketball. Courtney, the father of a six-year old girl named Soniyah, prefers to cover NCAA basketball and football, but is happy to report on any other sport that comes his way.
