Gritty Rebels defeat Georgia Tech, move to 3-0 on the season with all-hands-on-deck mentality
OXFORD, Miss. — Facing adversity yet again in this young season, Ole Miss entered Saturday’s game with Georgia Tech missing some key pieces of the offensive arsenal. But as they did against Tulane last weekend, the Rebels dug in and used an “all-hands-on-deck” mentality to grind out another victory and move to 3-0 on the season after beating the Yell0w Jackets, 48-23.
Wide receiver Tre Harris — who had already notched five touchdowns with eight catches this season — was injured early against Tulane and unable to play Saturday. Fellow receiver Zakhari Franklin, a UTSA transfer everyone expected to be in the starting rotation, has been out since fall camp. Tight end Caden Prieskorn, who had been slated to fill a key role in the offense this fall, is still out after toe surgery during fall camp.
And to make matters even more dire, preseason All American running back Quinshon Judkins missed most of the week’s practice due to being banged up and was listed as “doubtful” for the start against Georgia Tech.
Judkins did, however, play against the Yellow Jackets, telling head coach Lane Kiffin before the game he would be able to give it a go.
“I commend (Judkins) a lot. To be extremely injured and not being able to practice really much. There were times this week where I didn’t think he’d play at all. Then he got some juice in warmups and said he was ready to go… he really battled in there.”
Lane Kiffin on Quinshon Judkins
“You have to pick it up when your top receiver has eight catches and five touchdowns, top tight end is down and the running back wasn’t 100 percent,” Coach Kiffin remarked after the game. ”I commend (Quinshon) for playing, after not practicing much this week. He played physical in there and tried to help this team win.”
With his running back banged up, and the passing game sputtering early, quarterback Jaxson Dart picked up the slack and rumbled through the Georgia Tech defense like a wrecking ball — amassing 136 yards on 14 carries.
And although the Rebels had only 49 yards passing at halftime, the ground game helped get the air attack going.
“Jaxson did some really special things today running the ball, making people miss and being physical. It was good to get a couple explosive plays in the passing game. I couldn’t tell what was going to happen; I couldn’t predict run, pass and the yardage. We ran the ball well in the first half. Then they started playing deeper and then not throwing the ball well because we called more runs. It’s what you’re supposed to do as a coach. I’m glad how it ended up with us winning the second half.“
Lane Kiffin
By the end of the game, Ole Miss finished the day with 550 yards of total offense, 251 through the air and 299 on the ground. Dart finished 10-18 passing with one touchdown and no interceptions. He also scored two rushing touchdowns and averaged 9.7 yards per carry.
Defensively, Pete Golding’s unit fell into the “bend-but-don’t-break” category for much of the night, holding Georgia Tech to 3 points at the half while allowing Haynes King and the Yellow Jackets to go 11-16 passing in the first two quarters. Georgia Tech finished the game with 466 total yards of offense (312 thought the air and 154 on the ground). Tech held the ball for 39:17 while Ole Miss had possession for just 20:43.
But Lane Kiffin doesn’t believe time of possession is a relevant statistic nowadays, especially given his team’s up-tempo style.
“Two things on that. One, we play fast, so we’re probably never gonna win the time of possession, I don’t know if we’ve ever won it. They won it today in forty minutes to twenty minutes and we won 48-23. That is the most irrelevant stat to winning football if you want analytics. That’s an old school way of thinking. Really you just take longer standing there between snaps, why does that mean you’re gonna be better. The problem is not getting off on third down. They go 11-20 on third down so they keep going, that’s where the problem comes and you get stuck out there for a lot of plays. We had some explosive plays, and then that’s how you end up getting a lopsided 89 to 56 play count in the game.”
Lane Kiffin
Kiffin assessed the defense and what the unit needs to improve upon.
”We’ve got a lot of work to do. I don’t think we were very pleased with how we played defense. Points were decent early in the game, but a lot of yardage and missed tackles. A lot of work to do there… I didn’t think we tackled very well and rushed the passer like I’d thought we would. I thought our matchups up front would’ve made it harder on the quarterback.”
Lane Kiffin on the Rebel defense
One thing his defense won’t have to do is prepare to face Alabama’s former Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Bryce Young, who almost single-handedly defeated Ole Miss last year in Oxford.
“It’s good to know Bryce (Young) won’t be there,” Kiffin said. “We all have our issues, and this is the best team of the last 15 years in one of the hardest places to play. It’s a huge challenge, a dynasty.”
As the Rebels head into league play, Kiffin praised his team for their undefeated record and overcoming adversity, yet again.
“Only thing you can be is 3-0. Can’t be 4-0 after three games. I commend our players for that. We got new coaches, we got tons of new players out there. We’ve got some significant major impact injuries on offense. I commend them for getting to 3-0. I kind of would’ve thought it would take some time to get going so you want to survive and win these games and continue to get better as these parts come together, especially like I said, defensively. You got a ton of new players out there trying to play together and a brand new system.“
Lane Kiffin on being 3-0
Game Info
Kickoff at Bryant-Denny Stadium is set for 2:30 p.m. CT Saturday. The game will be broadcast on CBS.
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception.
