As Ole Miss CB Deantre Prince prepares for Auburn, he explains one specific thing helping the Rebel secondary: ‘We feel it is important to hold each other accountable’
OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss is coming off of its bye week ranked as the No. 13 team in the country at 5-1 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. The Rebels’ most notable game of the year thus far came against the LSU Tigers which came down to the final play of the game.
After allowing over 600 yards of offense against LSU, the secondary deflected a pass from Tiger QB Jayden Daniels in the endzone to conclude the madness in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium as the Rebels won 55-49.
During preparation for the next game, Arkansas, the defense knew changes were needed if they wanted to correct their mistakes. Veteran Deantre Prince talked after practice Monday on the after-effects of the LSU game.
“We are just a defense that is hungry. I don’t think we played our best game against LSU but thankfully our offense won that game. We know that we had to put that on our backs, so that next week following up against Arkansas, we just worked as hard as we can just to make sure we can be those guys on defense.”
Deantre Prince
That hard work in preparation for Arkansas showed the following week against the Hogs for Prince and the defense. The Rebs allowed only 36 rushing yards and 20 total points and intercepted Razorbacks QB KJ Jefferson twice, one of them occurring in the clutch moments of the fourth quarter.
According to Prince, one specific thing in the secondary is directly resulting in an environment of consistent improvement: accountability.
“I would say we all are coming together. We are all together so when I make a mistake, or Zamari (Walton) makes a mistake, we all hold each other accountable. That’s in the safety room, corner room, that’s all around, that is just our energy now. We feel it is important to hold each other accountable and say things that we didn’t say in years before.”
Deantre Prince
Deantre also explained with that accountability comes a look at his own performance, and he has not been completely satisfied with his up to this point. That is a motivating factor for him moving forward.
“I would say I can do a lot more. One interception, that’s not me. I can do a lot more and I plan to prove that for these next few games.”
Deantre Prince
Prince’s interception this year came at a very timely point in the Tulane game, with it all tied up at 17-17 in the third quarter.
Going Our Way ↪️@prince_deantre pic.twitter.com/QGef820xzN
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 9, 2023
The next opportunity for Deantre will come this Saturday against the Auburn Tigers. Auburn is 3-3 this season, coming off of a 48-18 defeat at the hands of LSU in Baton Rouge. Despite the struggles of Auburn, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin reminded folks the Rebels have only taken one victory at Jordan-Hare Stadium in 20 years.
As Prince dissected the film from Auburn, certain aspects of the Tigers’ offense stood out more than others.
“I could tell they like to run the ball. They have two pretty good quarterbacks. Both can throw, but one specifically throws it pretty well. I just think we need to hone in on making sure that we have block discretion on the outside and the perimeter, and tackle running backs and receivers, making sure that we tackle well like we have,” Prince said.
Against LSU, Auburn ran the ball 34 times for 139 yards and only threw for 154 yards on 15-of-27 attempts.
The Tigers, as Prince mentioned, have also continued to play two quarterbacks throughout the year, Payton Thorne and Robbie Ashford. Against LSU, Thorne saw the majority of snaps, attempting 23 passes and five rushes. Ashford followed up with four pass attempts and also five rushes.
Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding will prepare his defense for the threat of two quarterbacks, while also finding a way to prevent Auburn from executing a successful rushing or passing attack.
The Rebels and Tigers kick off in Auburn at 6:00 p.m. this Saturday. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
