Three Questions Ole Miss Must Answer vs. Vanderbilt – Sports Illustrated

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Ole Miss has a great chance today to put its first loss far in the past. Falling on the road to Florida and then having a bye week, the Rebels have had more than enough time to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and hone their focus on Vanderbilt.
While the Commodores present to the Rebels as a less fearsome foe than the Gators did, there is no pushover in the SEC. While suffering two losses (Auburn and Georgia, both away) and being miraculously saved from a third by NC State's CJ Bailey fumbling in the end zone as the clock expired, Vanderbilt is still a program coming off its greatest-ever campaign.
Freshman quarterback Jared Curtis came to Nashville a hero already for choosing the Commodores over Georgia and forms a formidable backfield pairing with Sedrick Alexander. The Rebels will need to rally from their struggles two weeks ago and be ready for Vanderbilt to throw it all at them in FirstBank Stadium.
There is no doubt about whether the Rebels can or cannot produce offensively; it's a shame that the main production we've been seeing is yards without substance. At times, it seems there may be no team in the nation better at getting nothing from an impressive drive than Ole Miss.
While the Commodores are strong in their pass rushing, they are incredibly undisciplined as a unit, averaging nine penalties a game this year. The Rebels could use all the help given to them by Commodore penalties, as free yards will always be gladly accepted by a team that has found it all too common to fizzle out in the red zone.
Between Trinidad Chambliss, Deuce Alexander and Kewan Lacy, there is no lack of star power on the Rebels' offense. The only question now is: can they finish these spectacular, dynamic drives fans have gotten used to?
In the kindest terms possible, the Ole Miss defense last time out looked like a junior varsity team in the early days of fall camp that had yet to put on pads and work on tackling drills. Florida ran wherever they wanted, whenever they wanted, in The Swamp on their way to a 52-point, 302-yard rushing offensive performance.
Will Echoles made it clear soon after the Florida matchup that the problem was a mental one rather than a physical one, describing the defense as trying to play perfectly rather than instinctively. Good football is not about perfection; having a nose for the ball and rallying to the ball carrier quickly will always work out better for a defense than scheming things systematically without factoring in the autonomy of the opposing offense.
Keaton Thomas has looked good since transferring in from Baylor, and with little production from Suntarine Perkins and Will Echoles, Thomas has established himself, at least by proxy, as the leader of the Rebels' defense. A big day in Nashville from Thomas will likely end up with the Rebels coming out on top.
It hurts to come off of a program-defining victory and to get stomped and demoralized on the road. It hurts even more when its just a team's second regular-season loss in as many years. Dwelling on the past is not going to magically add four touchdowns and change the results the Rebels came to in Gainesville.
Ole Miss desperately needs to move forward: The only thing worse than a loss in the past is one in the present, while the only thing worse than that is one in the future. Vanderbilt is no pushover; next week, with No. 14 Missouri (who walloped Florida) is even stronger and No. 1 Texas a week later is, well, the top team in the nation.
The Rebels did not have just a week to lick their wounds; they had two! It will be easy to tell early on against Vandy whether or not the Rebels have a clean slate to work from. If Ole Miss plays clean football and looks like it did prior to Florida, fans will know that the Gators are far in the past, while if things look like they did in The Swamp, the Rebels have much greater problems ahead.
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Cooper Ferguson is a sophomore at the University of Mississippi pursuing a degree in Integrated Marketing Communications. He is a staff writer for The Daily Mississippian, covering football and soccer while contributing sports coverage for the campus community. Outside of journalism, Cooper enjoys following sports, playing golf, weightlifting, and supporting Arsenal FC.
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