Sunday Leftovers: Imagining what this Ole Miss team could be if/when the Rebs put it all together

I’ve seen Alabama do it dozens of times. I’ve also seen Georgia and Ohio State and Clemson do it too.

The “it” is play ugly, inconsistent football and figure out a way to win. That’s absolutely one sign of a good football team and that’s exactly what we got in Ole Miss’ 28-21 win over Auburn on The Plains – a good portion of the game would have lost neutral television viewers.

This is a good Ole Miss football team and the reason is the poor play from last night for a good portion of the game.

How many times in previous years could an Ole Miss team march into Jordan-Hare Stadium, proceed to have 10 penalties, throw 2 interceptions, give up 3 QB sacks, have a 10-yard punt, a muffed snap on a chip shot field goal and allow a team that can’t break an egg on offense to score 21 points yet still win in a manner that felt like the game was never in real doubt? (At least, I wasn’t nervous anyway. You? I doubt it.)

We’ll give you a hint – never. In fact, it’s been 71 years since we beat Auburn back-to-back and this one could have very easily been a cakewalk had the Rebs been just a little bit sharper and crisper on offense.

The point, however, is that they didn’t have to be any better and despite not hitting on all cylinders, they did what we’ll call, for now, the Bama thing and won anyway.

Imagine when this team puts everything together.

We have seen they are capable in all phases of football – offense, defense, special teams. We have seen a run game that can grind out tough yards. We’ve seen a passing game that can be potent and explosive. We have seen a tough-minded quarterback with all the tools play beautiful football. And a defense be stubborn against the run and competitive against the pass. We’ve seen a special teams effort that was at least neutral with the opposition.

We’ve also seen a team that is not intimidated by road games. It doesn’t get any harder than playing at Tuscaloosa or at Auburn from a crowd perspective and although the Rebs lost in T-Town, the crowd was not the reason why, it least it didn’t seem like it was, and the Auburn crowd had little affect at all on the Rebels.

The ingredients are there for this Ole Miss team to tip the scales from pretty good to damn good. The Rebels just have to put it all together and this will be a very, very dangerous team.

Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart

Ole Miss Quarterback Jaxson Dart …

… will make you scratch your head and mumble under your breath at times with a missed pass here and there or some other miscue, but nobody will ever be able to say anything about his desire to compete and will to win.

His mental toughness is reminiscent of some past quarterbacks for Ole Miss.

Archie Manning played with a cast on his arm, his mobility severely limited. His son, Eli, played with a torn meniscus in his knee for much of his junior year that few people knew about. Tom Luke had so many concussions during his career they quit counting.

Romaro Miller and Stewart Patridge would stand in the pocket and take beatings just to get off an accurate pass. Bo Wallace played with a bad throwing wing but toughed it out for over a year. Chad Kelly didn’t hesitate to mix it up, a lot like Dart, in the run game.

Yes, there have been some tough hombres under center at Ole Miss.

But none any tougher than our current guy and that’s why, just like the others, I forgive and forget the bad plays because I know Dart would give up a finger, figuratively, for a win. He can play on my team any time.

Against Auburn, he was a pedestrian 10-17 for 202 yards and a TD in the air and rushed 14 times for 29 yards and 2 TDs. He also threw a pick.

But when the game was on the line, he hooked up with Ole Miss WR Tre Harris at critical times with perfect passes that led to the last 2 scores, the game clinching scores, and directed the game to the finish line when it mattered most.

Daijahn Anthony and the Ole Miss defense held their second consecutive SEC opponent to under 300 yards of offense

Broken record time.

Ole Miss frosh Linebacker Suntarine Perkins will be an All-American, if he stays healthy, before he leaves Ole Miss. He’s relentless in pursuit and he has something you cannot coach – speed.

Against Auburn, QB Robby Ashford, a quality athlete in his own right, looked to have the edge for a decent gain but Perkins tracked him down from behind and tackled him for a loss on a play as impressive as you will see out of any defender, freshman or otherwise.

Ole Miss DC Pete Golding …

… started some different defensive linemen against Auburn, looking like he wanted to go bigger early on to counteract the Tiger rushing attack.

DE Jamond Gordon, DT Joshua Harris, DT Stephon Wynn Jr, and DE Isaac Ukwu all got significant playing time against the run-heavy Auburn offense. Ukwu responded with 5 stops and ½ QB sacks, while the others had enough beef on the line of scrimmage not to get pushed around by the Auburn OL.

Of course, DE Cedric Johnson (5 tackles, 1.5 sacks), DT Akelo Stone, DE Jared Ivey (1 sack), and DT J.J. Pegues also got plenty of action, but the big beef started the game and set the tone.

P.S. – Big Zxavian Harris did not play, but we heard he was in concussion protocol and could not travel.

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