Photo By Tyler Jackson | The Daily Mississippian
This is part one of an eight-part series where the Daily Mississippian’s David Collier and Matt Sigler give a position-by-position breakdown of the Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl featuring Ole Miss and Georgia Tech. Today, we will take a look at the quarterbacks.
There aren’t many similarities when comparing the offenses of Ole Miss (7-5, 3-5 Southeastern Conference) and Georgia Tech (7-5, 5-3 ACC), and that is certainly the case for the Rebels’ Bo Wallace and the Yellow Jackets’ Vad Lee.
Both Wallace and Lee started all 12 games in the regular season, leading their teams to 7-5 records. Wallace has the better passing numbers, but that is to be expected with Lee leading the triple-option attack of Georgia Tech.
Wallace improved his numbers from 2012, putting up 3,090 yards through the air, 17 touchdowns and nine interceptions. He also completed 64.4 percent of his passes. The junior quarterback finished second in the SEC in yards. Wallace isn’t much of a threat to run the ball, but he did rack up 269 rushing yards to go along with four rushing touchdowns.
Despite a good year, Wallace did not have a strong finish to the regular season, and a lot of his struggles resulted from a non-existent running game. Look for Ole Miss to establish the run early to set up things for Wallace and his wide receivers.
Lee had just 1,414 passing yards this season, but he only had 163 attempts. He also totaled 10 touchdowns and nine picks passing. Although he didn’t throw it a lot, Lee’s completion percentage was really bad at 47.2 percent.
However, Lee made up for his throwing woes running the ball, as he averaged 40.75 yards per game on the ground. He had 489 rushing yards on the season with eight touchdowns.
Ole Miss will also use Barry Brunetti in certain situations as well to give a chance of pace to the offense or to punch the ball in once they get into the red zone.
Brunetti finished the regular season with 294 passing yards on 38 attempts, throwing for six touchdowns and no interceptions. He has more of a threat in the run game, totaling 279 yards on just 56 carries with four touchdowns.
Analysis
It will be interesting to see how both teams play these quarterbacks defensively. Neither has gaudy rushing statistics, but both guys can make defenses pay if they don’t play assignment football.
That is something Wallace will try to do in Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze’s spread attack, and it’s what Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson has made a living on in his complex triple-option offense.
Wallace will likely get his yards passing the ball, but if the Yellow Jackets can control him in the run game with the read option, that will go a long way into getting Ole Miss in third-and-longs and getting Georgia Tech’s defense off the field. If Ole Miss cannot establish a consistent running game, they will struggle offensively. But if they can get it going on the ground, Wallace should have a heyday against the Georgia Tech secondary.
For Lee, Ole Miss will have to play smart, especially with their front seven. Guys will have to play their assignments and not get greedy trying to make a big play. Look for the Rebels to play their safeties, particularly Cody Prewitt, near the line of scrimmage to slow down Georgia Tech’s rushing attack.
Tomorrow, Matt Sigler will break down the running backs for Ole Miss and Georgia Tech.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss football, follow @DavidLCollier, @SigNewton_2 and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
— David Collier
thedmsports@gmail.com
