Austin McAfee I The Daily Mississippian
D.T. Shackelford (9) celebrates with safety Senquez Golson (21) following Golson’s second half interception against Arkansas.
Ole Miss’ secondary will have its work cut out for it this Saturday when they face the Missouri Tigers and their colossal receiving corps. They’re led by 6-foot-6 sophomore Dorial Green-Beckham and seniors L’Damian Washington and Marcus Lucas, who are measured at 6-foot-4 and 6-foot-5, respectively. This presents a huge problem for the Rebels, as most of their cornerbacks are considered short.
“It’s a big concern,” defensive coordinator Dave Womack said regarding the height disadvantage the cornerbacks will face. “We can’t make (the cornerbacks) any taller, there’s nothing we can do about that, we just have to go with what we have, and work on the fundamentals to try and challenge those guys.
“We gotta go up and get the ball. They do a great job, especially as a group. All of them are tall and they’ll all go get the ball, it’s just a nice group of receivers.”
Although the tall receivers will give the Rebels problems, it isn’t something they haven’t seen before.
“I guess it’s kinda like playing three or four Mike Evans of Texas A&M,” junior cornerback Senquez Golson said. “We’re just trying to come up with a good game plan. We have the players to compete, so I guess we’ll go out there and see what happens.
Ole Miss has just one receiver that can match up height-wise with the Missouri wideouts in true freshman Derrick Jones. However, sophomore cornerback Mike Hilton has a plan for going against bigger guys.
“I think you have to mix it up, not show what you’re doing, and get your hands on them early,” Hilton said. “That’ll slow them down a little bit, and that’ll give you a chance. You gotta be physical with them. A lot of receivers really don’t like blocking, so that’s a big opportunity to rough them up a little bit. That’s what I have to do.”
To offset this height difference, the safeties will need to step up for Ole Miss.
“We have to have great awareness to where the ball is at and where the ball is going,” junior safety Cody Prewitt said. “We need to really get in the film room and study what they do so we’ll be able to take the right leverage and take the right angles to their passing game.”
The cornerbacks have played far better than many expected this season, and the progression of Hilton and Jones has been a big reason for it. However, Womack has also been very impressed with the play of another true freshman in Bobby Hill.
“He’s doing good,” Womack said of Hill. “Bobby physically needs to grow a little more, but he has great feet, maybe changes directions as good as anyone that we have in the secondary, so really happy with him too and his progress.”
It remains to be seen if Ole Miss will get another win over a top-10 team, but with a secondary that has already surprised a lot of people this year, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
For continuing coverage of Ole Miss football, follow @TheCodyThomason and @thedm_sports on Twitter.
-Cody Thomason
csthoma1@go.olemiss.edu
