Bo Wallace (14) passes the ball during practice Wednesday. (DM Photo/Cady Herring)
With last week’s victory over Boise State, the Rebels are hoping to continue a winning streak into Saturday’s matchup against Vanderbilt. Head coach Hugh Freeze addressed the media following Wednesday’s afternoon practice to give a status update.
“Seems like forever since we’ve played, we’ve had some good practices this week,” Freeze said. “I think our kids are focused and looking forward to a challengeable Saturday in Nashville. Had another good day today, I like the demeanor of our kids right now.”
It is no secret that the offensive line struggled a bit last game to fall in sync but co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner assured the media the team has been hard at work to eliminate the kinks. “Well the big thing obviously were the penalties and the turnovers so if we clear that up it probably would have been a pretty good total game so those are the big things that we’ve been working on,” Werner said.
Sophomore defensive lineman Robert Nkemdiche seemed confident that the team will play a much cleaner game this weekend compared to last.
“I think I played good, defense played good, could have played better,” Nkemdiche said. “We had a couple of missed assignments, missed tackles but we gotta clean up this weekend, looking to have a better game against Vanderbilt.”
The Rebels are set to play the Vanderbilt Commodores at 3 p.m. Saturday. Vanderbilt lost their season opener against Temple last Thursday 37-7.
When asked about what to expect from the opponent, Werner emphasized that even with the loss, the Vanderbilt team should not be taken for granted.
“They only gave up around 350 yards or even less than that on offense so you look at the score, and you think it was a blow out, but there were a lot of turnovers and Temple had a short field and really kicked a bunch of field goals so these guys are good on defense and we know that from years past so its going to be a battle,” Werner said.
Nkemdiche responded to the question in a similar fashion.
“They play us good every year. They’re an SEC team, SEC competition, so we can’t take them lightly,” Nkemdiche said. “They got a new coordinator, a couple of new quarterbacks, so you can’t look at that and judge them. You’ve just got to go in there and say we’re going to play our game either way.”
-Maggie Mitchell
