Bo Wallace walks onto the field for Saturday’s game. Wallace was named SEC player of the week Monday.
Coming off a huge upset of formerly 3rd-ranked Alabama Saturday, there was still a feeling of excitement in the air for the weekly Ole Miss football press conference.
“Obviously, our players deserve tremendous credit for executing the game plan and for fighting, battling and continuing to believe, even when adversity hit,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. “I’m extremely proud of everything that occurred last Saturday on our campus. It was an exciting day. It was big for our university and our football program. I’m very, very pleased, after watching the film, of a lot of things.”
Despite this huge victory that shot the Rebels up to number three in the AP poll, Freeze knew the team had to move on to the next opponent.
“You don’t get to enjoy the great victories very long in this profession,” Freeze said.
Sophomore tight end Evan Engram agreed.
“We celebrated Saturday. It was exciting for us, a great win, but we want more,” Engram said. “We expect more of ourselves and we want to keep going.
Freeze gave his thoughts on the matchup with 14th-ranked Texas A&M.
“It’s one of the most explosive offenses that you’ll face, with one of the better offensive lines in the country. Their defense, up until last week, has definitely improved,” Freeze said. “I know it’ll be a tall, tall task for us to go down there on a Saturday evening and come away with a win. It’s certainly exciting to be in that arena and have a chance to prove, again, that we’re improving as a program.”
Quarterback Bo Wallace also saw the difficulty in taking on Texas A&M, especially as a road game at the Aggies’ famed Kyle Field.
“It’s going to be a huge challenge going there. They have one of the most hostile environments in college football. At the end of the day, this is what it’s all about,” Wallace said. “We’re right in the thick of things in the SEC West. Going on the road to a hostile environment is why you go to school here.”
Freeze saw the impact playing at Kyle Field could have on the game as well.
“They’re arguably one of the top-15 or top-10 programs in the nation right now,” Freeze said. “It’s going to be a tremendous challenge playing in that environment against a talented team.”
The matchup could be even more difficult for the Rebels, as Freeze announced he was suspending junior safety Trae Elston for the first half of this Saturday’s game. Elston appeared to have kicked Alabama running back Kenyan Drake while he was on the ground and had suffered a leg injury on the play.
“We want our players to uphold our values at all times. We’ll move forward from it. Trae (Elston) is a good kid. He made a bad decision. He understands that that’s not the way we want to go about things,” Freeze said.
Freeze continued.
“I don’t think there was any intent to injure or hurt. It’s very unfortunate that it happened on a play where a young man suffered an injury,” Freeze said. “Our thoughts are with him because that was a difficult injury.”
Freeze said cornerback Mike Hilton and safeties David Kamara, C.J. Moore and C.J. Hampton would be looked at to potentially take Elston’s spot.
Freeze also announced there would be a battle for the starting kicker spot this week between Andrew Fletcher, Gary Wunderlich and Andy Pappanastos.
“We’re going to have some competition this week. Gary (Wunderlich) hit a big field goal for us. I think he has a chance to earn the spot,” Freeze said. “We’ll go throughout the week and make that decision.”
