Ole Miss has been waiting all season for an answer from the NCAA regarding the status of it’s junior All-American offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil, and they finally received that answer Monday evening.
After a two month long investigation, the NCAA announced Tunsil must serve a seven-game suspension for accepting impermissible benefits, stemming from a promissory note he accepted on loner car from a local Oxford car dealership.
After sitting out the first six games of the season, Tunsil will only sit out one final game this Saturday against Memphis.
“Any time you have things that are going on in your program that you have zero control over, it’s not the most comfortable feeling,” Hugh Freeze, head coach, said. “So we are very relieved to get the answer, and for it to be over so we can move on and get him ready to play.”
Though it wasn’t a major distraction for the team as a whole, it weighed heavily on Freeze’s mind.
“I’m not going to tell you that when I was alone, that it didn’t bother a little more than it did in front of the team or staff,” Freeze said. “I’m typically about control what you can control and I think we did a good job of that.”
Tunsil will return to an offensive line unit that could desperately use his services. The Rebel offensive line has battled injuries all year, and have had to move a lot of guys around, sometimes playing three freshmen at a time.
“We treated it as an injury, and the ‘next man up mentality,’” offensive line coach Matt Luke said of dealing with Tunsil’s absence. “All we could control was week to week trying to get better.”
Both Freeze and Luke said Tunsil has been taking reps with the first and second team offense during his absence. Freeze said Tunsil saw some reps in practice today before spending the second half of the practice conditioning.
“I don’t think it will be difficult at all. I think it will be difficult for them to match his speed because he will be out there ready to play,” senior offensive tackle Fahn Cooper said when asked about Tunsil. “He’s a real mature cat, I feel like now he can get back to doing what he loves.”
Ole Miss will have to survive one more week without Tunsil, against a quick and athletic Memphis defensive line.
“They run their stuff very well,” Cooper said. “They twist and blitz, and they give people some problems. I feel like they are very well coached.”
Ole Miss struggled against Florida’s quick and athletic defensive line, and the Tigers will give Ole Miss a similar feel.
“They do a lot of blitzing and moving around, and make it tough on an offensive line,” Luke said. “We have got to be focused in on what we’re doing.”
Ole Miss and Memphis will kickoff on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT.
