Heading into last Saturday’s contest with Alabama, the Ole Miss football team boasted the No. 8 offense in the country and the No. 124 defense. Coming off a victory over FCS school Southern Illinois, in which the Rebels scored 76 but allowed 41, the hottest seat in Oxford was occupied by defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff — and rightfully so.
Associate head coach and defensive coordinator Wesley McGriff speaks on the football season at a press conference. Photo by Marlee Crawford
In McGriff’s first season as coordinator, Ole Miss’ defense registered 115th of 129 teams, finishing dead last in the SEC and giving up 460 yards a game. McGriff is a talented recruiter, and there is something to be said about giving him time to succeed with guys who fit his schemes. But with NFL-caliber skill at nearly every offensive position, this team has no time to waste.
After two weeks, the modus operandi was as follows: Score first, and worry about defense when necessary. Ultimately, you have to score to win. And Ole Miss did, scoring 123 points in its first two contests against Texas Tech and SIU.
But the Alabama game flipped this idea on its head. The Crimson Tide hung 62 points on the Rebel defense and held Jordan Ta’amu and the much-acclaimed NWO to 7 points and 248 total yards.
Alabama’s defense, which is arguably the stoutest unit in the country, was the first true test of the season for the Rebel offense.
And the offense failed — miserably.
Offensive coordinator Phil Longo had his hands full with the Tide’s attack. After the initial 75-yard strike from Ta’amu to D.K. Metcalf, the offense was stymied and hardly crossed into Alabama territory for the remainder of the game.
Longo’s offensive philosophy, dubbed “Longo Ball,” is a variation of the air raid.
Phil Longo, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, speaks at a press conference. Photo by Maggie Bushway
“Probably the biggest difference (between the air raid and his offense) is that there is a very physical downhill run component to our offense,” Longo said in a 2016 interview.
But for all that’s been made of Ole Miss’ offensive success in Longo’s 15 games as offensive coordinator, the numbers tell a very different story.
Against non-Power Five and FCS schools, Longo and Ole Miss are 4-0 and have put up video game numbers in the process. Against these schools, the Rebel attack averaged 54.5 points, 453 yards through the air and nearly 600 yards per game.
However, against Power Five conference schools, Ole Miss isn’t half the offensive juggernaut that it seems to be when faced with lesser opponents.
In these contests, Ole Miss has a lackluster 4-7 record. The offense averages only 27.8 points and 279 yards through the air per game. Compared to the rest of the SEC’s records versus Power Five opponents, Ole Miss’ scoring offense would be seventh-best, behind Missouri, Texas A&M, Mississippi State, Auburn, Georgia and Alabama.
Having an objectively average offense in the SEC might be tenable if it were supplemented by a stout defense. However, that’s not the case in Oxford.
But Longo’s system emphasizes downhill running, so the offense must make up for it on the ground, right?
Wrong.
In 2017, Ole Miss was 66th in the FBS in yards per carry and 103rd in yards per game. A similar pattern has followed in 2018, as the team currently sits at 46th in yards per carry and 79th in yards per game.
This all might be acceptable if Ole Miss didn’t have an embarrassment of riches at wide receiver and a more-than-capable quarterback throwing the ball to them. But it does, which makes the situation on offense profoundly unacceptable.
The issue with Longo’s offense, so far, has been an inability to adapt. In 2017, Ole Miss lost six of nine second halves versus Power Five schools, notoriously blowing leads against California, Arkansas and Texas A&M.
Additionally, Longo Ball moves fast. The air raid offense emphasizes the no-huddle, with quick strikes and no consideration of the time and score of the game.
In August, Will Gates of the Red Cup Rebellion blog penned an article examining the speed of Longo’s offense at certain junctures throughout a game.
“To think that extending a lead with more rapid scores rather than slowing the game down is a simple choice (that) ignores the fact that defenses can tighten up over the course of a game,” Gates said.
Though scoring early and often is the crux of Longo’s philosophy, he’s shown that modifying his scheme to relinquish pressure on the defense is not.
Longo and the Ole Miss offense have, at times, experienced prodigious success. Watching Metcalf and A.J. Brown dart across the turf at Vaught-Hemingway for 60-70 yards on a regular basis is intoxicating, and that can be credited to Longo’s schemes.
But the idea that the offense is deserving of unequivocal exultation is a faulty one. Cleaning up against FCS foes is necessary; however, it’s all for naught if it can’t be replicated when the Saturday night lights shine a little brighter.
