Mississippi defensive back David Kamara (29) tackles LSU running back Terrence Magee (18) during an NCAA college football game in Baton Rouge, La., Saturday Oct. 25, 2014. (Payton Teffner | The Daily Mississippian)
The Ole Miss football team’s dream of a perfect season ended Saturday after being upset by then 24th-ranked LSU by a score of 10-7. The Rebels fell from number three to number seven in the AP poll and now will face the 4th ranked Auburn Tigers as they attempt to shake off last week’s loss.
Hugh Freeze expressed frustration in the loss to LSU but at the same time, has the confidence in his team to bounce back this weekend.
“It was obviously disappointing to not get it done on the road with LSU. Anytime the game is that close and competitive, when you watch the film, everything is magnified. They played with great passion and played a really, really physical brand of football,” head coach Hugh Freeze said. “Coach (Les) Miles had his guys ready. They deserve credit. From watching the film, we did not play our best game. That’s always disappointing. However, that’s life in the SEC. The great thing is we have an opportunity to bounce back this week at home and get our kids ready for another very difficult task with Auburn coming.”
Senior quarterback Bo Wallace said playing at LSU and in the infamous Death Valley affected the whole team.
“The biggest thing was we let the atmosphere dictate how we played,” Wallace said. “As a quarterback, I’ve really prided myself on keeping guys calm and being calm. I didn’t do a great job of that, and our offense didn’t do a great job.
“This week, I really have to talk to myself and do like I’ve been doing the whole year in making sure guys are calm and I’m calm and being a leader out there.”
Freeze said Auburn presents another big challenge for the Rebels and praised their run defense.
“They’re a special team. They’re as good or better interior defensively as anyone we’ve seen,” Freeze said. “No one has rushed the ball on them, other than one team, for 150 yards. They’re very athletic on the backend.”
The Auburn offense was the driving force for Tigers winning the SEC and advancing the national championship last season. This season, the offense is picking up where they left off, averaging 39 points per game.
Freeze has been very impressed with Auburn’s offense.
“Offensively, their receiving core is one of the top in the nation. The quarterback and running backs do an excellent job of reading their zone game. They’re dangerous when they pull it at quarterback,” Freeze said. “They’re physical, and they get it at running back. Their offensive line is solid. They’re a solid team all the way around.”
Wallace has a lot of questions surrounding him after the loss to LSU. Handling adversity is something that must be done against Auburn.
Wallace gave his thoughts on the game this weekend against 4th-ranked Auburn.
“It’s going to be a tough game. They’re the No. 4 team in the country coming to our place with a lot on the line,” Wallace said. “The guys are going to come in, and we’re going to have to go to work. We’ll have the game plan ready to go and go out and hopefully, perform well.”
The Rebels have multiple players whose status for the game is uncertain due to injury.
“Ben (Still) came out of his brace yesterday. He’ll start moving around. It’s still day-to-day. Laremy (Tunsil) will be day-to-day, Cody Prewitt is day-to-day, and Robert (Nkemdiche) is day-to-day,” Freeze said.
The Rebels need these players back as soon as possible in order to still compete for an SEC title. However, Freeze thinks most of those players will be able to play Saturday.
“I think they’ll all give it a go,” Freeze said. “Ben would be the biggest concern. The others are just going to be a pain tolerance issue.”
In addition to this, junior linebacker Denzel Nkemdiche also got hurt during the LSU game, but his injury is much more serious.
“Denzel (Nkemdiche) is unfortunately out for the year. He had surgery yesterday on his broken ankle,” Freeze said. “We always hate to lose kids and certainly hate to lose him. He’s a good player on our defense.”
As for this week, Freeze said he was glad to be playing at home again.
“We’ll need our crowd here. We’ll need them to give us a little extra energy,” Freeze said. “The stretch that we have is a difficult stretch without a break. We can’t control that. We can control being ready to play Saturday. That’s our job.”
