Mississippi head coach Hugh Freeze, left, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pose before an NCAA college football practice in Oxford, Miss., Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2014. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
The Rebels had a special visitor Tuesday when NASCAR driver Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. visited the team’s practice. Stenhouse, who was the 2013 recipient of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Rookie of the Year award, was born in Olive Branch and is a lifelong Ole Miss fan.
Head coach Hugh Freeze learned through social media that Stenhouse was an Ole Miss fan from Mississippi and, being a NASCAR fan, immediately wanted to meet him.
“We really got to spend some time playing at the Fed Ex St. Jude Classic golf Pro Am tournament, and we kinda hit it off since then,” Freeze said.
Freeze offered Stenhouse, as well as fellow NASCAR driver Danica Patrick, a chance to come watch the Rebels play in Atlanta during week one.
“(Freeze) got me on the sidelines for the Boise State game, so I got Danica Patrick hooked there, so now we watch every game as long as we can,” Stenhouse said.
Stenhouse plans to attend the Rebels’ annual matchup against Mississippi State as well.
“I’ll be back for the Egg Bowl, so I’m gonna do Thanksgiving in Mississippi this year.”
Stenhouse, in addition to speaking at an Ole Miss marketing class, did some throwing and catching drills in practice with the Rebels.
Wide receivers coach Grant Heard also addressed the media Tuesday, speaking for a while on the increased attention sophomore wide receiver Laquon Treadwell is seeing and the affect of that on the passing game.
“That’s why you see guys like Cody Core, Quincy Adeboyejo and Vince Sanders step up and make plays, because there is a lot of focus on him. A lot of people don’t want to leave him one on one,” Heard said. “He’s still a big part of this offense, some of the success of these other guys is because of him.”
Heard said that even though Treadwell is getting fewer passes thrown his way this year, he’s handled it well and is still tied for the team-lead in receptions.
Heard also talked about freshman wide receiver Markell Pack, who got more playing time Saturday against Louisiana-Lafayette than in the previous two weeks. Pack totaled three catches for 28 yards on the day.
“He’s earned it. He’s starting to get more of a grasp,” Heard said of Pack’s increase in playing time. “He understands what we do but sometimes when it goes fast he’s starts playing slow because he’s thinking. He’s started to get more comfortable with what we’re doing. He’s slowly coming along and each week he gets better and better so hopefully you see him on the field more.”
Sophomore defensive end Robert Nkemdiche also spoke to the media, talking about his own personal play on Saturday as well as the rest of the defense.
“We were a little sloppy against ULL as a defense, I was sloppy myself too. We’re going to work on some technique and get better so against Memphis we’ll be ready to go,” Nkemdiche said.
Nkemdiche has been seeing a lot of attention from offensive lines, something he said he has to work on dealing with.
“I’m gonna have to keep finding ways to get free and keep playing hard and playing within the scheme,” Nkemdiche said.
Nkemdiche also felt that the team is more motivated this year as opposed to his freshman season.
“I feel like we’re hungrier this year. We’re ready for the big weekends,” Nkemdiche said. “We have a mature team and want to show the world what Ole Miss is about.”
