Mississippi running back I’Tavius Mathers (5) breaks away for a touchdown past Louisiana-Lafayette safety Trevence Patt (4) during the first half of an NCAA college football game in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014. (Photo/Thomas Graning)
It felt like fall at Vaught-Hemingway stadium Saturday afternoon. The skies were cloudy and the temperatures were cool, as the Rebels took care of Louisiana-Lafayette and won handedly 56-15 to move to 3-0 on the season.
It was another complete game on both sides of the ball for the Rebels, as the offense accumulated for 554 total yards and the defense let up only 16 points and forcing four turnovers, including an interception returned for a touchdown.
Another dominating week for the Rebels results in their first top 10 appearance in the AP Poll since 2009 and their second since 1970. Despite being in the top 10, Ole Miss is ranked fifth highest of the Southeastern Conference West, ranked behind LSU, Texas A&M, Auburn and Alabama.
“I’m really happy we went out and took control of the game and kept control of it,” head coach Hugh Freeze said. “There are some things we did not do particularly well today that we have to cleaned up. Even though you may be the better football team on a given day, you still have to exclude and do the things that will make you one of the top-tier teams in the country.”
Starting quarterback Bo Wallace has now played eight quarters in a row of seemingly perfect football. Wallace finished the day 23 of 28 passing for 316 yards with four touchdowns and one interception.
Besides the one interception Wallace threw late in the second quarter, it was another close-to-flawless performance for the senior quarterback. Wallace’s 75.5 completion percentage is the best in the country out of all qualified quarterbacks and is top five in the country in yards per attempt and QB rating.
Freeze was happy with the performance from his quarterback and his receivers.
“It was a really solid day from Bo (Wallace). He played really well,” Freeze said. “The receivers played well. It was good to see us get some explosive runs. We beat a pretty good football team.”
Wallace was very pleased with the performance of his offense overall as well.
“It felt great being back in front of our home crowd,” Wallace said. “Vince (Sanders) and Cody (Core) had a great day. Everyone stepped up. The offensive line did a really good job. It just felt good to get the win.”
With his four touchdown passes, Wallace passed Jevan Snead for second all-time in Ole Miss history with 49 career touchdowns.
The receiver who had made the biggest impact for the Rebels in the first two weeks was junior Cody Core, but this time it was senior Vince Sanders who made the difference, reeling in eight catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns, which are both career highs.
Sanders was the beneficiary of the offense this week and hopes the offense can continue like this against the SEC West.
“If we come out and play, execute, be focused and don’t make mistakes, we can compete with anybody,” Sanders said. “I think we’ll be able to take that next step in the SEC West.”
The performance of the day on defense went to senior defensive back Senquez Golson, who totaled two interceptions for the day and returned his second 59 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter with 9:11 left. The interception-return touchdown was the first time since 2009 Ole Miss has had back-to-back games with a pick-six.
Freeze mentioned this is the year Golson has the “buy in” mentality that he wants out of all of his players when they come to Ole Miss. Golson agrees he’s a different person now and its’ helping him grow as a player.
“The person I am now compared to the person I was last year is different,” Golson said. “Things like character and being a good teammate changed.”
Golson added he wanted to change to be a leader on the defense and go out with the Ole Miss secondary the way a senior leader should.
The Rebel defense held the Ragin’ Cajun offense to just 322 total yards and only 129 passing yards. The secondary has been the backbone of the defense so far this season. The ball-hawking secondary has given up only 189 yards passing over the past two games and has only let up two touchdowns through the air all season.
Of the 554 total yards of offense, 340 yards went through the air and 214 yards came on the ground. The Ole Miss offense is averaging 44 points per game this season, which is good for 19th in the nation.
This seems to be the season where the Rebels have the most amount of weapons on offense and players who can go out and make the plays to spark the offense.
“Our system is designed to get it to a lot of different people. The more people you get it to, the more difficult you are to defend,” Freeze said. “We have some kids that can make some plays. Bo (Wallace) did a really good job spreading it around and making good reads.”
