Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel looks for a receiver
Photo by Thomas Graning | The Daily Mississippian
It’s been a rough early part of the schedule for Ole Miss, who had four of its first five contests on the road. The slate doesn’t get easier with No. 9 Texas A&M on the docket this week and a matchup with No. 10 LSU coming up next week, but the Rebels do return home to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for the first time in a month.
“The journey continues,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said in his weekly press conference Monday. “It’s been a very difficult stretch of road games. I’m disappointed in the outcome, but I’m extremely proud of the fight and battle our young men showed. Again, that stretch of road games was very difficult.
“To not be on the road in hostile environments you can change some of your communication stuff and get back to normal. At the same time, get more rest and not get here at 4 a.m. [Sunday] mornings and then get back up ready to go again on Sunday. It’s going to do us all a lot of good to get back home. But again, it doesn’t get much easier.”
Although most of the talk the past two weeks has been about the struggles of the Ole Miss offense, especially near the red zone, the attention turned to the Rebel defense, who gets the task of slowing down Heisman trophy-winning quarterback Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M.
After Manziel dazzled the entire college football world with electric plays last season, Manziel and the Aggies have continued that dynamic play in 2013.
“Texas A&M, certainly, is very deserving of its ranking,” Freeze said. “Kevin (Sumlin) has done a tremendous job in the short time he’s been there. And of course, Johnny Manziel makes them very difficult to defend.
“They know who they are, they know what they want to do, they’re very good at what they do and he makes what they do very special, along with (Mike) Evans and a few others. They have a lot of good players. O-line is a strength of theirs and it has been for both years, along with Johnny and the receiving corps and the running backs are above average also. There are really no weaknesses on their offensive side.”
Manziel, a sophomore, has thrown for 1,489 yards on 100 of 140 passing and 14 touchdowns. Manziel also has 314 rushing yards with three touchdowns.
The Rebels had one of the better games against Manziel last season before he led a comeback that handed Texas A&M the win. Ole Miss will be looking to take the good from last year and some new ideas to try to contain the explosive Aggie offense.
“You have to be multiple,” Freeze said. “You can’t just give them one thing. There are no bad coaches in this league and they have tremendous players, so they will make adjustments if they get a beat on exactly what you’re doing.
“We did have a good plan (last year). We contained him for the better part of three quarters, but in the fourth quarter he showed why he won the Heisman trophy. We’ll look at last year’s (tape) very closely and use what we thought was good, and try to mix in some new stuff. We were able to create some turnovers last year which was big. Hopefully we can have a repeat of that performance and contain him a bit – you’re not going to stop him, but hopefully contain him and give us a chance to be in it late in the game.”
The defense will have their hands full, but at the same time, the Ole Miss offense has to do a better job of getting the ball in the end zone.
Alabama moved their defensive ends out wide to take away the outside running game of senior running back Jeff Scott. Auburn did much of the same this past weekend, and it’s obvious the Rebels have to find a solution.
“We like to be balanced, but teams are taking certain things away from us that are making us try to do different things that maybe we’re not as gifted as a team,” Freeze said. “We have to continue to work on those things because good teams make you do different things than what your bread and butter are typically. We’ll work hard again on doing some things.”
Freeze said the easiest adjustment would be to have a traditional tight end set, but that’s a very thin area for Ole Miss, so they’ll have to make other adjustments.
Injury updates
Freeze said junior defensive end C.J. Johnson remains day-to-day with an ankle injury he has been dealing with all season long. Johnson will get out of his walking boot today and practice this afternoon.
The Rebels were without the presence of junior defensive tackle Carlton Martin this past weekend, but Freeze said he should be back this weekend. However, junior defensive end Carlos Thompson will not be available this week, according to Freeze.
Ole Miss – LSU game time announced
The SEC league offices announced the television slate for games on Oct. 19, and the Rebels home battle with foe LSU will be at 6 p.m. The game will be televised by ESPN or ESPN2.
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