A Memphis player blocks a pass intended for Laquon Treadwell (Ariel Cobbert | The DM)
Ole Miss is in a vulnerable place right now. Losers of two of their last three and sliding in the rankings, this team has reached a critical point in its season.
The Rebels are hanging off of the side of a cliff so to speak, and they are teetering between being able to crawl back up to safety, or engaging in a free fall to the bottom.
Swagger, a word many players have used this week, is also something this team has lost in the recent weeks and hopes to get back.
“I feel like we don’t have as much swagger anymore,” junior tight end Evan Engram said. “The thing about this team right now is that we are not gonna sit here and point fingers or make excuses. We’re all in this together.”
Ole Miss will receive a much needed shot in the arm with the return of All-American offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil who has completed a seven game suspension after an NCAA investigation that deemed him to have accepted improper benefits.
“Any time you have a top five draft pick on the team it definitely helps,” junior quarterback Chad Kelly said. “Everybody knows how good he is. Laremy’s presence is amazing in itself, so knowing the presence he brings and the energy and him not being able to play, you know he’s gonna show a couple people up so it’s gonna be nice.”
Ole Miss held a team meeting on Sunday that Hugh Freeze described as “passionate,” which may serve as a reality check for the locker room.
“I believe we got our swagger back,” Damore’ea Stringfellow said. “We got our edge right. We know what we need to do, and I feel like we needed that loss, even though it sucks, to get us back in the right mindset.”
That edge Ole Miss is looking for is what helped them jump out to a 4-0 start. It’s what helped them stand tall, and not fold under the lights in Bryant-Denny and emerge victorious in a hostile environment. It’s that kind of mentality the Rebels will need to regain in order to climb back up, and avoid a free fall in the remaining five games.
“We have to make sure we match that intensity every time we step out on the field, not every quarter or every once in a while, it has to be every single play,” Kelly said. “We just have to make sure we have to confidence that we had going into Alabama and being hungry every single day on the practice field.”
Kelly knows a thing or two about swagger, too, and it helped him coin the nickname “Swag Kelly.”
“We know we are the best team in the land. I have no doubt about that,” Kelly said “We have to players to do it, the coaches to do it, and as long as everybody believes in that, it’s hard to stop us.”
Kelly said this is a new season going forward.
“We all have looked ourselves in the mirror,” Engram said. “Reality has set in, and we are ready to attack this week.”
The past is certain. It can’t be changed. The future is what remains to be seen, and this team’s destiny is completely in its control, and they know that.
“We’re going to take it one week at a time. We still have everything under control in the West,” Engram said. “If we win out, we’re still in Atlanta.”
“At the end of the day, we’re all we have, and why not go out there and play balls to the wall every single play? And know you’re the best team out there,” Kelly said. “If you know you’re the best, then you have to go out there and prove it.”
