Lane Kiffin gives addresses lack of carries for Zach Evans in second half

Ole Miss secured a 35-27 win over Tulsa this Saturday, headlined by an explosive second quarter for their offense where the Rebels scored 28 unanswered points, ending four straight offensive drives with touchdowns. Rebels running back Zach Evans entered the matchup as their leading rusher, but saw very limited action in the second half. Head coach Lane Kiffin was asked about Evans’ lack of carries in the second half, to which he gave a very short, blunt answer.

“Yeah, that was a medical thing,” Kiffin said.

The medical status of Evans was made pretty unclear by Kiffin, but Ole Miss will surely hope he’s healthy for next week’s game as they enter conference play for the first time this season. Evans, a TCU transfer, has made a splash so far this season in his first year with Ole Miss, as he entered their game versus Tulsa with the most carries and rush yards on the team.

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Evans finished the Tulsa game with just ten carries for 48 yards and one touchdown, but Quinshon Judkins took on the bulk of the running responsibilities in the second half and thrived in his absence. Judkins finished Saturday’s game with 140 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, as he now leads the Rebels in rushing with 429 yards on the season, just 64 yards ahead of Evans.

Ole Miss has their biggest test of the season so far next week, as they take on No. 7 Kentucky at home in their first SEC game of the season. Hopefully for the Rebels, Evans will be healthy and ready to go for their next matchup, and they can use him in tandem with Judkins out of the backfield as a dangerous duo and one-two punch.

Lane Kiffin provides scary thought for opposing defenses when it comes to Zach Evans

TCU transfer running back Zach Evans has established himself as an elite playmaker for Ole Miss so far this season. Evans leads the Rebels in carries with 49, rushing yards with 317, and is tied for the team lead in rushing touchdowns with 3 so far this season. But head coach Lane Kiffin believes that his performance so far may just be the tip of the iceberg for Evans.

“Yeah I did, I think what’s really neat is, and Zach’s seen them now, Zach missed some plays,” Kiffin said. “Now we put a lot of new runs in to give them problems that we haven’t done, so he hadn’t had a ton of reps at them.”

Kiffin’s roster is filled with new transfer portal additions and young talent that are a part of this offensive system for the first time, which could potentially room for players like Evans to get even better as the season goes on and they get more comfortable within the scheme.

“But again when you have all these new guys, everything is new, so they don’t have any stored reps from us from last year when we did things and stuff,” Kiffin said.

Evans has been giving defenses fits already, averaging 6.5 yards per carry in his first three games and rushing for 130 yards in two of his first three outings. All that being said, Kiffin still believes his production can increase even more, which is a scary thought if your Tulsa, who faces Ole Miss in week 4, and the SEC teams that have yet to get a first hand experience facing him and this offense.

“So he missed some runs that would’ve been really big, and if he comes up here he’ll tell you that. That’s what’s really neat is that he can even be better and more productive than he’s been, which is really special,” Kiffin said.