Brief Synopsis: Reflections of a history-making regular season for Ole Miss football

On3 imageby:Chuck Rounsaville11/27/21

There was some apprehension in the air when the 2021 football season started.

Why? The word was out the Rebel coaches had opted for a brand new defensive system – a 3-2-6 look – and besides not knowing how it would play in the SEC, there was wonderment about how well the Rebel players had adapted in a spring and an August.

It was known the offense, if it stayed healthy, was going to be potent just from the remnants from last year. There was only one “if” on offense. Could the Rebels replace prolific receivers Elijah Moore and Kenny Yeboah, who combined for 113 catches on the year?

Enter Dontario Drummond, who lurked in the background in 2020, playing second fiddle to Moore. He was in the lead chair in 2021 and that “if” was answered with Drummond, despite missing one game and being hobbled in a couple or more, caught 67 passes. 

The Rebels reeled off three easy wins to start the campaign over prickly Louisville, Austin Peay and Tulane. The offense was as expected and the defense showed flashes of being improved, but would it hold up? The litmus test was staring the Rebs in the face.

Then there was the Tide

A bit of reality surfaced in the opening SEC game as Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, doubled up on the Rebs in a 42-21 win. No shame there, but it was believed after the game that Ole Miss could have done better. Obviously, a win was not in the cards on that night, but the feeling postgame was that it could have been more competitive.

An early coaching decision to go for it on fourth down – two times in Rebel territory – gave the Tide momentum when those choices failed, but it was the way this team was going to play, like it or not. It’s Lane Kiffin’s strong belief in analytics and it’s not changing, he told us when he was hired.

In a weird way, the Rebs seemed to gain a little bit of confidence in that loss because they felt they could go toe-to-toe with Bama if they had just executed better in spots and made just one or two those fourth-and-shorts.

It sounds nutty, but the loss to the Tide was actually a springboard for the Rebs for the next few games, or so it seemed.

Bellyaching after a win

The Rebels came back home to take on Arkansas, who recently seemed to be a rock in Ole Miss’ shoe, with some concern about the overall performance at Alabama.

The offense rose to the occasion, scoring 52 points, but the defense had no answers for the K.J. Jefferson-led Hog attack that scored 51 points and missed a game-winning two-point conversion.

Lordy, the hollering – some by yours truly – after that game about the defense. It looked as inept as it ever did last year and that’s saying a lot. In that game, Ole Miss stayed almost exclusively with five men in the box and Arkansas ran at will.

The home team escaped, but there had to be some adjustments on defense moving forward. After all, the Razorbacks had run for 350 yards and thrown for over 300 as well. Without the offensive outburst, that’s a losing effort and then some for just about any team.

A change of heart

Tennessee was next and it was a game the Vols and UT fan base had circled as their coming out party. The environment was as tough as any in the country for that particular game. The game even had to be stopped toward the end for trash being thrown on the field in a display of unsportsmanship conduct by a fan base as bad as these eyes had ever seen before and hope to never see again.

The Volunteers were certain they were going to win the game, but Ole Miss did two things that were not expected.

One, they turned QB Matt Corral loose in the run game as he ran 30 times for 195 yards and two, they got more aggressive with their defensive calls, at key times putting more people in the box and pressuring more often, a theme that would continue most of the rest of the season and would pay dividends along the way.

The end result was the win that probably catapulted the Rebs past struggling LSU, even though they would have most likely beaten that downtrodden crew without much momentum from the previous game.

That was three SEC wins in a row and the Rebels were feeling pretty good about themselves at 6-1 and a Top 10 ranking.

Toe-stubbing

The Rebels then traveled to the Plains to take on Auburn, who was playing decent football at the time, but really was not any better than the previous three teams Ole Miss had beaten.

It just was not their day, on offense or defense, really. Auburn had their number, Corral was hobbled as was most of his receiving corps, and the shorthanded Rebs could not respond like they had been able to in previous games. The result was very similar to the Alabama game – it should have been a lot closer and, unlike Bama, this one was winnable, despite the injury bug that had hit Ole Miss.

It was time to get back home, try to get healthy and regroup.

Regaining some momentum

Liberty came to town and provided the salve the Rebs needed to get over Auburn and look forward to the final three conference games.

Even though Ole Miss gave up 285 yards rushing to the Flames, they sacked Liberty’s talented quarterback nine times for the deciding factor.

A disturbing trend started to emerge at Auburn – poor second half offensive production – and it continued versus Liberty and even beyond.

The Rebs missed G Ben Brown, WR Braylon Sanders, WR Jonathan Mingo and Drummond, and Corral was not effective running the ball due to his continuing ankle injury. With a lot of their weapons limping around, it was hard for the Rebs to get back in the rhythm they enjoyed earlier in the year with a full arsenal.

Rising to the occasion

But a win was a win and there was some speculation that they did some looking past Liberty to Texas A&M, which promised to be a special event with Game Day on campus and two teams battling that were in the Top 12 in the nation.

The atmosphere was electric, the fans were out in full force and the Rebels responded with an excellent showing, particularly on defense, limiting a fairly potent Aggie offense to 19 points.

Again, the offense struggled in the second half – the defense actually scored one of the two second half TDs on a pick six by A.J. Finley and they set the offense up with a short field on the other after an interception by Ashanti Cistrunk.

But nobody cared at that point. It was apparent Corral was getting a little better, as was Drummond, and to get that win was a huge boost in the team’s confidence and the confidence of the fan base.

Going through the motions 

After such a high in the Texas AS&M game, the Rebels looked emotionally drained against Vanderbilt.

Yes, they won pretty handily. Yes, they did what they had to do, but once again that old booga-boo of little offensive production and firepower in the second half lingered. It was easy to see, however, that the Rebs’ health on offense was improving little by little and the hope was they would be full go for the Battle for the Golden Egg.

Once again, and not a surprise anymore, the defense carried the day with a bend-but-don’t-break showing against a bad Commodore team.

Making Rebel history

The 9-2 Rebels were going for their 10th regular season win, something never done in the history of Ole Miss football. 

And what better venue to try and accomplish that than Starkville against rival Mississippi State, who had been playing good ball themselves recently.

For the first time in several weeks, the Rebs were full bore healthy and Corral was able to return to his aggressive style of running the ball when the opportunity arose. And in this important game, there was no sliding for the tough-as-nails competitor.

The Rebs prevailed with the same formula that got them to nine wins – good overall defense and opportunistic offense. They even broke out of their second half doldrums a bit with 21 points, the most output in the final 30 minutes in a long time.

Mississippi State didn’t go down easily, but they went down, and the Rebels had their magical 10th win of the regular season.

Postgame, it was all Corral could do on his TV interview to hold back the tears. The undisputed leader of this team had left it all on the field all year and his teammates followed his lead.

Lane Kiffin and his staff rolled the dice from start to finish, sometimes to the chagrin of the fan base, but it paid off with a historic regular season with one to go in a prestigious bowl game. 

Outstanding job by the coaches, the players and the support staff. All any Rebel fan can do is smile and thank them. In a tough year for a lot of Americans and Rebels, this season was a beacon of fun and pride and enjoyment.

The last couple of years, it’s been difficult to poke our chests out as Rebs, Mississippians and Americans, but this has been a needed opportunity to do just that and it feels good.

What a year.

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