Ole Miss S Daijahn Anthony says the Rebels have mentally rebounded from Georgia loss
Ole Miss safety Daijahn Anthony, who transferred from Liberty, has been a stellar performer for the Rebels this season.
He’s fourth on the team in tackles with 39, first on the team with passes defended with 6, second on the team in interceptions with 2 and has a forced fumble on his resume’.
But Anthony, and all the Ole Miss defenders, earned a valuable lesson in the one-sided loss to Georgia last Saturday night.
“We prepared hard for that game, but we didn’t play that way,” said Anthony. “When you are playing a national championship team you have to do everything right. It’s not just about doing the little things right, you have to do everything right, plus some. We didn’t do everything the way we should have and we paid the price.”
The Rebel defense went into the game as one of the top defenses in quarterback sacks. Not only did they not get a sack, they never touched Georgia quarterback Carson Beck and the defense did not have a single tackle for negative yardage.
But that’s water under the bridge. The one thing about college football is that you cannot dwell on wins or losses more than a day because it’s time to get ready for the next game.
“We took that loss hard for a day, but when we reported in for practice Monday our coaches did a great job of telling us not to let that game beat us twice and how we could still make school history with 11 wins if we win our last 2 regular season games and a bowl game,” Anthony continued. “That talk to us picked our spirits up and gave us a lot of energy.
“That spoke volumes to us because now we know we have to come hard and take care of business to do something no team has ever done at Ole Miss. We regained our focus after that loss.”
Ole Miss has two games in the span of five days with ULM Saturday and Mississippi State in Starkville Thanksgiving Day.
Athony said he can tell the difference in practices this week.
“The coaches know playing two games in five days is tough so they are taking care of our bodies. We did not go full pads Tuesday like we usually do. That’s good on our legs,” he noted.
ULM plays a wide open style of offense that the Rebels have to be prepared for, Anthony stated.
“They play at lot of 10 personnel and four wideouts. They will throw the ball all over the field and teams like that will give us more opportunities to make plays on the back end,” he closed. “I don’t think we will see much use of the tight end. It will be more wideouts and slot guys coming at us.”
Daijahn Anthony has been a physical presence in the secondary and he’s been competent, for the most part, in the pass coverage game.
His goal is to continue that for the remainder of the regular season and through what should be a very good bowl game.
After all, there is history to chase. . . .
