SEC Round-Up: Ole Miss hoping to find enough success rotating quarterbacks
According to an old football cliché, any team that has two quarterbacks actually has none.
That’s not the case at Ole Miss, where redshirt freshman Matt Corral and true freshman John Rhys Plumlee are taking snaps.
Corral started the first four games until he was sidelined by a rib injury suffered in a 28-20 loss to Cal. He leads the Rebels with 977 passing yards.
Plumlee has led Ole Miss in rushing in each of the last three games. He’s the second-leading rusher on the team with 470 yards.
“We’ve got two really good (quarterback) competitors who have very unique skill sets,” Ole Miss coach Matt Luke told the Tupelo Daily Journal this week. “I was very impressed with how they fed off each other and how unselfish they were pulling for each other on the sideline.”
The question is which one, either or both, can win enough for Ole Miss (3-4) to gain bowl eligibility? The Rebels haven’t made a postseason appearance since 2015 and still need three more victories to qualify.
That makes Saturday night’s game against Texas A&M vital because No. 11 Auburn and No. 2 LSU, as well as state rival Mississippi State, remain on the schedule.
The Rebels have always played tough against A&M, especially in Oxford. Even in last season’s 38-24 loss at Kyle Field, the Rebels and Aggies were tied going into the fourth quarter.
To pull off an upset, the Rebels likely must show marked improvement to a pass defense that allows an average of 300 yards per game to rank 122nd in the nation.
Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa passed for 418 yards and six touchdowns against Ole Miss. Cal’s Chase Garbers threw for 357 yards and four touchdowns. Missouri’s Kelly Bryant passed for 329. Even Southeastern Louisiana’s Chason Virgil threw for 309.
That may not bode well for facing Texas A&M quarterback Kellen Mond, who is third in the SEC in passing.
In previous years, the Rebels struggled to stop running teams. That hasn’t been a major issue this season, although Missouri rushed for 233 last week, and Memphis rushed for 192 in the season-opener.
However, the Rebels’ rush defense figures to be weaker, at least in the first half. Middle linebacker Jacquez Jones drew a targeting penalty in the second half of last week’s 38-27 loss to Missouri and must sit out the first half.
No doubt, Ole Miss hopes to compensate for any defensive issues with offensive success. The Rebels will look to both quarterbacks to provide it.
“This is not conventional certainly, but it’s not the first time it’s been done,” Offensive Coordinator Rich Rodriguez said. “I know there are teams, if you go back, that have used two quarterbacks interchangeably. I’ve done it before a little bit, but it does take guys with the right mindset, particularly in this day and age, when people think you’ve got to have one guy in there.”
Around the SEC
This week’s games: Texas A&M at Ole Miss; Tennessee at Alabama; Auburn at Arkansas; Florida at South Carolina; Kentucky at Georgia; LSU at Mississippi State; Missouri at Vanderbilt
Who’s hot: LSU quarterback Joe Burrow has passed for at least 278 yards and multiple touchdowns in each of the Tigers’ six games. He’s thrown 14 touchdown passes in his last three games. That’s as many, or more, than LSU starting quarterbacks had in the entire seasons in 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2008. Thus far, Burrow has thrown 25 touchdown passes. That’s more than any LSU quarterback has had in an entire season since Jamarcus Russell had 28 in 2006.
Who’s not: Texas A&M running back Isaiah Spiller appears to be in a freshman slump. In the last three games, he’s managed just 36 rushing yards on 23 carries. He’s also lost a fumble in each of those games. One was returned for a touchdown against Arkansas. Another set up a short touchdown drive against Auburn.
Keep an eye on: The South Carolina Gamecocks are intriguing. They posted an emphatic victory over Kentucky two weeks ago. OK, no big deal. But they followed it up with a shocking upset at Georgia. That is a big deal. Suddenly, you remember the Gamecocks made Alabama work up a sweat. True, South Carolina may feel a Georgia hangover this week. But if they upset Florida, the Gamecocks become serious contenders in the SEC East.
The pressure is on: Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm was terrible in the loss to South Carolina. He threw three interceptions, though one wasn’t his fault. He figures to bounce back against Kentucky’s mediocre defense. Still, it’s becoming quite clear Georgia isn’t as strong as it was a year ago. Fromm doesn’t have to be perfect, but he cannot be pedestrian.
Best matchup: Despite running behind a porous offensive line and without much help from the passing game, Arkansas running back Rakeem Boyd somehow leads the SEC in rushing with 617 yards. He’s averaging almost 6 yards per carry. He’s gained at least 89 yards in each of the last four games. However, he’ll face his toughest test thus far against Auburn, which is third in the SEC in run defense. Only Florida’s Lamical Perine has reached 100 yards rushing against Auburn, and that’s because he had an 88-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. That was a rare mistake. Auburn has allowed only four rushing touchdowns.
