Legendary Ole Miss RB Deuce McAllister looks ahead to matchup in Oxford

Key notes from Deuce McAllister interview

• This year is a disappointing season for Ole Miss. You have two games you should have had with the Memphis game and Cal game. I’m not as locked in as I usually am because of the Saints schedule. I’ve only caught one game in person instead of my usual three to four.
   
• One thing you do see is young guys playing really, really well. Right now, you have a lot of freshman and junior college guys that are performing well, and that is kind of giving them that spark plug. They’re trying to figure out if they can put it together enough for them to qualify for a bowl.
   
• It really depends on what you’re trying to do with the offensive system as to who I’d want in the backfield. Look at what Luke’s done in the past. He wants to have RPO and run and get out on the edges. Plumlee fits that role. Matt Corral is a better passer and understanding what defenses are doing. Plumlee is a freshman, and the best way to do this with both of them is really to play them both.  As a running back, you want whoever is going to draw the least amount of guys in the box as possible. Even if you cover that with formation, you’re still getting seven or eight men in the box. You have to be able to run the football and have to be able to pass it as well to get that respect from the defenses and get stuff going.
   
• The one thing that hurts Rich Rod and Matt Luke was the late and slow development of the offensive line. Only one guy had true experience coming back, which was Gibbons at the right tackle. They were banged up coming into the year. The offensive line has been up and down. They’ve played better in the run game. Having that extra safety in there has helped. It’s been different with Plumlee in there with some of the runs and decisions. Teams are taking decisions and favorite plays away, and they haven’t been able to get him going as much as they’d like.
   
• They had Momo Sanogo, who was a middle linebacker that was hurt the second game. They’ve stepped up. But they have a couple of players who are suspended for half of the game from targeting penalty from last week’s game. You have to step up. When you look at it overall, you have a lot of young guys in there, and they’re going to be making mistakes. Do you simplify the plan, or do you just plan like you would if you had your regular lineup and take your lumps?
   
• The negative part of that is that A&M can figure that out very fast. It all starts with trying to contain the quarterback. He’s a great athlete and can hit you with tough passes. They’ve given up so many explosive plays and have to limit that, and they’ve moved to playing a lot of younger guys in the back to try to limit that.
   
• When I was being recruited, I had opportunities to go visit other places. I visited Notre Dame, Tennessee, and Georgia- a whole bunch of college blue blood programs.  I wanted to go to who allowed me to play early. Not necessarily start, but at least be in line to compete for starting lineup in my sophomore year. LSU, for example, if you look at some of those guys they had in there, they were really stacked. So it really came down to in-state schools. I had cousins at both of the programs.
   
• At Mississippi State, my cousin was the starting tailback, and my other cousin was a starting wide receiver at Ole Miss, so I was familiar with both programs and had been to both a lot. I asked Jackie Sherrill if he’d be here for all four years. He was honest with me and said he didn’t know. Jackie was going heavy junior college players at the time to try to improve quickly. Coach Tuberville wanted me to play linebacker. I told him I wanted to touch the ball and asked that he at least give me an opportunity to touch the ball, and if I didn’t have the talent to play at this level, then I would move to defense. I ended up going over there and running for 100 yards in the scrimmage.