Lane Kiffin pulled a rabbit out of his hat with an unexpected halftime adjustment to secure a win for Ole Miss
Ole Miss made the plays when it mattered most thanks to a self-assessment in the locker room.
In the early going, the Ole Miss Rebels’ defense was in hell trying to defend the Arkansas Razorbacks and Taylen Green. Offensive coordinator Bobby Petrino was in his bag with mesh and shallow concepts – giving Pete Golding and the Rebels fits.
But, in the second half, despite the points continuing the defense made plays, got stops, and secured the only turnover of the game to win it in the fourth quarter. It seems like the big defensive adjustment for the Rebels was doing more exotic looks at linebacker and in coverage and forcing Green to work the intermediate game more – eventually leading to more stops for the Ole Miss defense.
“Pete (Golding) does a great job at halftime adjustments on things defensively,” head coach Lane Kiffin said following the win. “I really have a lot of confidence that he figures something out. Obviously we couldn’t figure out the quarterback and stopping him. Coach Petrino does a great job too. Really proud of how we made adjustments and limited them in the second half really to the one touchdown.”
Ole Miss linebacker TJ Dottery made the play to save the game.
“Nothing said particularly, we kind of knew what we needed to do. I think something that was huge was just the team coming together and staying together,” Dottery said. “Offense just continued to believe in the defense and knew we were going to get some stops, and the defense not going against each other. That was huge.
“I feel like it’s not really anything spectacular either team did. I would say it’s us missing assignments or alignment. As soon as that happens we give up those big plays.” Dottery said. “I feel like times we have gave up big plays, and drives, we’ve killed ourselves with penalties or just missed assignments.”
Dottery has been a big-time leader on defense through three games and made the most impactful play of the game Saturday. In four defensive drives between, Dottery and his defensive teammates allowed just seven points and forced the game-winning turnover.
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This is back-to-back SEC wins for Ole Miss. A lot of was because of the team’s toughness.
“When you win, you love the schedule that way, so it worked. When you lose, you don’t like it because you kind of want some build up to games and maybe be able to play more players because the games aren’t so close,” Kiffin said. “But luckily, we’ve gotten to 2-0 in the conference, so it’s been good, but we have a really good Tulane team coming in.
“It’s like another conference game, so we’re going to have to have a really good week of preparation. These guys do a really good job of coaching and have really good players.”
Ole Miss lost a lot of last year’s 10-win team. Eight draft picks and a ton of playmakers. Halftime adjustments and toughness are going to take this team far, though. And right now, this group has an edge to them.
