Joshua Clayton
What was the biggest question for the Ole Miss offense manifested itself in disastrous fashion in the Rebels’ 15-10 at the Liberty Bowl on Saturday.
Scottie Phillips and Jerrion Ealy were unable to find a rhythm, the receivers couldn’t find separation and Matt Corral’s poor decision-making throughout the game was magnified, all due to the offensive line’s struggles.
“It’s obviously not what we expected. I think we’ve got the right pieces in place. We’ve got some young guys and we’re going to get them better. Obviously there were some mistakes made, but we can put them in a little better position.”
The Memphis defensive front took advantage of Ole Miss’s inexperience up front, sending several different stunts and blitzes at the Rebels throughout the game to disrupt rhythm.
“I think it doesn’t all fall on the offensive line. It all works together,” Luke said. “There are obviously some things that we can do better and I think playing more guys is one of those things.”
Luke said that they will add freshman Nick Broeker to the rotation this week.
“That’s a position that’s really difficult for a true freshman to play,” Offensive coordinator Rich Rodriguez. “It’s so much they’ve got to learn and be ready for, but we have a really good group of true freshmen and there’s one or two of them that will probably get in this weekend.”
Starting right tackle Alex Givens played 37 of the Rebels 53 total snaps and seems to still be on a snap limit moving into practice this week as the freshmen get ready for playing time against an SEC defensive front.
“You make your biggest improvement from week one to week two. Especially with a young team that we’ve got that’ll be very important.”
