While it’s way too soon to declare the Ole Miss rebels as a new rising force in the SEC, they’re certainly proving that they’re a lot more than just a team with a good recruiting class, as they handed Texas a devastating loss in Austin, pushing the Longhorns further down the hierarchy scale of College Football, which is something the (usually) Big 12 powerhouse aren’t used to.
Ole Miss run the ball, and then run it some more. They finished with 272 yards on 45 carries to beat Texas 44-23, but they really blew the game wide open and became impossible to catch near the end of the third quarter, as Jeff Scott returned a punt 73 yards for a touchdown to give them a 14 point lead before the fourth quarter. Texas, with a bad defense for a very long time, were finally broken.
Scott was the big man for Ole Miss as they did very well in front of 101,000 fans, who left the stadium way before the final snap was taken. The senior ran for 164 yards, adding another touchdown on the ground to make it a very impressive start for his season (330 yards, 35 carries) as he’ll surely end up with over 1000 for the first time in his career.
Bo Wallace continued doing what he’s been doing very well this season so far – avoiding mistakes, throwing two touchdown passes as he threw for 177 yards and ran for 57 more. The Junior has yet to throw an interception this season so far, leading his team to their first 3-0 start since 1989.
There’s nothing too complicated about what Ole Miss is doing. They simply have an offensive line they haven’t had in a very long time, which allowed them to run the same play over and over again, as Scott looked for the edge constantly before erupting on a big gain up the field.
For Texas, it wasn’t just their defense that disappointed. With David Ash, Case McCoy tried once again to live up to the quarterback everyone is pining for in Texas, doing a decent job with 196 yards and a touchdown pass, but Texas don’t have enough talent on offense to make up for their holes on defense, adding 124 yards on the ground as they were out-gained by more than 120 yards against Ole Miss.
The Rebels now fantasize about causing a bit upset against Alabama, their next opponents, although the main thing they’re thinking about is how it’s going to position the program for years to come.
To come in and stand toe-to-toe with them, I do think nationally it’s going to help us in recruiting. It’s a step in the right direction but it’s only one step. We didn’t take six tonight, we just took one.
Ole Miss had a little revenge thing going on after allowing 66 points to be scored against them by Texas last season. But this is a very different Rebels team in 2013; not BCS game caliber, which in the SEC means winning the division, but certainly on the right path to challenging for the SEC West in a couple of years, as their focus on recruiting seems to have finally brought back the program on the right track, which is pretty much the opposite which can be said about Texas.