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Defense Leads Rebels’ First Scrimmage
OXFORD,
Miss. – Playing through scattered rain showers in Vaught-Hemingway
Stadium, the Ole Miss football team competed in its first scrimmage of
fall camp Saturday morning, and the defense shined throughout.
After
about 40 minutes of team drills, the Rebels scrimmaged for the
remainder of the practice, rotating units after each drive. The offense
scored just one touchdown, as the defense recorded two interceptions
and a number of sacks.
“(The defense was) ready to
go, and I knew that,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. “I knew
that from our pregame on. When we did our substitution meetings and
then watched them in our walk through, they had a little edge about
them.”
The lone touchdown of the day came on an
eight-yard pass from senior quarterback Barry Brunetti to junior tight
end Nicholas Parker on fourth down.
Freeze said the offense got the best of the defense Friday, and today it was a reversal, as often happens in camp.
“Yesterday,
in the live scrimmage the offense dominated,” Freeze said. “I know the
defensive guys had a little chip on their shoulder. This was our 11th
practice, everybody’s fatigued and our legs are tired, but (the
defense) certainly responded a lot better than the offensive guys
today.”
With rain coming down hard at times,
Freeze said the decision to stay outside and play through it was to
give the team experience if it were to rain in Nashville, Tenn., for
the Rebels’ season opener Aug. 29 against Vanderbilt.
“I
don’t know if we were prepared for it … but it was a good experience,”
said Freeze of the rain. “We handled snaps and handoffs pretty
decently, but we sure didn’t have much on our passes.”
Ole
Miss will take Sunday off to rest and recuperate. Freshman defensive
end Robert Nkemdiche did not play Saturday due to a “little strain in
his groin,” Freeze said.
“It will help,” said
Freeze of the day off. “I don’t know if one day is going to get them
well, but it will go a ways toward that. Hopefully Monday we’ll have a
few more bodies out there, particularly the defensive line. We’ve
gotten real thin at the defensive end position, inside too.”
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