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Rebels Work Towards Vanderbilt
OXFORD, Miss. – With the
countdown to kickoff now in singles digits, the Ole Miss football team
continued its preparation for the Aug. 29 season opener at Vanderbilt,
introducing a little more of the Commodores into the practice schedule.
“We had a good prep day,” said head coach Hugh Freeze. “The
attention from the meetings to here as far as the initial part of the
game plan was good. The things I heard today throughout the
meetings carried over to practice. I am pretty pleased. We
had one period yesterday [on Vanderbilt] and five periods today, so
it’s coming.”
Freeze has preached about the need for depth at all positions, and
offensive line is one where he feels they are beginning to get there.
“We’re getting better. We can sit here and say it’s good, but the
first few games will really be an indicator of where we are,” Freeze
said. “I certainly feel better with where we are this
time versus last year at this time. I would like to be a little
deeper. I know some of the guys that have played for two years in
our system now, are understanding things better.”
Tackles Emmanuel McCray and Pierce Burton are two older guys with
experience. “Those guys have been there and they know how to work
and how to prepare. Hopefully that can translate to some of the
younger guys.”
With a highly-touted recruiting class providing more depth, Freeze was
asked what impact some of the younger players could be expected to make
on special teams, especially in coverage.
“It’s hard to tell yet,” he said. “They’re on them, and we’re
going to find out how well they do. I hope (Andrew) Ritter and
(Tyler) Campbell help make our special teams better too. Those
are two seniors who have been through the battles. We certainly
need to improve our coverage, and hopefully some of the younger players
can perform and help us do that.”
On the health front, Freeze said running back I’Tavius Mathers is out
of the boot and did some running Tuesday. “He’s on his way, but I
don’t know say exactly what day we expect him to be ready to go next
week.”
The Aug. 29 game versus Vanderbilt will be televised by ESPN with an
8:15 p.m. CT kickoff.
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