Behind Enemy Lines: Ole Miss Light Years Ahead of Hogs

Razorbacks, Rebels trending in very different directions for defining matchup

Author:
Daniel Shi
Publish date:
Oct 6, 2023 9:17 PM EDT

In this story:

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — How the tables have turned since the two teams met at Razorback Stadium last year. Ole Miss was in the middle of its four-game skid to finish the season and Arkansas' 42-27 win made Arkansas bowl-eligible.

This year the Razorbacks go to Oxford in desperate need to get on the board in conference play to avoid a four-game losing streak of their own. This week I talked with Michael Katz, Ole Miss beat writer for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal.

Note: This interview has been edited for length

Daniel Shi: This team runs on Jaxson Dart. When he's going, the team's going. Your overall thoughts on one of his best games ever (against LSU)?

Michael Katz: Coming into the season, quarterback was something that we all sort of wondered. He was obviously the starter for most of 12 of the 13 games last season, but Ole Miss brought in Spencer Sanders from Oklahoma State, who started 41 games there and was the first-team All-BIG 12 guy. They also brought in Walker Howard from LSU, so it was a battle to be sure and Jaxson won it. He's looked just so much more comfortable and confident this year. You can tell that he really understands what the offense wants to do, and how it flows. He understands how to play with the tempo that Ole Miss wants to. I think we saw that culmination in that LSU game because everybody was pretty good offensively in that game. Everybody ran the ball but really the game came down to Jaxson. Last year, there were a couple of situations where he came up short, and I know that stuck with him and it stuck with the team. Things spiraled a little bit last year with them. This time he came through, he led them on that game-winning drive in a game that I would say is probably the best game I've ever covered, or been a part of... I don't think it can be overstated and there's no question Jaxson is really making a case as one of the better quarterbacks in the conference.

DS: Ole Miss is at heart still a running team. They led the SEC in rushing last year in front of Arkansas. What have you seen out of both Judkins and the other running backs who also had a big day last week?

MK: Judkins had a little bit of a slow start to the season. He was dealing with some injuries. He was no contact heading into Georgia Tech week. I guess he got hurt against Tulane, and it was questionable if he was even going to play at all, and he did. He had 37 yards. The Ole Miss rushing game was not what we expected the first few weeks... This was an offense that averaged 256.6 yards rushing per game last season. That's what they want to do. Quenshawn Judkins is kind of the engine there and it wasn't working great. Part of that was the injuries, part of it was, coming into the season defenses knew that if you're going to slow down Ole Miss, you have to make Dart beat you and take your chances there. The question was, will Dart be able to face that challenge? He has. I do think teams were selling out to stop the run a little bit and if we're being honest, the offensive line wasn't getting a great push. They brought back four or five guys from last year, but they made some changes with some transfers and I think there was a little bit of finding the rhythm and the consistency there with a couple of new faces at the tackling guard spots... Ulysses Bentley, who's the number two back. is healthy. He missed a lot of last year with an injury. All of the pieces are finally, it seems getting healthier for that run offense.

DS: (Tre) Harris and (Jordan) Watkins had a huge average per catch, including two long balls. Is it just a case of finally last year plus this year that everybody is finally understanding what Kiffin wants to do with this offense?

MK: Ole Miss is interesting because they have built their team so heavily on transfers. Tre, this was his first year here and Jordan Watkins was here last year. He was sort of the number three last year. Harris, that Mercer game, he caught four touchdowns and it's Mercer so you take it all with a grain of salt. The first drive against Tulane, Ole Miss just marched down the field and he touched on the first drive and you kind of thought maybe this is for real and then he got hurt in that Tulane game... He came back against Alabama after having surgery and Lane said he was only able to run like one route... He came back against LSU and I think Lane said he was about 90 percent and he looked like a difference maker... It's been pretty clear that when Harris is out there, the passing game is dynamic.

DS: Both these teams have a lot of transfers. Has Kiffin shed any light on how he's approached that given that the portal is still relatively new?

MK: They constructed the team last year similarly and a lot of those guys are still here. Dart being one of them. Coming into the season last year, the question was, how's the chemistry? How are all the pieces going to fit? It looks good on paper when you bring in these guys. How are all the puzzle pieces going to fit? Admittedly, the chemistry was not where it needed to be last year. I think that's part of why they ended the season the way they did. They lost the Alabama game. It was a game they should have won. They thought they should have won and it just all spiraled from there. I think part of that is not having guys who have been in those positions with you before and that it was a little bit of a process. It sounds like this year, there are new faces for sure, but I think a lot of those transfers were there last year and they understand what it takes and how to get through those tough times. The chemistry seems to be a lot better this year and Dart after the Tulane game said... "This isn't a game we would have won last year." Which is pretty telling, I think a lot of that has to do with sort of the attitude and the character of your team... I don't know how much longer you can build your teams like this. I know Ole Miss has really picked up its high school recruiting in the last couple cycles. I think they understand that building your team largely from the portal probably isn't going to be sustainable, but there's no doubt the last two years this Ole Miss has been as portal heavy as, as anybody outside of maybe USC in terms of construction. Last year it worked kind of a 8-5 is not a bad season, but when you started out 8-1, it does kind of look like a bad season. I think that this group is in a little bit of a better spot.

DS: I almost wonder if Arkansas is a full year behind Ole Miss given how many transfers are here on this team?

MK: I do think there is something to be said for continuity and having gone through. An SEC slate and understanding everything that goes with it and being in that same locker room for a whole year and having, you know, two spring practices and two fall balls and understanding the ebbs and flows of a season. Last year, I don't think Ole Miss wins that LSU game either. They were coming off a heartbreaking game against Alabama where this was the "down" Alabama team and they went in there and they were up 7-6 at half and they just couldn't do anything offensively in Tuscaloosa the second half. I personally believe the 2022 team would not have responded the way the 2023 team did. I think a lot of that is just its continuity and it's everybody understanding how things work in your program.

DS: How much of the Ole Miss defense struggles against LSU is a byproduct of a shootout versus things that actually need to be addressed?

MK: There's a part of me that wants to look at it as an aberration. That game was just bizarre. It had everything. It was just one of those games where nothing made sense... It was just one of those things where you knew that no one was ever going to get a stop, and the one-stop happened to be the very last play of the game... I think for the most part under Pete Golding, this is his first year as coordinator... Pete Golding's been good at making adjustments and that's not something we have necessarily seen in the last few years from Ole Miss defensively. If it was bad, it tended to stay bad and that would just sort of be the story of the game... The defense kept them in that Alabama game... If the offense had been able to do anything, Ole Miss is able to take that game, but they were putting in some pretty tough spots. They got beat over the top a couple of times, and that was really it.

DS: I noticed a lot of linebacker sacks. How will Golding look to take advantage of a below-par Hog offensive line?

MK: That has been their main source of pressure. Suntarine Perkins is their five-star true freshman linebacker, and he's sort of been a spy type the last couple of games against Jalen Milroe and Jayden Daniels. I imagine he's probably going to be doing some of that against KJ Jefferson just based on what KJ does from a skill-set perspective... He's (Golding) been really good at the late blitz. I think that they would probably like to be getting more pressure from the front, but sometimes it's just not the way it works. For the most part, they're doing a good job of eating up space... I think we're at a point now where we're five games in, that just might be how they're going to get pressure this year.

DS: Any effect from last year's game and KJ being from the area?

MK: Without question. He's from 20 minutes away from here... In two starts, he's got nine total touchdowns against Ole Miss. The first one in the 52-51 game, he had six total touchdowns. You can tell this game means a lot to him... They (Ole Miss) still remember what happened last year in Fayetteville because that was, for three and a half quarters, about as bad as it gets. That was one of the four losses in a row they had to end the season.

The game kicks off at 6:30 p.m. at Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium in Oxford Miss. The game be on on the SEC Network and fuboTV.