How Kenny Yeboah and Matt Corral Grew Their Chemistry in an Offseason Without Practice
The relationship between Matt Corral and Kenny Yeboah started when everything ended. A COVID-19 limited offseason should mean a lack of chemistry between new players. At Ole Miss, the opposite has happened.
Through three games, Corral leads the nation with a 95.6 QBR, is fourth nationally in passing and sporting a blistering efficiency of 212.8.
Outside of Elijah Moore, his second leading receiver is actually a tight end. Yeboah, a grad transfer from Temple, has 15 catches for 355 yards and four scores on the year. His 181 yards performance last week against Alabama was the most ever yards in a single game by an Ole Miss tight end.
But Corral and Yeboah never met before January, when the new Rebel tight end first arrived in Oxford. Then they had spring ball and summer workouts cut short because of COVID-19. So how did these two develop such a dynamic?
"It all started for him with the work in the weight room. Kenny is such a hard worker and it rubbed off on that tight end room," Corral said. "When everyone sees that, they want to work harder. That kind of bond makes everyone want to raise the bar.
"Then it was just throwing with Kenny outside of practice. We were doing the extra reps, pretty much the whole receiver and tight end room. We did a good job of doing all the extra stuff, the stuff the coaches didn't make us go and do. We did that all on our own and it's starting to show."
That hard work has simply paid off.
In his three years starting at Temple, Yeboah never accumulated more than 233 receiving yards. It took him just three games into 2020 at Ole Miss to well surpass that. Of his three best games, as far as yardage production is concerned, they're all here in Oxford. His three games with Corral and head coach Lane Kiffin surpass all 27 games he played at Temple.
"It started in January when I first got here. I knew what I wanted to do and knew what I wanted to accomplish when I got here. I just put my head down and worked hard," Yeboah said. "It was really just building trust with the other players. It was just building trust with Matt. When he throws me the ball, he knows I'm going to make the play."
Kiffin's offense has historically loved the tight end.
Harrison Bryant, now with the Cleveland Browns, won the 2019 John Mackey Award for the nation's best tight end while accumulating over 1,000 receiving yards last season with Kiffin at FAU. Yeboah is on pace to top that mark in just a ten game season.
Yeboah fully admits Bryant was one of the reasons he chose to come to Ole Miss and play for Kiffin. Will he be the 2020 John Mackey Award winner? If things keep up at this pace, it's hard to not have him as a finalist.
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