Same Offense, New Energy as Ole Miss, Trinidad Chambliss Chase Another CFP Appearance

Trinidad Chambliss was not at SEC Media Days to do any type of reimagining. Taking a seat in front of the reporters in the electronic media room, the Ole Miss quarterback made it quite clear that while there will be some changes, they are definitely not going to be overhauling their offense at all this year with their new head coach, Pete Golding.

Golding is an overly-cautious coach who had served in the same role at Ole Miss the previous year, taking up his current position after Lane Kiffin had quit to join LSU on the heels of a 13-win season for the Rebels. There is one expectation when the new head coach is a defensive coach: the offense would get short shrift and would be built in another’s style. This is where Chambliss disagrees.

"Not too much has changed," Chambliss said. "P.G., when he was going through that process of hiring an OC, he wanted stability within the scheme and within the offense. And J.D.B., in his experience, he was at Ole Miss before, so he kind of knows and understands what our offense is."

The Rebels new offesnive coordinator

That acquisition, John David Baker, was not made to introduce a new identity. It was done so because he knew the identity that Chambliss and his crew had already constructed. It is an ideology built around the premise of not fixing what is not broken.

"It's ideally the same offense as last year," Chambliss explained. "There's some new terminology and some new plays that we might mess around with here and there, but at the end of the day, it's ideally the same."

What is different, according to Chambliss, is not the plan; it’s him. He is starting his second season at Oxford, but this is the first time that he has had the entire offseason under his belt as the undisputed starter, rather than having to work into the role or figure it out as he goes along.

"I love that I got an off-season under my belt," he said. "I guess you could say it's more comfortable."

But comfort does not imply complacency either. Chambliss has spent the off-season looking back at his performance from last season, analyzing his games in detail and focusing specifically on an area that he needs to improve before the new season begins: throwing the deep ball.

"Watching the tape and seeing my film from last year, I feel like I could have been a little bit better with my ball accuracy and deep ball accuracy, to be precise," Chambliss said. "My quarterback coach, Steve Calhoun, and I worked on that this offseason, and that's been an emphasis of mine."

However, in spite of all the rhetoric about comfort and confidence, there was no room for complacency. Ole Miss made sure that their arrival in Tampa sent the message that what happened last season should neither be the pinnacle nor relied upon.

"The standard at Ole Miss is winning a national championship, but we can't get too ahead of ourselves," he said. "Last year is last year. That's done with. Nobody cares about what we did and what we accomplished last year. It's a new year."

For Chambliss and the Rebels, the message out of Media Days was consistent: same system, sharper quarterback, and zero interest in living in the past.

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