Just one year after leading the SEC in rushing yards, the Ole Miss Rebels rushing attack has fallen off a cliff. And it needs to get fixed in a hurry.
If it doesn’t, the Rebels could be in for a long season. Playing in the SEC, everyone understands the season turns into a gauntlet. That’s especially true when it comes to conference play. And seeing as Ole Miss travels to Tuscaloosa on September 23 to take on Alabama, their conference slate starts off with a national power. While we all watched the Crimson Tide fall to Texas this weekend, the fault didn’t really fall on the Alabama defensive line. They’re extremely talented, and if Ole Miss doesn’t find solutions to their problems up front, that game could turn into a nightmare for the Rebels.
The Ole Miss Rushing Woes
Last season, Ole Miss rushed for 3,139 yards as a team. Those came with an average of 5.5 yards per carry. Through two games this season, against Tulane and Mercer, they sit at 232 rushing yards. Those come on 68 attempts or 3.4 yards per carry.
From an individual standpoint, Quinshon Judkins also led the conference in rushing last season, with 1,567 yards on the ground. Through two games, he’s only at 108 yards rushing. But despite the drop in numbers, nobody blames Judkins. And they shouldn’t.
A lot of this falls on the offensive line. In polite terms, the offensive line has been abysmal. Especially in terms of the rushing game. The good news for the Rebels is that, despite the poor rushing game, they’ve managed to start the year off 2-0. Part of that is due to their opener being against FCS Mercer. They then struggled on the road at Tulane but pulled out the win late. It helped that the Ole Miss defense held the Green Wave to three points in the second half in the Tulane win.
While Tulane is a solid team, struggling to run the ball this early in the season doesn’t bode well. Needless to say, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin realizes this, as well. When asked about the state of the rushing attack earlier this week, Kiffin simply said he was “highly concerned.” He then went on to explain that “it takes everybody to have a good running game.”
The more concerning part about those statements is arguably the fact that Kiffin himself doesn’t exactly sound optimistic about it getting fixed. He also seems a bit perplexed as to what happened to cause the problem in the first place.
The Offensive Line Struggles Are A Bit Unexpected
Following last year’s success on the ground, it would’ve made sense to struggle if Ole Miss had lost multiple pieces from their offensive line. But that isn’t the case. The Rebels returned four of last year’s five starting offensive linemen. That’s what makes these struggles so unexpected.
However, as Kiffin also pointed out in his statement, part of it could be due to defenses deciding to key more toward the run game following last year’s success. With these defenses focusing more on Judkins and the running game, it ends up congesting things up the middle, narrowing running lanes.
As things end up leaning more towards the passing game, due to struggles on the ground, there’s a good chance defenses stop crowding the line. This could mean eventually Judkins and company finally see a bit more space to work. That certainly seems to be what Kiffin is hoping for, as based on statements, he doesn’t plan on abandoning the running game.
“Whether it’s right or wrong, I look at things in the big picture, the whole season also. I think once you go that route, to submitting and saying ‘Hey, we’re going to throw when you load the box no matter what,’ you can get off balance, and your quarterback takes more hits. You can have more yards, but your RPOs don’t work as well. So, it keeps more balance in your room of players and where the ball goes, too,” Kiffin said in response to being asked about the plans moving forward on offense.
The Passing Game Has Mitigated Some of the Problems
The good news is that, despite the rushing problems, the Rebel’s passing has been reasonably solid through two games. In the opener against Mercer, Ole Miss threw for 524 yards. That included averaging 18.1 yards per completion.
On the road against a ranked Tulane squad, the yardage dropped to 274, but the average still stayed at a respectable 15.2 yards per completion. That was also without two of their top receivers, Tre Harris or Zakhari Franklin, playing. Franklin has yet to play a down for the Rebels this season, but Harris caught six passes for 133 yards and 4 touchdowns in the opener against Mercer.
When both of those guys are available, the passing attack should take another step forward. This should allow more chances for the running game.
Ole Miss fans have to hope so because if things on the ground don’t get solved, it’s going to be a long season in SEC play.
