SEC INSIDER

Freeze’s Rebels gunning for fifth straight win

Ben Cook

September 12, 2013 at 12:10 pm.

Hugh Freeze's and his group of Rebels are aiming for a big win over Texas. (Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports)

When Hugh Freeze was named the head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels in December 2011, there were plenty of stories about how Freeze was going to turn the Rebels program around.

No program in the conference needed it more at that time.

The Rebels were in the midst of a 14-game SEC losing streak that would stretch to 16 games after the Rebels lost Freeze’s first two conference games. The streak ended when Ole Miss beat Auburn 41-20 in the seventh game of the 2012 season. The Rebels went on to finish the regular season at 6-6 after beating Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl. They then drilled Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl to conclude the season.

But this weekend Ole Miss has a chance to take another giant step forward when the Rebels go to Austin to take on the Texas Longhorns in a big non-conference game that the football nation will be watching closely.

This could be a great chance for Ole Miss to wake up the national consciousness about what Freeze is doing in Oxford. The Rebels could be catching Texas at the right time. Last weekend BYU ran all over Mack Brown’s team, rushing for 550 yards, the most ever against a Texas team. The next day Brown fired defensive coordinator Manny Diaz and replaced him with Greg Robinson.

Texas starting quarterback David Ash suffered head and shoulder injuries against BYU and is questionable for the Ole Miss game. If Ash can’t go, Case McCoy will get the start.

“The guys trust Case,” said Brown. “There won’t be panic if David’s not out there.”

Ole Miss is 0-3 in games played at Austin but they haven’t visited the Longhorns’ home field since 1912. This time the Rebels are taking a perfect record into the game while the Longhorns are 1-1 and trying to regroup following the shocking loss to BYU.

“We’re excited to be 2-0 and to be going to Austin,” said Freeze.” It will be a great atmosphere, and they (Texas) will have a chip on their shoulder. Texas will be ready to prove that they are better than they performed last week. We understand what we’ll get from them. We’ll have to challenge our kids to see if we can raise our game and match Texas’ level of intensity.

Freeze said Texas’ change from Diaz to Robinson at the defensive coordinator position complicates the plans for the game.

“We already had a shell of a game plan together based on what they had done last year and early this year. Is it still a good plan? I don’t know. Whether or not it’s a great challenge I don’t know, but it is somewhat of an uncomfortable feeling,” he said.

“I expect them to be very emotional in front of their home crowd and they’ll raise their game. I expect to see them as the best that they can be. I don’t think it’ll be hard to get our guys up, they understand. We challenged them after the game the other night so they’ll be anxious to get ready for this game and give it our best shot,” said Freeze.

The Rebels will bring several weapons into the game, not the least of which is tailback Jeff Scott, whose 75-yard touchdown run in the final minute and a half led to Ole Miss to a 39-35 win over Vanderbilt in the opener. For the season, Scott has averaged 10.4 yards per carry and has teamed with quarterback Bo Wallace to lead the Rebels to 1,021 yards and 70 points in the first two games.

“There is never a day that goes by where they don’t have running mesh drills,” said Freeze. “That is such a big part of who we are. I think it’s all about the number of reps they’ve been able to accumulate over the course of a year and a half. They’ve got it down pretty good.

“I told our staff `let’s stop, and go through the week like we normally would.’ We’ll study and continue to study. It’s not a big challenge for our kids, and I’ll be open to change. But we have to be who we are and certainly not go in with our kids being confused. You have to be careful not to over think it.”

If Ole Miss has had some concern over the early results it is on the defensive side of the ball. The Rebels’ defense has shown some holes in allowing Vanderbilt and Southeast Missouri State to compile 48 total points and 678 yards in total offense.

“We’ve changed some of the blocking schemes, and who we’re reading,” said Freeze. “We’re ready to make sure it’s not always the same guy that the quarterback is reading. We’ve been saving some of that though, so hopefully that will be beneficial to us.”

Ole Miss will be looking for its fifth straight win dating back to last year’s Egg Bowl.