By Hunt Palmer
Saturday is a monster game for LSU and Ole Miss. A second loss for both teams this early in the season would be bitterly disappointing. Before the halfway point of league play, one team is going to feel like its on the outside looking in at the College Football Playoff picture.
For Ole Miss, this may be the most highly anticipated season of this century. Those expectations take a massive hit with a loss. For LSU, the great hope is that the defense takes strides toward the championship level LSU has established over the last two decades. The Rebels offense provides a great litmus test after a month of subpar offensive counterparts.
Death Valley will be rocking. The eyes of the country will be watching. Let’s take a look at some key matchups that might tell the story.
Lane Kiffin and Charlie Weis Jr. vs. Blake Baker
Lane Kiffin diced up LSU previous defensive staff like a hibachi chef working on a stick of butter. It looked effortless last year, and that was a harbinger of things to come.
Ole Miss created eight plays over 20 or more yards and five touchdowns of over 10 yards. The Rebels created 706 yards of total offense, averaging eight yards per play on 88 plays. Plenty of that was LSU’s personnel not being elite. To me, more of it is LSU having no idea where to be. Kiffin is a master at creating distraction and open space amongst confused defenders. Blake Baker was brought to LSU to fix that.
You can’t leave @jordantwatkins that open 🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/RnrjKi9Gvz
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 14, 2024
Without Tre Harris, Ole Miss has been a pretty pedestrian offense. Quinshon Judkins is gone. He’s toting the rock for Ohio State. The Rebs haven’t replaced his production with their stable of backs. At this point Henry Parrish Jr doesn’t look like an NFL back. None of the pass catchers outside of Harris is averaging better than three catches per game.
All this is to say that Ole Miss doesn’t have an assembly line of pro talent on offense. They just have an elite mind moving the chess pieces and a very good quarterback. If Baker can match wits with Kiffin and keep the Tigers in position all night, LSU should be able to put up a fight. If busted coverages become the norm or the Rebel tempo starts to create huge creases up front, it could be a long night.
Ole Miss Defensive Tackles vs. LSU Interior Offensive Line
Ole Miss has some dudes at defensive tackle. Walter Nolan was a unanimous five-star prospect when he signed at Texas A&M. JJ Pegues already has 6.5 tackles for loss and four rushing touchdowns this year. Yes, you read that correctly. He’s now a goalline back for the offense. Both of these guys are 305-plus pounds and can really move. Ole Miss leads the nation in sacks. Some of that is because the edge guys like Jared Ivey and Princely Umanmielen have been really good. Some of that is because the early schedule was atrocious. And some of it is because the tackles create so many problems.
Show ’em how it’s done JJ 🏹@JeremiahPegues4 | #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/pu8iFodlJx
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) September 14, 2024
Will Campbell and Emery Jones will be okay on the outside, especially with Umanmielen very likely out of this game. DJ Chester has had his issues with strong interior players, both in the run game and pass game. If he, Miles Frazier and Garrett Dellinger hold up at the point of attack, Garrett Nussmeier will have a big day as he’s done all year. When the pocket folded at South Carolina, we saw Nussmeier make some poor decisions. Those could be back breakers in this game.
Ole Miss Offensive Tackles vs. LSU Defensive Ends
Deigo Pounds and Micah Pettus will probably be Ole Miss’s starting bookends this week. Jayden Williams was initially the starter at left tackle, but he’s banged up and very questionable for the game. Pounds transferred from North Carolina where he was a starter. He’s started the last two games versus Kentucky and South Carolina. Pettus has started 23 games as a Rebel.
Kentucky notched four sacks on the Ole Miss front. Dylan Stewart, South Carolina’s phenom on the edge, also had one. LSU’s pass rush simply has to win a good bit on Saturday night. The Tiger defensive backs cannot be asked to cover for extended periods against Jaxson Dart.
He will find open receivers. Sacks create turnovers. They win third downs. They stall drives. LSU’s best chance of holding the Rebels in check, relatively speaking, is to create some negative plays with pressure like they did at South Carolina. Bradyn Swinson, Sai’vion Jones, DaShawn Womack and Gabriel Reliford need to come up with three or more sacks.
