SB Nation - Emmanuel Stephens

Rebel Roundup - 11/23/09 - Ghost slept until 10:30 Edition

The Ghost of Jay Cutler — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 17:02:40 -0000

More photos » by Rogelio V. Solis - AP

Shortly after the taking of this photograph, an iffy review call involving Shay Hodge, a reception, a team which is "better" than Ole Miss, and a potential swing first down or touchdown occurred. It went against our Rebels' fortunes, again. Sorry Shay, but you're probably used to this by now.

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Today's Rebel Roundup is Brought to you by Lipton's
I'm sitting here in my brother's Oxford town house, nursing a sore throat with a delicious cup of hot green tea, and generally wishing the festivities of the weekend that was would have never come to a close. Also, I aInT gOtTa Go To WoRk so that's pretty awesome as well. While I'm still in Mississippi and Louisiana over the next few days, I'm going to make sure to get as much Southern Pecan, fried catfish, and biscuits and gravy in my belly as possible. Wish me luck.

Ten Games Revisited: No. 4 | Team Speed Kills
In this series, the fellas at Team Speed Kills take a look at what they got right and wrong in when they looked at a November game back in August.

2009 Bowl Projections | The Rivalry, Esq.
The Rivalry, Esq., SBNation's Big Ten (slower) equivalent of the SEC's Team Speed Kills, projects the Rebels to meet the Nittany Lions of Penn State in Orlando come January 1. Joe Pa, bring it.

Rebel pass rushers turn up the pressure | The Clarion-Ledger
We've got lots of hot Brandt action for you this morning. This piece focuses on Emmanuel Stephens emergence and the solid play of the DL en masse.

UM’s Neely gains league honor | The Clarion-Ledger
And this one just gives some props to Left Guard Ried Neely for being named the SEC Offensive Lineman of the Week.

'Six halfback pass' | The Clarion-Ledger
And this one is a fun read on the go-ahead touchdown score involving the tricky pass from Dex to Shay.

"I could see down the field and there was Shay," McCluster said. "He was so wide open. Anybody could have thrown that one."

Congrats, Dex. You earned that one.

Rebels Drop Title Game To No. 5 Villanova | OleMissSports.com
Chris Warren scored 24 points, but No. 5 Villanova used a big second half to hand Ole Miss a 79-67 loss in the championship game of the 2009 O'Reilly Auto Parts Puerto Rico Tip-Off. Lost in the fray of the frustration we Rebel basketball fans feel from the game last night is the fact that we played the number five team in the nation. I know it's a bit defeatist of an approach, but we still performed very well in those circumstances, despite the loss. Yes, the frustration is compounded by the fact that we did maintain leads and we did even have the game knotted up at half, but all things considered, I'm proud of Kennedy's squad so far.

Post Game: LSU

Whiskey Wednesday — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:52:31 -0000

More photos » by RYAN MOORE - AP

HOLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

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I'm a well-trained Ole Miss fan. Before I embark on what would certainly be a rollicking series of jokes (about how that could mean anything from learning to be tastefully racist, to perfecting the art of being drunk while wearing a sport coat, to being able to hit a moving target with an empty whiskey bottle from 30 yards away), I'll spare the funnybusiness. Being a well-trained Ole Miss fan means that you see the disastrous future before it happens. Like penny loafer-clad Miss Cleo wannabees, our generation of Ole Miss fans are quick to stare into their crystal balls of abject mediocrity, and predict the wildly, unfathomably terrible future.

Blame it on my undergraduate years. In four years, we won 14 games. We beat one ranked opponent (a #23-ish USC squad in 2004). We split the Egg Bowl series with an MSU team that sported 17 wins over the same period, lost to Memphis once, Vanderbilt twice, and had 12 losses decided by a touchdown or less, including The Single Worst Officiating Debacle In The History Of Football (TSWODITHOF... it rolls off the tongue.). I want us to win. I frequently predict us to upset better opponents. At some point in every Ole Miss game I've ever watched, I felt like we would win. Still, when things go south, they go south hard, and I've come to anticipate this.

So when LSU scored the touchdown to draw the game within two, forgive me if I was certain that they would miss the conversion, recover the onsides kick, and score to seal the game. Forgive me if the second most plausible outcome in my mind was: LSU converts the two-point conversion, the game goes to OT, and Ole Miss loses in 8 overtimes due to a review situation involving a Shay Hodge force-out and/or some magical seconds appearing on the LSU game clock.

Like I said before, I'm a well-trained Ole Miss fan.

So when I walked out of the stadium, well after the players had retreated to the locker rooms, my head and my heart knew that we'd won, but my stomach felt as unsettled as if I'd engorged myself with China Royal pork 5 minutes before they closed.

All of that having been said, let's talk about how totally fucking awesome this weekend was.

Friday night: Ghost, JUCO, and some people I don't remember, went to Parrish's to observe the debacle unfolding on the Square. The environment wasn't LSU 2003 crazy, but needless to say, there was chanting in the barrooms, and drinks were hard to come by. Before the bars, I dominated a Big Easy from Ajax, and all was right with the world.

The Grove: When I'm anxious about something, I require no alarm clock. I woke up in a cold sweat at 8:30 a.m., because I'd promised the RCR tent that I'd make jambalaya. I'd purchased a bevy of awesome produce at the farmers market the day before, so, my financial commitment already laid down, I poured a Jack and Coke, and began chopping onions. Two Iron Chef-esque hours later, I had successfully transferred the jambalaya to the Grove, and the ridiculousness began. LSU fans are awesome, in their own way. Sure, they look completely absurd. Sure, they have no problem yelling at strangers. But they will also take a good corndog joke in stride, compliment your jambalaya (with helpful hints on how to make it better, of course), and generally shrug and laugh if you can scream back at them instead of cowering in gentrified horror. We met two lawyers, a Miami fan and an Oregon fan, who had traveled to catch the Grove spectacle, only one of the dozen interesting conversations we had before kickoff.

The Game: I sat in the Old People Seats. I got yelled at by an Ole Miss fan for my choice of words after the celebration penalty. I became high-five buddies with a late 30's, blonde tanning bed denizen as the game wore on. I ate Corky's bbq nachos for the last time until next September rolls around. As for actual game observations:

Ole Miss fans are quick to feel victimized by officiating in the SEC. I've felt that way before, and this game had some poor calls, but I can't say it was the worst, or even the second worst SEC officiating job this year. This is a problem we need to fix, and a hearty fUcK yOu goes out to Mike Slive for pushing the problem under the rug.
Shay Hodge was the MVP of the game, in my opinion. You don't have a 100+ yard day against Patrick Peterson unless you ate your Wheaties. He runs great routes, has impossibly quick cuts, and has a pretty excellent set of hands. If you think we miss Mike Wallace this year, wait until we have to replace Shay.
Lionel Breaux had an amazing special teams play to down a punt on the 1 yard line. A guy that's underperformed this year (and probably suffered from Snead's difficulties), I'm glad he was able to contribute to a huge special teams play
Emmanuel Stephens was not a guy I counted on to contribute this year, even knowing that Hardy was likely to be hurt at some point. He had an amazing game. He has a motor and a nasty streak, and I'd rather watch him overachieve than watch a more talented guy fall short of his potential. His sack, on a 3 or 4 man rush, won the game.
LSU has the best receivers in the SEC. It isn't even close. Jefferson played lights-out too, but the biggest reason for that is because the receivers were usually open, and were able to haul in anything near them. If you can score in the SEC with only 40 yards rushing, that's quite an accomplishment.
The offensive line has become an average SEC unit. We knew that if we managed to pull together an average SEC line, we'd win football games. Sowell, while still physically and mentally shorthanded for SEC play, has stepped up his game immensely, and he may be good before his career is over. That's hard to believe after the first few games. Markuson also made a great move in the lineup. John Jerry is a phenomenal player, but not a phenomenal tackle. Groom Massie at tackle, let Jerry do what he does best at guard, and all of a sudden, we don't suck along the line anymore.
Cassius Vaughn: Hey, thanks for coming to play this weekend! Tell your friend Marshay that we're taking a road trip next week, and it'd be cool if he came along. Seriously, it's funny that week in and week out, we don't know which starting corner is going to show up, and which one will get scorched. Either way, it's better than knowing that all of them will get scorched, always, no matter what. I still can't believe it every time we successfully defend a pass. I just forgot what that looked like for a few years.
Dear national media: before LSU was "upset" in a tragic turn of events in Oxford, remember, we beat LSU in almost every statistical category, and the game was kept close by a bizarre 14-point turnaround. If we score there, LSU possibly finds themselves out of the game by halftime. Please quit framing your news coverage as if LSU deserved to win, or as if you wanted them to win. That shit's annoying.
Dear students: notice that, without From Dixie With Love (a song that I loved, but you ruined), we were still Ole Miss. There weren't hemp necklace vendors in the stadium, or hippies strapping themselves to oak trees in the Grove. We'll be ok, I promise.

Saturday night: I went to Parrish's, again. I met Godfrey and Halpert for the first time. We celebrated with Rumpleminz (Samuel Adams voice: "Always a good decision!"), I made out with two random girls (thanks?), and I had to lead Ghost back to my car by the scruff of his neck, OPD licking their chops in anticipation of a drunk wipeout. It was pretty badass.

So this season: sure, it fell short of our extravagant expectations. Most seasons do. Still, I could get used to this. Losing in November hurts a lot worse than losing in September. The Cotton/Capital One/Outback Bowl is a lot better than the Indy Bowl, or more recently, the Schadenfreude Bowl. Beating LSU twice in a row is better than sitting through a 40-7 beatdown in the rain, proclaiming amongst your friends that we will see it through to the bitter end, because it will make the wins so much sweeter down the road.

Well, this probably set the record for the longest post game report EVAR, so I'll tie it up here. This was the best home football weekend I can remember, and if I never have that much fun again, I could live with it. I hope someone took pictures...

Good night everyone, and Hotty Toddy.

Initial Impressions from the Ole Miss Game

outsidethesidelines — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:59:26 -0000

A few initial impressions from the Ole Miss game:

First and foremost, this is a big victory for the Tide. I know that some of the luster was taken off this game with Ole Miss' loss against South Carolina a couple of weeks back, but even so this game received lots of national attention yesterday, and it was the game that the pundits had circled all year long. To come out and win this type of game, on the road, is a big victory.
Aside from the fact that it was a big victory, everything becomes more impressive in context. We beat a top 20 SEC team, on the road, 22-3 -- a pretty good shellacking in its own right -- and truthfully the game shouldn't have been that close. As good as we have been, we continue to be unable to fire on all cylinders, and we left a lot of points on the board yesterday afternoon. It was a 22-3 game that, truth be told, should have been even more lopsided. No doubt about it... we absolutely trashed this Ole Miss team physically. It was like watching a heavyweight fight where one fighter is destroying his opponent, but cannot quite get the knock-out blow he wants until the late rounds.
The strength of the defense carried the day once again, and it's literally impossible to overstate the efforts those guys displayed. We got after Snead, completely shut down the running game, playing very tight coverage, and fought like hell for the football on every snap. If you were a coach putting on a clinic about how defense should be played, this is the game film you would put on as an example. I said this in the game thread yesterday, and in the sober reality of the day after I will reiterate here... this was the best defensive performance I've seen by an Alabama team since January 1st, 1993.
Offensively, well, that was another story, particularly with regard to offensive playcalling. It just never made any sense whatsoever to me, or just about anyone else for that matter, and it's just entirely too much to get into with an initial impressions piece. I'm going to have a full column up on this later this week, probably around Wednesday.
Greg McElroy easily had his worst day in crimson to date. I do think he was hampered a bit by poor play-calling, but even so he played poorly. He never looked comfortable in the pocket -- though the protection was probably about as good as you could expect against a front four like Ole Miss has -- and the way that he forced the ball to Julio Jones at times was almost laughable. He just looked like a completely different quarterback than we've seen to date. He honestly reminded me of John Parker Wilson circa 2006 or 2007 yesterday. I hate to be so negative about the kid, but... 43% completion percentage, 4.3 yards per attempt... all the crimson Kool-Aid in the world doesn't make that look good. It goes without saying that McElroy needs to play a lot better moving forward.
That said, it just shows you good of an overall team we have when we can have such, um, shall we say "questionable" play-calling and quarterback play, and still win in a romp over a quality SEC team on the road. Teams that could do this are very much few and far between.

Mark Ingram had an incredible day all the way around. He ran over 170 yards on the ground, and had a big catch out of the backfield for a first down. He's really turning himself into a complete back with his pass blocking abilities and his ability to catch the football out of the backfield. Honestly, the only real problem was that he just didn't get the ball enough. The 28 carries is really deceptive when showing how we used him, because so many of those carries came very late when we were running the clock.

Cory Reamer had a career day, easily his best day in crimson. He looked a lot better at strongside linebacker, and he was a special teams standout with two huge plays. Likewise, Kareem Jackson had easily his best day to date. He looked like a legitimate shutdown corner yesterday, and that is the best performance we've had from a corner in ages.

Robby Green is getting almost no publicity, but he is doing an outstanding job at safety. He forced a turnover on a well-timed safety blitz, and he continues to have a knack forcing big incompletions downfield by ripping the ball out. He isn't getting much attention, but he is playing a lot of snaps and is making some big plays. He has quickly turned into a fine player. Glad we have him for three more years.

Is there a more underrated player in the conference than Lorenzo Washington? He starts on a defense where the starter designation alone more than justifies your plate at the table, and he's playing damn well. He's tough against the run, and he's probably our most underrated pass rusher. He was just punishing Ole Miss offensive linemen yesterday. You've got to love Lo', no doubt about it. He spurned in-state Georgia for us way back in 2004, barely eight months after the Mike Price strip club fiasco, fought all through the Shula era, overcame injuries, played out of position in 2007, watched himself become demoted to a back-up with the rise of Terrence Cody, and somehow overcame it all. The young man bleeds crimson, simply put, and someone should recognize what he has done. At the very least, I bet he has some NFL scouts watching.

Give credit to our defense, Ole Miss did everything they could to get McCluster involved, and we made him a total non-factor. Nine touches for 37 yards and a big fumble. Goodness.

Jevan Snead yesterday... 11-34 for 140 yards, 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, sacked twice. That's a completion percentage of only 32%, averaging 4.11 yards per attempt, and a 43.4 QB rating. I know Snead is overrated, like I've said for ages, but still... that is one damn fine defense. He isn't anywhere near that bad.

I hated the fake punt call. Not because of the ball, but because we absolutely wasted a good, converted fake punt. You pick up a big fake punt, and four plays later Fitzgerald is punting it out of the back of the end zone. It was a huge risk that basically got us nothing. Hate to see that.

The Trent Richardson fumble late was disappointing, but I'm not complaining. It was a good strip by the Ole Miss defender, and in all fairness it was a good run too. He's played fine at tailback this year, and he'll overcome it. Besides, the kid can definitely pass block, always a rarity for a true freshman, and he may very well be our best player on the kick coverage unit. He blows people up left and right.

After the early drop, Julio played very well. The production wasn't there, but again it wasn't his fault. He faced double coverage all day, and most of the throws in his direction were just terrible decisions by McElroy. Besides, he got hosed on at least one pass interference call. He's not 100%, but he's still unreal good.

Emmanuel Stephens played a fine game for Ole Miss today. We couldn't block him off the edge. And he's a back-up, which ought to tell you how good the rest of the Ole Miss defensive end rotation is. Thank goodness he's a senior.

Speaking of senior Ole Miss defensive ends, thank God Greg Hardy is finally gone. After three years, our long crimson nightmare is finally over. And the scary thing is, he's that tough to stop and clearly not 100%. If he ever gets completely healthy, he'll fill a graveyard with quarterbacks.

Lots of odd stuff today from 'Bama, play-calling aside. Why was there so little Terrence Cody? He was there, and he played damn well when he was in, but he barely played. He generally wasn't even in the game in obvious run situations, which is his specialty. I have no clue there. And what about Roy Upchurch, where was he? As much as we threw the ball, you would think he would get some time considering he is our best pass blocking back and our best receiver out of the backfield, but he never got off the bench. All in all, lots of odd stuff in Oxford.

Colin Peek... great catch early, but it went south quickly. He dropped a big touchdown pass, and cost us about 50 yards of field position on a holding on an Arenas' kick return. He's played great at times, but poorly at times too. If nothing else, he leads the team with dropped touchdown passes with three.

We are the kinds of pre-snap penalties on offense. I'm serious, we ought to get a trophy created for ourselves. Nothing gets you beat like pre-snap penalties on offense, and we are addicted to them.

Along those same lines, the red zone efficiency is terrible. Or better yet, I should say that red zone efficiency is decent. We do fine inside the 20, it's inside the 10 that we decide we're going to do everything in our power to keep from getting in the end zone.

P.J. Fitzgerald has looked much better this year on the whole, but he is still killing us with his inability to pin teams up deep. He's the king of hitting a 48-yard punt from the opponent 42-yard line. Unless Fitzgerald can do a lot better soon in this regard, we need to get a lot more aggressive in terms of going for it on fourth down. These punts netting 15 or 20 yards are killing us.

Big day from Leigh Tiffin today. I'm traditionally a big critic of Tiffin -- and I think rightly so -- but he did a good job today. He went 5-5 today, and while several weren't pretty, they got the job done. He came up big today, and if he had struggled, we would have been in a world of hurt. Kudos, Leigh.

Dear Pat Patterson and Bobby Massie, do you still feel good about picking Ole Miss? I hope you now understand why five-star recruits generally don't choose schools that haven't won their conference since the week after JFK got shot.

And speaking of Ole Miss' future, this team is going to be an absolute shell of its current self when it returns to Tuscaloosa next year. Snead returns, but from my count they are going to lose something like 14 starters. Jerry, Hodge, McCluster, Tillman, Hardy, Trahan, Green, Vaughn, and Lewis will all be gone, plus a lot of other starters on the offensive line. Anything can happen in any game, of course, but we've beat Ole Miss six straight years now, and this was clearly their best chance to get us for quite a few years. The Orgeron talent is quickly going away, and the recruiting hasn't been at a high enough level to not have a drop-off in the coming years. This was this their year -- both for beating us, and getting to Atlanta -- and we roughed 'em up good.

All in all, we still haven't played a complete game to yet. We're beating ourselves with dumb penalties, poor decision-making, and leaving points on the board. Nevertheless, we legitimately look this good even when not firing on all cylinders? All you can say is that we are one hell of a team, period. And if we ever can truly get it all together, we are absolutely going to smoke people.

Previewing Texas Tech vs. Ole Miss: Defensive Line

Seth C — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:00:08 -0000

DEFENSIVE LINE

Player	Ht/Wt	Class	Position	Tackles	TFL	Sacks
Brandon Williams	6'5"/246	Jr.	DE	21	12.5	11
Jake Ratliff	6'7"/255	Sr.	DE	11	1.5	.5
McKinner Dixon	6'3"/250	Jr.	DE	30	9.5	7
Brandon Sesay	6'6"/278	Jr.	DT/DE	8	.5	0
Colby Whitlock	6'2"/281	So.	DT	35	5	1
Rajon Henley	6'3"/266	Jr.	DT	8	1.5	1.5
Richard Jones	6'1"/272	Jr.	DT	21	0	0
Marcus Tillman	6'4"/260	Jr.	DE	27	6.5	1.5
Kentrell Lockett	6'5"/240	So.	DE	35	11	2.5
Ted Laurent	6'0"/303	S0.	NT	23	7	1
Peria Jerry	6'2"/290	Sr.	DT	47	17	6
Greg Hardy	6'4"/265	Jr.	DT	17	9.5	8.5
Lawon Scott	6'3"/322	So.	DT	19	2.5	2
Jerrell Powe	6'2"/290	Sr.	NT	7	3.5	1.5
Emmanuel Stephens	6'3"/235	Jr.	DE	18	5.5	1

Texas Tech

McKinner Dixon says "face".

Perhaps the most impressive improvement of the defense was the play of the maturation of the defensive line. Texas Tech went from 82nd in the nation, allowing 177.00 yards a game in 2007 to allowing 133.50 yards a game, good for 45th in the nation. It was a combination of new players as well as other players that just grew up a bit.

Starting with the ends, the arrival of McKinner Dixon gave Texas Tech two quality ends, who could rush the passer, the other standout being Brandon Williams. Rather than have just be a one-trick-pony with just one end that could be double-teamed, the arrival of Dixon signaled an end to focusing on just one side of the line. Dixon's arrival also meant that Texas Tech went from 26 sacks a game, 46th in the nation, to 30 sacks in 2008, good for 25th in the nation. That's significant improvement, and without belaboring the point too much, the conversation as to why Texas Tech defense improved can start here.

Colby Whitlock took his lumps as a freshman and learned quite a bit. Whitlock didn't get the recognition that he might have deserved this year, but the progression that he made from his freshman year to his sophomore year has been dramatic.

The surprise of the defensive line is perhaps Richard Jones. Jones was slotted behind Henley, but after Henley was injured in the year, Jones stepped in and did a decent job.

The biggest problem with the line, is Ole Miss' strength, which is making tackles behind the line of scrimmage. There's no push amongst the defensive tackles other than Whitlock and along the ends it's the "Williams and Dixon Show" and that's it. Texas Tech is 106th in the nation in tackles for loss and I think it was all to evident against the Sooners how this group can tend to be pushed around. Granted, there are some individual players (i.e. Whitlock and Dixon) that still do a good job of stopping the run, but for the most part there's plenty to be worried about with the Ole Miss offense.

I should also emphasize that the rushing defense got worse as the season progressed. Texas Tech did give up 161 yards against Kansas, and I realize that this was a blowout win, but gave up 186 to Oklahoma State, somewhat expected, 299 to Oklahoma and 229 to Baylor and the incredible Robert Griffin. Not to mention, Texas Tech gave up 11 rushing touchdowns in those last three games, and only gave up 10 in the previous 9 games.

Things have got to tighten up.

Mississippi

Peria Jerry, he is hurting people.

These guys are good.

For the year, the most yards in any given game that the Rebels gave up is 131 against Vanderbilt. The Rebels' last 4 games weren't against the best competition (Auburn, La. Monroe, LSU and Mississippi State) but during these last 4 games these guys only gave up 75, 72, 37 and -51 yards.

Yep, these guys are good.

The leader of this group is Peria Jerry, pictured above, and is an absolute beast. An astounding 17 tackles for a loss and 6 sacks from the defensive tackle position. Peria is probably the highest rated defensive tackle on NFL draft boards in 2009. There's a couple of guys that you should pay attention to on the Ole Miss defense, but Jerry is, without a doubt, one of them. He's going to play on Sundays.

Right behind Jerry in terms of production are defensive end Kentrell Lockett, who, for the year, has 11 tackles for a loss and 2.5 sacks and defensive tackle Greg Hardy, leading the team in sacks with 8.5 for the year. I should also note that Lockett has been much better in the 2nd half of the season, where he registered 8 of his 11 TFL's in the last 6 games.

Ted Laurent, Marcus Tillman and Emmanuel Stephens all dominate the team stats in tackles for loss and once again proves that this is an active defensive line that is doing a tremendous job of getting penetration, pushing opposing offensive lines backwards and making plays.

I've saved the best statistics for last. As good as Texas Tech has been defensively, especially in terms of sacks, Mississippi has been on another level. For the year, Ole Miss is 5th in the nation in sacks with 37 for the year and averaging over 3 a game. If you want to look at tackles for loss, the Rebels are 1st in the nation at 8.92 PER GAME! How about them apples? For the year, Ole Miss has had 107 tackles behind the line of scrimmage for 454 yards and I find that utterly amazing. This is going to be a real test for the Texas Tech offensive line that only gave up 5 sacks for the entire year and only lost 150 yards rushing (58 of those yards were Harrell's) for the year with Baron Batch only losing 12 yards for the year on 111 carries and Shannon Woods only losing 11 yards for the year on 135 carries.

Conclusion:

Ole Miss may have the best defensive line in the nation with 4 or 5 guys that could be playing on Sundays. They're just loaded with talent up and down the line. The Texas Tech defensive line has been improved, but this one's really not close.

Previous Matchups

Quarterbacks :: Running Backs :: Receiver :: Offensive Line :: Defensive Line :: Linebackers :: Secondary :: Special Teams :: Coaching

Matchup	Advantage
Quarterback
Running Back
Receivers
Offensive Line
Defensive Line

Poll

Who do you favor in this matchup of defensive lines?

Texas Tech

98 votes

Mississippi

209 votes

307 votes | Poll has closed