re: Official 2021 Ole Miss Football Thread; 10-3 (6-2) - Thanks for a fun season!!

It's almost like a trend.

Honest assessment of the Auburn game:

Auburn coming off a bye week isn't good for us. We are coming off a tough stretch of games, and we are badly beaten up at WR and OL. To Kiffin's credit, he's done a great job managing personnel and keeping the offense going. Corral is still playing hard, but you can see that he's physically exhausted. It was good to see the rest of the offense step up vs. LSU and take some of the load off of Matt. After the first quarter, I thought the offensive line did a fantastic job creating holes for RBs, and keeping Corral relatively clean. The defense played a really complete game - we got pressure on the QB, we shut down the running game, and the secondary made some really good plays. We're going to need every bit of that against Auburn on Saturday.

Auburn is getting a few defensive starters back this weekend that could make a huge difference in their front seven. Can't speak to the rumor about them having some guys out since that is still just a rumor. I do think the media is buying into Auburn a little bit too much after their road win vs. a mediocre Arkansas team, but they're still competitive and can hang with most teams when Nix plays well. I can't stress that last line enough - as Bo Nix goes, so goes the entire Auburn team, which leads me into my biggest key for us this weekend; our defense MUST keep Nix in the pocket and force him to make difficult throws. Bo can sometimes get happy feet in the pocket, causing him to overthrow open receivers and stall drives on offense. If you force him to be a pocket passer, you also diminish their running game, which is largely dependent Nix being able to spread the field with his legs. Our saving grace could also be that Auburn's WRs are nothing to write home about. We have athletes in the secondary that can hang with receivers like that.

This game will be tough. Our team has shown that we can win in tough road environments, but this will be the hardest one we play in all year (besides Alabama). Because of injuries, I don't know that we have enough to overcome the Tigers in Jordan-Hare, but I won't put it past this team to go on the road and steal a massive win.

This game makes me feel a lot like Tennessee did. Horrified. especially since we know AU has a lot better players than TN did. That being said it makes me feel better that we have already played two tough road games and are somewhat experienced going into hostile environments. Who knows what will happen, it's ole miss.

Definitely would have been nice to have a later bye week. That said, hopefully we get a few injured players back this week and then can rest some of our starters next week against Liberty. I'm under the impression we will be lucky to get Mingo back at all, but it would be nice if he could play in the A&M and State games. We need Sanders, Brown, and Warren back this week so hopefully they are practicing this week.

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especially since we know AU has a lot better players than TN did.

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Yes and no. TN had good recruiting classes, they just don’t have any depth behind their starters. And I think their QB is better than Nix.

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Ben Brown is likely out for the season from what I’ve heard/read.

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What’s the scoop?

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Wesley Carroll

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My fellow COD teammate back in the day.

Good guy.

Can we grab anyone from free agency?

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I did a total tear and will never be the same but I was also 47 when I did it.

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Gotta stop jerkin that thing so violently

Oof… I feel like this deserves a phone call! We need to catch up anyway.