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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Mid-South Rivals To Clash Saturday
9/1/2003 | Football
Sept. 1, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. - Ole Miss and Memphis will renew their Mid-South rivalry for the 53rd time Saturday morning, when the two teams meet at 11 a.m at the Liberty Bowl in a game to be televised by ESPN2.
Both teams are coming off wins to open the season. The Rebels edged Vanderbilt 24-21 in Nashville on a Jonathan Nichols' 54-yard field goal with 3:52 left in the game , while the Tigers routed NCAA Division I-AA opponent Tennessee Tech 40-10 in Memphis.
Ole Miss scored the game's final 10 points against the Commodores to rally for the win. Senior QB Eli Manning's 23-yard TD pass to sophomore Mike Espy tied the game at 21-21 with 9:24 left in the game. After forcing a Vanderbilt punt, Manning engineered a 7-play, 55-yard drive, starting at the Rebel 9, that resulted in Nichols' game-winning field goal.
"I am proud of the effort our players gave," said Ole Miss head coach David Cutcliffe. "We got better as the game went on for the most part. After looking at the tape, there are little things on both sides of the ball that we need to fix. You learn a lot from first games. I think our players will learn a lot when they see the tape today. A lot of the things that need correcting will be fixed with hard work."
Manning completed 22-of-33 passes for 275 yards with a TD against the Commodores and became the school's all-time leader in completions. He broke Kent Austin's career mark of 566 completions on an 8-yard pass to Espy in the third quarter.
The senior from New Orleans, La., has a chance to add three more school records to his total of 27 in Saturday's game. Manning needs just 29 yards of total offense to tie John Fourcade's school record of 6,713 yards, and is 26 passing attempts shy of Austin's mark of 981. In addition, his 55 career TDs responsible for is one shy of the school career mark of 56 held by his father, Archie Manning.
Manning and the Rebel offense will face a tough test against Memphis and new defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn. Dunn, a former defensive coordinator and interim head coach at Ole Miss, spent the last seven seasons as the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.
"He's done some things on defense that you don't see every day," Manning said. "If you watch enough film on it, you get used to it and you understand who each player is and whether he is a linebacker, defensive end or a safety.
"When they blitz a lot of people, the receiver has to get open fast and I have to stay in the pocket and make my throws. If you break one tackle you can have a big play. We have to play smart football and make the plays when we need to."
Memphis will also feature a quarterback from New Orleans in junior Danny Wimprine. Wimprine holds over 50 school records at Memphis and became the Tigers' career leader in completions and passing yards during the Tennessee Tech game. Wimprine passed for 266 yards and two scores, while completing 15-of-21 passes against the Golden Eagles.
Back-up quarterback Bobby Robison came on to complete 9-of-16 passes for 124 yards as the Tigers gained 390 of their 567 yards through the air.
The Tigers also feature sophomore tailback DeAngelo Williams, who is a preseason Doak Walker Award candidate. Williams gained 196 yards from scrimmage in the win over Tennessee Tech, rushing for 61 yards and a score on 14 carries and catching four passes for 135 yards and two TDs.
"Defensively (against Vanderbilt), our coverage wasn't near what it needs to be," said Cutcliffe. "We didn't apply as much pressure on the quarterback as we would like to, nor did we cover as well as we need to. That's a big challenge going into a game against Memphis, which has the ability to run and throw the ball."
Ole Miss holds a 42-8-2 advantage in the all-time series, including 22-6-2 lead in Memphis. The Rebels have won four straight, including 38-16 last year in Oxford, and nine of the last 11 meetings against the Tigers. Memphis' last win in the series came in 1994, when the Tigers scored a touchdown with four seconds remaining to edge the Rebels 17-16 in Oxford.
