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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Looks To Home Opener Against Louisiana-Monroe
9/8/2003 | Football
Sept. 8, 2003
OXFORD, Miss. - The Ole Miss Rebels return to the friendly confines of Vaught-Hemingway stadium this Saturday night when they take on the Louisiana-Monroe Indians. Kickoff is at 6:00 p.m.
Ole Miss (1-1) is looking to bounce back after a tough loss on the road to Memphis, and head coach David Cutcliffe is looking forward to playing at home after opening the year with two straight road games.
"We are excited about our home opener," said Cutcliffe. "Normally we open the season at home, so it'll fun to get home and play in front of our home crowd."
Ole Miss is looking to repeat the success of last season's home opener against the Indians, in which the Rebels won 31-3. However, Cutcliffe says the Indians are not a team to be overlooked despite ULM's 0-2 start under new head coach Charlie Weatherbie.
"They are a hungry football team," Cutcliffe said. "They have a lot of young, talented players from a year ago."
Senior quarterback Eli Manning is coming off a 292-yard, four-TD performance against Memphis, in which he completed 26-of-48 passes and was intercepted twice. For the season, he connected on 48-of-81 passes for 567 yards with five TDs and two interceptions.
Manning started slowly in last year's game with ULM as he misfired on his first five passing attempts. He would finish the night 17-of-31 for 192 yards with one TD and one interception.
"(ULM) runs an eight man front that is similar to what we run, but it is somewhat different," said Manning. "They do some stuff in three-wide and four-wide sets and blitz a lot. We will have to be ready for them."
Senior wide receiver Chris Collins will enter Saturday's game nine receptions shy of the Ole Miss career record of 142 set by Grant Heard from 1996-2000. He is also 26 yards shy of tying Cory Peterson for fourth place on the school's career list for receiving yards with 1,842, and will carry a streak of 24 straight games with at least one reception.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Rebels are led by senior Jesse Mitchell with 18 total tackles, including 10 solo. Sophomore defensive back Travis Johnson is expected to return to the team after sitting out the first two games of the season. Cutcliffe said that he is anxious to see how Johnson reacts this week in practice.
"I don't know if he will start, but he is expected to play," Cutcliffe said. "He has been practicing with both the scout team and the regulars. We will see how well he reacts this week."
Cutcliffe announced following Monday afternoon's practice that freshman Brandon Jenkins of Memphis, Tenn., has been certified eligible by the NCAA Clearinghouse. Jenkins, a 6-5, 270-pound defensive end who played at Memphis East High School, is expected to participate in his first practice with the Rebels once he completes his physical examination.
UL-Monroe opened its season with a 49-7 loss at LSU on August 30 before dropping a 23-21 game to Stephen F. Austin last Saturday in Monroe. The Indian offense is led by sophomore quarterback Steven Jyles, who has completed 35-of-70 passes for 381 yards on one TD. He has also been intercepted three times.
Defensively, ULM is led by senior All-America candidate linebacker Maurice Sonnier, who was has recorded 19 tackle s and one sack in the first two games.
Saturday's meeting will be the second-ever between the two schools, and will be the first game to be played on the new AstroPlay surface that was installed at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium/Hollingsworth Field this summer.
