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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ahoy Captain!
9/16/2004 | Football
Sept. 16, 2004
By Matt Segal
Athletics Media Relations Intern
OXFORD, Miss. - In sports, adversity is part of the game and sometimes it strikes at the most inopportune times. Coming off a 10-3 season which included an SBC Cotton Bowl victory, expectations were high for the 2004 Ole Miss football team. Excitement was at an all-time high. Ticket sales were rolling in at a record pace. Fans couldn't wait for the season to begin.
Then, the Rebels ran into some unfortunate adversity, losing to Memphis and Alabama to open the season. "It's not whether you get knocked down; it's whether you get back up," the great Vince Lombardi once told his team.
Head coach David Cutcliffe and the Rebels are fortunate to have Doug Buckles, Kerry Johnson, Marcus Johnson, Eric Oliver and Rob Robertson, an experienced quintet of captains who will look to "get Ole Miss back up," starting with Saturday morning's 11:30 game against Vanderbilt.
Buckles, a 6-foot-5-inch, 305-pound senior, is in his fourth year as a starter on the Ole Miss offensive line. A three-year letterman, Buckles was a third-team All-America selection and first-team All-Southeastern Conference pick by Phil Steele's College Football Review prior to the start of the 2004 season. He was also a preseason second-team All-SEC honoree by Athlon.
 Doug Buckles  | |
A native of Madison, Miss., Buckles helped the 2003 offense to its best season in school history. The Rebels ranked first among league foes in points per game (34.0), passing yards per contest (286.0) and total offense per outing (433.2). Ole Miss also averaged just over 147 rushing yards per game an improvement of nearly 53 yards from the 2002 campaign.
The 2003 Rebels also shattered numerous single-season school records, including the standard for points scored (442), touchdown passes (31), passing yards (3,718), passing yards per game (286.0), first downs (295), offensive plays from scrimmage (940), total offense (5,631) and total offense per game (433.2). Buckles has made 37 career starts at left guard entering Saturday's tilt with Vanderbilt.
"I like to lead by example," Buckles says. "I'm not one who hollers and screams a lot, but I'm there to help the younger players in this program. I try to lead by showing up on time and working hard on a daily basis. I'm the type of guy who will sit down with a teammate to help them out. I get all kinds of questions, like `where is the meeting?' or `when is practice?' and I always try to have the answers for them. I take it upon myself to help make sure that the younger guys are in the right place at the right time.
"It's really an honor to be one of five team captains. I'm still the same person I was last year, but now I know there are more people watching me. The younger guys look to the captains for advice and that's what we're here for."
Kerry Johnson, a 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound senior, began his career as a safety and now lines up at wide receiver. In three seasons with the secondary, Johnson recorded 21 tackles and forced one fumble. In just over two seasons as a member of the receiving corps, he has reeled in 46 receptions for 608 yards. A local product who graduated from Oxford High School, Johnson made at least one catch in 15 straight contests from Nov. 9, 2002 to Nov. 22, 2003.
The three-year letterman opened the 2004 campaign by snagging three catches for 29 yards against Memphis. As a junior, he was on the receiving end of 28 Eli Manning strikes for 399 yards and five touchdowns. As a sophomore, Johnson recorded a career-high 62 receiving yards at Georgia (11-9-02).
Johnson, a Sociology major, has been recognized as a member of the U.M.A.A. honor roll twice fall of2000 and fall of 2003.
 Kerry Johnson | |
"Team captains are very important, especially in football when you have over 100 guys in the program," Kerry Johnson says. "A lot of the younger guys look to us for direction. The five of us know that we are constantly in the spotlight and always need to be doing the right thing. Being an Ole Miss football captain is an honor and a challenge that we look forward to everyday.
"I lead by example because I'm not a big talker. I am a true believer that `actions speak louder than words.' I hope the newcomers in this program can all learn something positive from me. We are facing some adversity right now, but, once we fight through it, I think we will be a stronger team. When you suffer a setback, you have no choice but to come back the next day and work harder."
Marcus Johnson, a 6-foot-6-inch, 320-pound senior, is in his fourth season as a starter on the Ole Miss offensive line. A three-year letterman who returns at right guard, Johnson was a third-team All-SEC pick by Phil Steele's College Football Review prior to the start of the 2004 campaign. He was a second-team all-conference selection by The Birmingham News prior to his junior season.
In 2003, Johnson blocked for the most prolific offensive unit in school history. He spent many days and nights protecting Manning, an All-American QB who set 47 school records at Ole Miss. Johnson also blocked for a ground attack which registered 100+ yards on nine occasions. The Rebels collected 147.2 rushing yards per contest a season ago.
A native of Coffeeville, Miss., Johnson started his redshirt freshman and sophomore campaigns alongside his brother, Belton, who played right tackle for the Rebels. The younger Johnson is expected to make his 40th career start Saturday, either at right guard or right tackle. Johnson, a Criminal Justice major, was honored in the spring of 2002 as part of the U.M.A.A. honor roll.
 Marcus Johnson | |
"I try to lead both vocally and by example," Marcus Johnson says. "The five captains are basically in charge of showing the rest of the team the right way to do things. I am trying to teach the younger guys some of the things I was taught as a freshman. This football program has a great legacy and part of that is the senior class passing things down to the newcomers in the program.
"The seniors have been around here a long time and I think we know what it takes to be successful. We have had a tough start to the season, but there is still time to turn things around. We have every intention of being competitive in the Southeastern Conference this year and hope we are able to do that."
Oliver, a 6-foot-2-inch, 215-pound senior, has been the Rebels' starting free safety for the past two seasons. The Jasper, Ala., native also played in all 11 contests as a redshirt freshman. Oliver has filled the defensive stat sheet over the past three seasons and appears to be well on his way to leading Ole Miss once again in 2004. He has already registered 14 tackles (eight solo and six assists) in two games this year. The team's leading tackler as a sophomore and junior, Oliver has recorded 272 stops (176 solo and 96 assists) in his collegiate career. He has also collected eight TFLs for 26 yards and a sack for nine yards in an Ole Miss uniform.
Oliver has recorded double-figure tackles on numerous occasions during his accolade-filled career. He made 10+ stops on four occasions in 2003 en route to a season total of 104 (73 solo and 31 assists). Oliver managed career highs of 11 solo and 14 total tackles against Florida (10-5-02). He also registered an interception against the Gators his junior season (10-4-03), while knocking down two Memphis pass attempts (9-6-03) in last year's season opener.
A Sociology major, Oliver was named to the All-SEC second team by Street & Smith's and Southeastern Football Saturdays prior to the start of the 2003 season and the All-SEC third team by Phil Steele's College Football Review before the start of the 2004 campaign. The Sporting News ranked Oliver as the nation's 19th-best free safety at the end of his junior campaign. In addition, the three-year letterman picked up All-SEC Freshman Team accolades by the SEC Coaches and Knoxville News Sentinel in 2001.
 Eric Oliver | |
In April, Oliver was honored with the 2004 Chucky Mullins Courage Award. The award, sponsored by the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, honors the late Chucky Mullins, who had his Ole Miss career come to an end during the 1989 Homecoming game against Vanderbilt when he was paralyzed after making a tackle. After returning to his studies at Ole Miss, Mullins passed away on May 6, 1991. The honor is presented annually to a rising senior defensive player at Ole Miss. Each winner then wears Mullins' jersey No. 38 during his senior season. Oliver had previously worn No. 26 during his first three seasons with the Red and Blue.
"I am more of a vocal leader," Oliver says. "I am the type of guy who likes to run around and make some noise. I get up in people's faces to get them pumped up. I think I bring a lot of enthusiasm and energy to the field regardless of whether that's in practice or at a game.
"I am definitely an emotional player, but try to keep these guys under control at all times. I don't want them getting too down when we lose or too high when we win. Last year, we had a rough start, but re-grouped to go 10-3 and win a bowl game. We know there is still time to turn things around this year. We are just trying to take it one game at a time."
Robertson, a 6-foot-2-inch, 230-pound senior, figures to be playing in his 40th career game Saturday against the Commodores. Robertson, who moved to Ole Miss' starting strongside linebacker at the beginning of the season, leads the Rebels with 17 tackles (six solos and 11 assists) on the season.
A native of Centreville, Miss., Robertson collected a career-best nine stops last week at Alabama. The three-year letterman also has a pair of interceptions in his career one at Mississippi State in 2001 and the other vs. Georgia (11-17-01).
Robertson's accomplishments extend well beyond the playing field. The Biological Science major was named to the Verizon District VI All-Academic second team in 2002. An All-SEC Academic Honor Roll honoree in 2002 and 2003, Robertson has also been on the Chancellor's Roll roll six times spring of '01, spring of '02, fall of '02, spring of '03, fall of '03 and spring of '04.
 Rob Robertson | |
"The captains on this team are like a liaison between the players and coaches," Robertson says. "Players will always gripe and complain so part of our job is being the judge of who has a legitimate complaint and who needs to just suck it up and move on.
"Our captains last year Eli Manning, Charlie Anderson, Chris Collins and Jesse Mitchell played with great effort. That's something you could never take away from them. They may have muffed a play or busted a snap, but they always played hard. That's one of the many things I learned from that group and something I'm trying to pass down to this year's squad. Eli was a great player and a great captain for us, but we had Charlie, Chris and Jesse who also did a terrific job, on and off the field. It's a team sport and definitely takes more than one guy to be successful."
As captains of the 2004 Ole Miss football team, Doug Buckles, Kerry Johnson, Marcus Johnson, Eric Oliver and Rob Robertson will undoubtedly grow as athletes and, more importantly, as people. Throughout the season, their leadership qualities will also be of much assistance to the younger members of the program.
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader," former U.S. President John Quincy Adams once said.
"Leaders aren't born, they are made," Lombardi once mentioned. "And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that's the price we'll have to pay to achieve our goals."
If this year's enthusiastic quintet can pass along such messages to each and every member of the Ole Miss football program, good things could happen for the Rebels later this season and in years to come.
