SEC Opener: Ole Miss Heads to Vanderbilt

DATE: Saturday, September 15, 2007

TIME: 6 p.m. CT

SITE (CAPACITY): Vanderbilt Stadium (39,773); Nashville, Tenn.

TV: Pay-Per-View. A CSS replay of the game will be Sunday at 1 p.m.

RADIO: Ole Miss Radio Network (David Kellum, play-by-play; Pete Cordelli, color analyst; Stan Sandroni, sideline reporter). The in-stadium frequency on gameday will be 92.5 FM.  XM Satellite Radio channel 232 (Vanderbilt broadcast). Listen Online 

POLLS: Neither team appears in the top-25 rankings.

SERIES INFO: This game will be the 82nd meeting between Ole Miss and Vanderbilt dating back to 1894. The Rebels lead the series 46-33-2 and have won 12 of the last 14 meetings since 1992, including last year’s 17-10 victory in Oxford. The Commodores hold a 25-20-2 lead in games played in Nashville, although the Rebels have won five of the last six meetings at Vanderbilt Stadium. The Dores took the last meeting in Nashville, 31-23 in 2005 (see All-Time Series Results and Last Five Meetings on page 2).

WHAT TO WATCH FOR: The game at Vanderbilt will mark the Rebels’ 2007 Southeastern Conference opener ... Ole Miss is looking to snap a streak of three straight losses in SEC openers ... The average margin of victory in the last eight meetings with Vanderbilt is 5.9 with a pair of overtime games ... This game features the SEC’s leading tacklers in Rebel junior LB Ashlee Palmer and VU sophomore DB D.J. Moore, each averaging 12.0 stops per game ... Ole Miss and Vanderbilt are one and two in the conference in fewest penalty yards at 33.0 and 39.5 ypg, respectively ... In his first two starts, Rebel QB Seth Adams has thrown for 506 yards and four touchdowns with only one interception.

OLE MISS HEAD COACH ED ORGERON: Ed Orgeron (Northwestern State, 1984) is in his third season as the Ole Miss head coach, having been hired on Dec. 16, 2004. He has a career coaching record of 8-17. Ole Miss is Orgeron’s first career head coaching position, although he possesses over 20 years of college coaching experience, most recently as an assistant head coach on USC’s 2003 and 2004 national champion teams. Orgeron is 1-1 against Vanderbilt.

VANDERBILT HEAD COACH BOBBY JOHNSON: Bobby Johnson (Clemson, 1972) is in his sixth year as the head coach of the Commodores. He is 16-44 at Vanderbilt and has a career mark of 76-80 in his 14th season as a collegiate head coach. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, Johnson spent eight seasons at Division I-AA Furman, guiding the Paladins to a 60-36 record with four trips to the Division I-AA playoffs. Johnson is 2-3 against Ole Miss.

VANDERBILT SCOUTING REPORT: After beginning the year with a 41-17 route of Richmond, Vanderbilt opened SEC play last Saturday with a 24-10 setback to Alabama. The Commodores first four games of the season are in Nashville. The VU offense is averaging 339.0 yards per game, including 229.5 through the air. Junior QB Chris Nickson is leading the attack again this year, completing 24 of 44 passes for 351 yards and four TDs with one interception. Two-time All-SEC WR Earl Bennett is easily the primary target with 17 grabs for 275 yards and three scores. No other Commodore receiver has more than three catches. Handling the rushing load is junior Jeff Jennings and senior Cassen Jackson-Garrison. Jennings has 20 rushes for 99 yards and a TD, while Jackson-Garrison has picked up 50 yards on 13 carries. The Commodore defense is allowing 185.0 yards on the ground and 155.5 in the passing game. Sophomore DB D.J. Moore is tied for the SEC lead in tackles at 12.0 per game and averages 11.5 solos with two pass break-ups and an interception. Junior LB Jonathan Goff was a second team All-SEC pick last year and boasts 16 total tackles and an interception this season. DEs Curtis Gatewood and Steven Stone have each notched 10 stops and three TFLs. Junior K Bryant Hahnfeldt has connected on three of four field goals and all six PAT attempts.

FLORIDA GAME PICKED UP FOR TV: The Sept. 22 game between Ole Miss and Florida will be televised by Lincoln Financial Sports. Game time has been moved to 11:30 a.m. CT at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

REBEL NOTEBOOK

Ole Miss is 30-40-3 in SEC openers ... The Rebels are 14-25-3 in SEC openers on the road ... The last league-opening win came in 2003 in Nashville, 24-21 over the Commodores.

The Rebels are five wins short of 600 ... The program boasts an all-time record of 595-453-35 (.566 winning percentage).

This is the 113th football season at The University of Mississippi dating back to 1893 ... Ole Miss did not field teams in 1897 due to an epidemic of yellow fever, and also in 1943 when football was abolished at all Mississippi state-supported institutions by the Board of Trustees.

Ole Miss returned 44 lettermen and 18 starters from last year’s squad.

DEBUTS: Ole Miss has had 14 players make their Rebel debuts this year, including five true freshmen in Colby Arceneaux (DB), Lionel Breaux (DB), Johnny Brown (DB), Fon Ingram (DB) and Chris Strong (LB). Other players seeing their first action this fall include Christian Albarracian (Sr., K); Derrick Davis (RFr., RB); Tony Fein (Jr., LB); Reggie Hicks (RFr., RB); Ashlee Palmer (Jr., LB); Jamie Phillips (So., LB); Justin Sparks (So., P); Allen Walker (RFr., LB) and Josh Zettergren (Sr., WR).

FIRST-TIME STARTERS: Tony Fein (Jr., LB) earned his first career start against Missouri. Below lists those Rebels that have made their first starts this year.

OFFENSE (2): #19- Seth Adams (Sr., QB); #71- Reid Neely (So., LG)

DEFENSE (4): #47- Tony Fein (Jr., MLB); #1- Kendrick Lewis (So., FS); #11- Ashlee Palmer (Jr., SLB); #53- Chris Strong (Fr., MLB)

CAPTAINS: Serving as captains for Saturday’s Missouri game were Jamarca Sanford (Jr., DB); BenJarvus Green-Ellis (Sr., RB) and Dustin Mouzon (Sr., DB).

HARDY’S EVERYWHERE: Sophomore Greg Hardy continues to put his versatility on display. As a receiver, he recorded his third career touchdown Saturday against Mizzou on a three-yard pass from Seth Adams.  It marked the third game in a row for Hardy to notch a TD, dating back to the Mississippi State game in 2006. As a defensive end, Hardy is leading the team in TFLs with four and is tied for second in total tackles with 20. Last year, he was a First Team Freshman All-American D lineman in the fall and later competed in 15 games with the Ole Miss basketball team, earning a start at LSU.

GREEN-ELLIS’ CAREER DAY: BenJarvus Green-Ellis followed up his 79-yard performance at Memphis with a monster day against Mizzou. The senior tailback went over 200 yards for the first time in his career, finishing with a career-high 226 yards on 33 carries with a touchdown. It was the sixth-most yards on the ground in school history. It also marked Green-Ellis’ fifth career game with at least 100 yards and thrust him into second in the SEC in rushing after week two at 152.5 per game.

ADAMS CONTINUES STRONG START: After being named the starter eight days before the season opener, senior QB Seth Adams has impressed in the first two games. In Memphis, he turned in the Rebels' first 200-yard passing performance since 2005, and against Missouri, he registered the team’s first 300-yard outing since 2004. On Saturday, Adams finished 23-of-41 for 305 yards with three TDs and one interception. He currently ranks third in the SEC in passing yards per game (253.0 ypg) and total offense (249.5 ypg) and sixth in passing efficiency (134.8). A 6-foot-4, 225-pounder from Holly Springs, Miss., Adams walked on at Ole Miss in January of 2006 after transferring from Hinds (Miss.) Community College and appeared in six games last season as Brent Schaeffer's back-up, completing 17-of-31 passes for 177 yards. He is now on scholarship.

OTHER OFFENSIVE NOTES

The Rebels' 534 total yards against Missouri was the most in the Ed Orgeron era, and the most since 567 total yards against Wyoming in 2004 ... Ole Miss and Mizzou combined for 1,093 total yards, the most since the 2003 Texas Tech game, when the two teams totaled 1,291 yards.

The Missouri game marked the first time since the 2004 Wyoming game that Ole Miss has had a 100-yard rusher (BenJarvus Green-Ellis, 226) and 100-yard receiver (Mike Wallace, 136) ... In that game Vashon Pearson had 133 yards rushing and Mario Hill had 142 yards receiving.

Junior WR Mike Wallace had career highs of 136 receiving yards on 7 receptions with a TD against Missouri ... The 136 receiving yards are the most by a Rebel since Mario Hill had 187 against Memphis in 2005.

Wallace’s 68-yard TD catch on Saturday was the longest reception of his career, and marked his third career TD ... It marked the longest pass since a 77-yard touchdown throw from Eli Manning to Chris Collins in the 2002 Mississippi State game.

Sophomore WR Shay Hodge notched his first career touchdown, a five-yard catch from Seth Adams in the second quarter of the Saturday’s game ... Hodge finished with a career-high five receptions, going for 47 yards.

For the second straight game, sophomore WR Marshay Green matched his career best of five receptions ... His 57 receiving yards was two short of his high of 59 also in the season opener ... Including 146 kick return yards, Green tallied 208 all-purpose yards against the Tigers.

Ole Miss returned 23 letterwinners on offense, including nine starters ... The only starters lost were OG Andrew Wicker and TE Lawrence Lilly.

The Ole Miss line has four of five starters back from last year, including all-star honorees Michael Oher and John Jerry ...The Rebel roster boasts a total of 74 career starts on the O line.

The receiving corps returns players who accounted for 130 of the team’s 134 receptions in 2006 ... Four of the five on the receiving depth chart are sophomores, while junior Mike Wallace was the club’s leading receiver a season ago with 24 grabs for 410 yards and two TDs.

PALMER LEADS SEC: With just two D1 games under his belt, junior LB Ashlee Palmer is tied for the SEC lead in tackles per game with a 12.0 average. A JUCO transfer from Compton, Calif., Palmer topped the team with 12 tackles, including three TFLs, and notched an interception in the season opener against Memphis. He followed up with 12 stops with seven solos and a pass break-up in Saturday’s Mizzou game.

OTHER DEFENSIVE NOTES

Junior DB Jamarca Sanford led the team with career highs of 13 tackles and eight solo stops against Missouri ... It marked his third career game with double-digit tackles.

Sophomore DB Kendrick Lewis notched a career-best nine tackles against Mizzou ... He is averaging 8.5 tackles and 5.0 solos per game.

Sophomore LB Jamie Phillips was credited with his first tackles in a Rebel uniform on Saturday, posting five total stops.

In his first start, junior LB Tony Fein registered four tackles, including three solos.

In the win over Memphis, the Rebels intercepted four passes for the first time since the 2004 Wyoming game ... Ole Miss totaled three interceptions the entire 2006 season.

The Rebels returned 18 letterwinners and six starters on defense ... All four starters are back on the defensive line.

Ole Miss has some experience in the defensive backfield with 32 career starts between Jamarca Sanford’s 17 nods at strong safety, Nate Banks’ 12 starts at cornerback and Terrell Jackson’s one start as a nickle back. However, the Rebels graduated three DBs that accounted for 77 career starts.

SPECIALTY NOTES

Sophomore Marshay Green notched career highs of six kickoff returns for 146 yards in the Mizzou game.

Junior Mike Wallace had his longest career kick return with a 21 yarder against the Tigers.

Ole Miss has yet to have a true punt return through the first two games ... Of Missouri’s five punts on Saturday, two were touchbacks, two were fair catches and one was downed.

Ole Miss blocked a punt for a TD at Memphis for the first time since 1995's Indiana State game (LeMay Thomas' 6-yard TD off Mark Smith's block) ... Sophomore DB Kendrick Lewis scored the first TD of his career ... Junior DB Jamarca Sanford blocked a punt for the first time in his career.

Ole Miss returns several key positions on special teams in kicker Joshua Shene, punter/holder Rob Park and long snapper Preston Powers. In addition, Marshay Green handled all 20 punt returns, while 29 of the 43 kick returns were taken by returnees.

Sophomore Marshay Green ranked second in the SEC in kick return yardage last year (25.2 avg.) and fourth in punt return yardage (14.7 avg.).

OLE MISS VS. SEC EAST

Since the SEC started divisional play in 1992, Ole Miss is 25-19 versus the SEC Eastern Division.

Entering the game with Vanderbilt, the Rebels have won 10 of their last 15 games versus the SEC East, dating back to Ole Miss’ 45-38 win over Vanderbilt to open the 2002 SEC portion of the schedule.

Last year, Ole Miss was 1-2 against SEC East opponents, defeating Vanderbilt 17-10 and falling to Kentucky 31-14 and Georgia 14-9 ... In 2003, the Rebels recorded their first three-game sweep of their SEC East opponents with wins over Vanderbilt, Florida and South Carolina.

Ole Miss is 12-3 against Vanderbilt since the SEC began divisional play in 1992.

Ole Miss is 13-6 against the SEC East at home.

GRADUATING REBELS: Five student-athletes on the Ole Miss football team have already received their undergraduate degrees. K Christian Albarracian has earned his B.A. in accountancy, while OL Marcus Cohen has his B.A. in African American studies. Both OL Thomas Eckers and DL Jeremy Garrett have completed their B.B.A in management, and TE Robert Hough has his B.S in criminal justice.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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