FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Ole Miss - South Carolina 1977 - Ole Miss Athletics

FRIDAY FLASHBACK rewinds to some of the memorable Ole Miss games from this week's all-time series. As the Rebels host South Carolina, we step back three decades to another clash between the two squads in Oxford. Just weeks after handing Joe Montana and eventual national champion Notre Dame their only loss of the season, the skidding Rebels desperately needed a victory against the Gamecocks. The following is the Commercial Appeal's account of the events of Oct. 15, 1977.

Rebel Defense Rises To Help Cooper Cause

By Mike Fleming
Commercial Appeal

OXFORD, Miss. A group of interested Ole Miss people came to the defense of Rebel coach Ken Cooper here Saturday against South Carolina.

It was the Rebel football team in general and the defense in particular.

The Rebs broke a three-game losing streak with a 17-10 win over the Gamecocks before a highly-partisan crowd of 30,000 in Hemingway Stadium.

Cooper, under heavy fire in recent weeks because of the three loses after a win over nationally ranked Notre Dame, refused to discuss his position after the emotional victory.

Asked if the win over the Gamecocks had taken some of the heat off him, Cooper said, “if anybody wants to talk about the game or anything about that then we will, but I said all I want to say about the other (the pressure on him) two weeks ago.”

Immediately after the game, an Ole Miss athletics department official issued a statement in the Reb locker room. It was from the M-Club alumni chapter and signed by president C.D. Red’ Galey of Hattiesburg. It said, in part, that “we are in support of the chancellor, the athletic committee, the athletic director, the football team, coach Cooper and his staff.”

The group, according to the statement, met before Saturday’s game.

Ole Miss, a two-point favorite going into the game, got a big break on South Carolina’s first possession and quickly turned it into a touchdown.

Gamecock running back George Rogers, a freshman who later turned a swing pass into a 72-yard touchdown, fumbled and Rebel left cornerback William Day recovered on the South Carolina 33.

Tim Ellis, the senior from Louisville, Miss., making his first start of the year at quarterback, guided the Rebs to the touchdown in five plays with running back James Storey getting the score from the one with 12:08 left in the period. Hoppy Langley’s kick was good and it was 7-0.

As defensive back Day explained, This really helped our football team tremendously stopping South Carolina the first time. The last two weeks (against Auburn and Georgia) we had given up touchdown drives on the first series, and that just puts that much more pressure on you right away.”

The Reb defense responded extremely well throughout most of the day, except for a breakdown on Rogers’ 72-yard run, and the offense came through when it had to.

Gamecock coach Jim Carlen praised the Reb defense in particular.

“Ole Miss’ defensive line just whipped us. Their inside five (middle guard, two tackles, two linebackers) just ate our lunch. They didn’t give us time to throw the football. Their defense also played aggressively. We also had very poor field position throughout the first half and that keeps you from doing a lot of things.”

The 7-0 advantage stood up through the first half. But two plays into the third quarter Ellis fumbled on his own 29 and the Gamecocks got it. Two plays after that South Carolina also fumbled and Ole Miss linebacker Eddie Cole recovered at his own 35.

Bobby Garner, the junior from Valparaiso, Fla., then came into the game to direct Ole Miss’ second touchdown - a 65-yard drive that was capped by a beautifully executed pitch-out from Garner to Freddie Williams who raced 47 yards untouched to make the score 14-0 with 12:10 left.

Ole Miss appeared to be moving for another touchdown after the poor Gamecock punt on its next possession, but Garner fumbled and South Carolina took over on its own 31. After a three-yard loss, Gamecock quarterback Ron Bass, whose ability worried Ole Miss’ defensive coaches all week long, threw in the flat to Rogers who reared 72 yards for the score.

Rogers was hit at least five times but he refused to go down. With the score 14-7, garner fumbled again on the Rebs’ next possession.

South Carolina began moving relentlessly toward the Rebel goal, but the defense stiffened and the Gamecocks had to settle for a field goal of 27 yards by Britt Parrish with 2:18 left in the third quarter.

At this point, George Plasketes, the Rebs’ standout defensive end, said he again felt the Ole Miss streak of bad luck might continue.

“We just haven’t had the good luck you need. In our last three games it seemed like something always happened at the worst time, and we lost games we should have won Southern Mississippi, Auburn and Georgia. But we were determined not to let it happen again.”

In perhaps the biggest drive of the day, Ole Miss took over on its own 23 with 8:06 remaining and the game’s momentum clearly in South Carolina’s favor. But Ellis worked flawlessly and moved the team steadily down the field to eat up precious time and set up a 29-yard Langley field goal with 42 seconds left and preserve the Rebels’ third victory.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Ole Miss - South Carolina 1977

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