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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Preseason Report 08.19: Offense Taking Shape
8/20/2009 | Football
OXFORD, Miss. - The first-string offense continued to make strides and impress the Ole Miss coaches as Houston Nutt's Rebels went through their fourth session in full pads on Wednesday afternoon at the practice fields adjacent to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
"We played the game today and had a little bit of individuals and a little bit of fundamentals, Nutt said. "We worked on the kicking game and did some punting, some PATs and some field goals. Then we went right into playing it.
The Rebels spent much of practice working on full squad situational drills and Nutt praised how comfortable and confident junior quarterback Jevan Snead is at the line of scrimmage.
"We probably got about 75-80 plays today and it was a pretty physical practice," Nutt said. "Jevan Snead, who was without Dexter (McCluster) and Shay (Hodge) most of the day because we were resting them, executed so very well today. He handled the blitzes and got us out of the wrong play and into the right play several times today."
Nutt also mentioned that this year Snead will have a larger role in checking off at the line of scrimmage as opposed to last year.
"We are going to give him more opportunities this year to change the play because he is getting better at it," Nutt said. "He is so much better at it this year than last year."
Nutt also mentioned how the offensive line has improved and how the running game is benefiting from it. Nutt went on to say that he is beginning to see somewhat of a pecking order from the running back position.
"I thought Cordera (Eason) and Brandon Bolden really took a step forward today," Nutt said. You feel good about the guys that have been here, and when I say that I mean Eason, Bolden and Enrique Davis. They are a year old and understand what we want, but our young guys are very talented too. Everyone one of them did something special today and that's the way you want it."
Ole Miss freshman Darius Barksdale missed practice Wednesday as he continues to go through additional medical testing, but Ole Miss head athletic trainer Tim Mullins addressed the situation.
"Tig's heart is good," Mullins said. "We did some more tests with him and his heart is fine. He is going to follow up with his family physicians and his family care and go under their direction and their guidance."
There were no injuries of note from Wednesday's practice session.
Athletics director Pete Boone and Nutt announced earlier in the week that Saturday's planned "Meet the Rebels Day" has been cancelled due to precaution in regards to flu concerns in Oxford.
