The University of Mississippi Athletics
Rebels Look to Move on in Face of Adversity
11/1/2014 | Football, Blog
Dragging an Auburn defender on what initially looked to be a go-ahead touchdown, Laquon Treadwell fought his way toward the end zone, but had his ankle rolled over and fumbled into the end zone.
In the moments that followed, the initial touchdown call was overturned in favor of Auburn, and Treadwell was carted off the field with an air cast and tears in his eyes.
"It's definitely a fracture," said head coach Hugh Freeze of the injury. "It was obvious, even to me. If I can see it, I know they can see it. I don't know anything other than that. I can't tell you all the details of it. It's definitely a fracture."
"He was phenomenal," said senior quarterback Bo Wallace, tearing up talking about the injury. "He was really upset. It was tough to see."
Before the injury, Treadwell was having perhaps the best game of his Ole Miss career. He had a career-high 10 catches, tied for the fourth-most in school history, for 103 yards and a touchdown. Treadwell also made two key downfield blocks to spring Wallace for a 59-yard run, scoring on a 10-yard touchdown the next play.
"He sort of took the game over," co-offensive coordinator Dan Werner said. "That's why we were calling those types of plays knowing that he is hard to tackle. That one he could have been tackled about three times and just got rolled up on. Those things happen in football. It's a shame, but they happen."
Ole Miss matched Auburn score for score, as the offense rolled up 492 yards of total offense, but down four late in the fourth quarter, the Rebels fumbled at the Auburn 1-yard line on back-to-back drives, which ultimately proved to be the difference in a 35-31 loss to the Tigers.
"When you watch the game, if they're really watching games, we can't drop far," said Wallace, who was 28-of-40 for 341 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. "We lost a game by that much. I just watched the replay of Laquon (Treadwell).รย
"We lost it by that much. I don't see how far they can drop us. Our season is still alive, we feel like. We'll find out Tuesday (with the College Football Playoff rankings) how far we fall, but we're going to keep fighting, and crazy things can happen."
Visiting with Treadwell after the game, Werner said Treadwell is emotionally down obviously, but he told him he's a warrior and he played probably his best game yet.
"These things happen, and he'll bounce back," Werner said. "That's what we do here. It's going to be tough, but somebody else has to step up and that's what Coach Freeze talks about all the time. We lost guys before, and it seems like somebody will step up and the team responds."
In Treadwell's absence, a quartet of receivers in senior Vince Sanders, junior Cody Core, sophomore Quincy Adeboyejo and freshman Markell Pack will be asked to step up in terms of production and leadership.รย
More will also be asked of sophomore tight end Evan Engram, who came in with Treadwell and was behind him on the play where he suffered his injury and fumbled into the end zone.
"It's really tough to be just a foot away from national championship implications," said Engram, who caught eight passes for 123 yards and a touchdown. "That's tough to grasp, but we still have three games left. We can't just turn the switch off. We have to come back in tomorrow and prepare for Presbyterian.รย
"This one stings really bad. We're going to learn from it and we're going to get better from it. We're going to bounce back and be stronger from it."
UPDATE, 12:41 A.M. CT:
Confirmed that Laquon Treadwell is having surgery tonight to repair a fractured fibula and dislocated ankle.
-- Austin Miller (@austinkmiller) November 2, 2014
