Practice Report: August 17

OXFORD, Miss. – It's officially football season in Oxford as the Ole Miss football team opened its 2020 fall camp on Monday morning at its practice fields outside of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The Rebels were originally scheduled to open fall practice 10 days ago, but the alterations to the 2020 schedule pushed back that date. After being limited to simple walkthroughs in the interim, Lane Kiffin's squad was eager to strap in and take the field.

"It's good to finally get out for the first day," Kiffin said. "It's been a long wait. Having walkthroughs is a big difference from having practice. Finally got out there. We have a lot of work to do. Having missed spring practice and just watching guys getting used to how we practice and what our expectations and standards are. We were out there, but we have a long ways to go."

Ole Miss will now have five weeks to work before the 2020 campaign begins. After walking off the field from his first practice in Oxford, co-defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin echoed Kiffin's sentiments, explaining that, Day 1 is more about effort and intent than execution.

"Every Day 1 I've ever been a part of, you come off the field thinking, 'We have so many things to work on.' Which is true, but it's Day 1. To me, all you're looking for on Day 1 is, as coaches and as players, collectively, we're all upholding the standard and setting the standard for how we're going to do things. Running to the ball, being urgent about what we do—in our communication, going from drill to drill at practice—all of those little things make the biggest difference. There are plenty of scheme stuff to clean up, and we'll get to all of that. But to me, you have to learn how to practice and what our standard is as a team."

That process began bright and early as the Rebels began rolling into the Manning Center around 6:30 a.m. for treatment and taping. After a morning of team and positional meetings, the Rebels hit the practice fields around 9:45 a.m., where they were greeted with relatively mild temperatures in the 80s.

Practicing with helmets only—no popping of the pads just yet—the Rebels worked until just before noon, giving them time to grab lunch inside the facility and report for another round of COVID testing. When the team leaves the Manning Center this evening after lifting and more team meetings, so begins another vital element of upholding the standard and expectation within the program.

Of course, the Rebels have always been challenged to uphold a certain standard in the classroom and in their personal lives. But now more than ever, what the student-athletes do when they leave the facility will have an incredible impact on the team. Recognizing that, Kiffin and his staff have challenged their players to mask up and adhere to social distancing and COVID-prevention policies.

"Like I said to them, this will have as much to do with winning as anything—what teams handle this the best and, obviously don't get corona, but when that happens, don't get contact-traced," Kiffin said. "That's a big challenge to them. I think you have to be realistic. It's not going to be perfect. This isn't being taken very seriously by a lot of people. It's a challenge for our guys to do it right."

For the next five weeks—and all through the 2020 season—Kiffin's squad will look to meet that standard as they work toward the Sept. 26 season opener. It was announced just after the Rebels wrapped up practice that they will host Florida on that day to open the campaign. But while all of the fans are abuzz for the full release of the new 2020 schedule, the Rebels are focused on the day-to-day challenge rather than those that await down the road.

"We're focused on today," Kiffin said. "Those are things down the road. We try to teach them to really worry about the process and what we're in day by day and not worry about that. That's so far away. We know which 10 we're playing, so it really doesn't matter what order they come."

Like the players, the coaches will face their own obstacles in the interim. Social distancing has brought logistical issues with a roster of more than 100. Masks have muffled verbal communication. But in a sport filled with them, it's just another hurdle the Rebels must jump together.

"It is different. I'm not going to sit here and say it's difficult. It is what it is. Everyone's dealing with it," said co-defensive coordinator Chris Partridge. "We're way more spread out. We're not even using our meeting rooms. We have to use different spaces, make sure masks are on and have to learn how to have a meeting with a mask on as a coach. There are things that are different and harder than what we're used to, but I think the coaches and players who adapt best to this are the ones that will be most successful."

Kiffin, Durkin, Partridge and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby met with the media via Zoom following practice. While many questions were regarding the challenges brought about by COVID-19, there were a few on the quarterback position. On the first day, Matt Corral and John Rhys Plumlee split the majority of the first-team reps, but over the next five weeks, the Rebel coaches will make sure that all five of the signal callers in the room are capable of running the offense.

"At the end of the day, you look at both of those guys, and the thing they have is experience," Lebby said. "We'll continue to talk about that a ton, but you have to live that. With that, those guys are ahead of the game a little bit because they have played. But at the same time, we're only as strong as the weakest one in the room. So we're trying to stress as much as possible, everyone in the room understanding that when their number is called, they need to be ready to play."

Of course, that isn't true just for the quarterback room. Each position coach will be tasked with building depth from within. In today's climate, even the deepest position groups in college football could find themselves shorthanded at any point in the season. With that looming, Kiffin and company will look to establish as much depth as possible and continue building for the future.

"There is some good, young talent, especially on offense. There is some potential of really good players," Kiffin said of his first impressions of the team. "But we have a lot of depth issues. That has become difficult to fix with the messed up recruiting cycle that's going on. It's going to take some time. That's why you see us looking at every avenue and every country there is for players."

RebelsCalendar

Players Mentioned

Matt Corral

John Rhys Plumlee

The University of Mississippi Athletics