Football vs. Tulane: Practice Report

OXFORD, Miss. – The No. 11 Ole Miss football team came through its first stretch of conference play at 3-0 overall and as the first team to 2-0 in the SEC, and although it won't count toward their league record, the Rebels will face more SEC-level competition against Tulane (3-0) on Saturday.

Head coach Lane Kiffin held his weekly press conference Monday to preview Saturday's 2:30 p.m. CT tilt against Tulane. Dae'Quan Wright, Wydett Williams Jr. and Diego Pounds each met with the media as well, which can be found below in this week's practice report, presented by Mississippi Sports Medicine and Orthopaedic Center.

Dangerous Wave
Tulane is on the shortlist of potential College Football Playoff teams from the Group of 5 conferences. The Green Wave opened with a dominant 23-3 win over Power 4 foe Northwestern and added a second P4 win over Duke, 34-27, this past weekend. Kiffin and the Rebels aren't taking lightly a Tulane team that received votes in both polls this week.

"This is a really, really good football team in all phases," Kiffin said. "They've made special teams plays, obviously they play good defense, and now, with this quarterback, has changed a lot with them. They play really physical. It's a really defensive team. You can see it's a defensive head coach by how physical they play, how they tackle. You can see his footprint on that."

This game will mark the second return of former Ole Miss linebackers coach Jon Sumrall. Sumrall coached the Rebel linebackers in 2018 before spending three seasons on staff at Kentucky. Sumrall then went 23-4 over two seasons as the head coach at Troy, one of his only four losses coming in his head coaching debut in 2022 in Oxford. In Jaxson Dart's first start, the Rebels led 21-3 at halftime but only scored once after the break in a 28-10 win, giving Kiffin a first experience with a Sumrall-led defense.

"They have a really good scheme and play really hard defense. Same defensive structure and coaching as when we played Troy here. They do a great job tackling, they play really physical," Kiffin said. "This is one of the better-coached teams in the whole country."

Wrangling Retzlaff
Ole Miss faced the No. 1 rushing quarterback in the nation last week when it hosted Arkansas QB Taylen Green. Now, the Rebels will welcome the nation's No. 3 rushing quarterback, Jake Retzlaff of Tulane. Adding Retzlaff's dynamic playmaking ability to Tulane's defensive mentality has made the Green Wave an even more dangerous opponent.

"With the quarterback now, they become even more of a problem as a team because he's so dynamic and can do so many things. They have a really good team," Kiffin said. "He looks like one of the best players in America."

For Ole Miss, the strategy for slowing down Retzlaff, particularly on the ground, will be similar to what it employed last week against Green. This time, the Rebels will try to prevent a shootout from breaking out on Hollingsworth Field.

"It's the same things we talked about against Arkansas," Williams said. "It goes back to focusing on eye keys and staying locked in on what we have to do. Focusing on doing our part right and executing what is called because at the end of the day, we play for each other, and when you know your brother beside you has got you, then everything will fall into place."

Clicking Up Front
Ole Miss sustained a couple of injuries on its offensive front late in fall camp, which left the Rebels a bit shorthanded to start the season. That showed in the results, particularly four interceptions in the first two games caused by heavy pressure. But in Week 3, Ole Miss is getting back healthy and having more success in its blocking.

"Last week was really where we clicked," Pounds said. "Then we were going through camp, we had a couple injuries on the offensive line. So getting Delano Townsend back and getting more people back adds more fire to it because you have more juice, and you get to see how you gel with different guys. It's fun having everybody back."

The results showed it as well. Ole Miss didn't turn the ball over in the Week 3 win over Arkansas, and the Rebel line yielded just one sack for a loss of two yards and zero QB hurries.

"They did a good job," Kiffin said."It was a pretty clean game from a standpoint of the offense with the ball, and a lot of that has to do with protection. Your protection has a lot to do with turnovers and not having turnovers. It was pretty good for most of the game."

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Players Mentioned

Jaxson Dart

Diego Pounds

Delano Townsend

Wydett Williams Jr.

Dae'Quan Wright

The University of Mississippi Athletics