Ole Miss football holds first scrimmage of 2023 fall camp with defense winning the day

Ole Miss football, under the direction of coach Lane Kiffin, held its first scrimmage of 2023 fall camp Saturday afternoon in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

The scrimmage was an opportunity for Kiffin and the coaching staff to see where the Rebels stand with the season opener against Mercer roughly three weeks away.

The twist in this scrimmage was Kiffin naming Wide Receiver Coach Derrick Nix head coach for a day and afterward giving the press a long talk about how minorities should get more shots at being head coaches in college football. (See Jake Thompson’s piece on this subject – quite compelling.)

As expected, and has been the case with most of Kiffin’s preseason scrimmages, some of the stalwarts were given limited work as the coaches are trying to determine who they can count on in different situations.

As to be expected, there was good and bad from the head coach in his analysis of the 2 ½ hour workout.

The good was obvious – the Rebel defense.

And while we won’t go as far as to say the offense was bad, they certainly got the short end of the stick Saturday.

Ole Miss Defensive coordinator Pete Golding has, from the looks of today’s work, brought the Alabama defensive philosophy with him.

That is, stop the run first and attack the quarterback to disrupt the passing game.

How did that play out? Well, All-American RB Quinshon Judkins was held to 9 yards on 10 carries and the leading rusher on the day was true freshman Keedrick Reescano running against the number two defense for 33 yards on 7 carries.

“I thought we got after the offense pretty good today,” said Reb Defensive End Cedric Johnson who had 3 tackles and a QB sack in limited play. “I love this defense – it puts us in position to make plays and get away from double teams a lot more.”

The first team defense was the same as it has been basically all August with DEs Cedric Johnson and Jared Ivey, DTs Joshua Harris and J.J. Pegues, Safeties DaiJahn Anthony, Trey Washington and Isheem Young/John Saunders Jr.; and the corners were Zamari Walton and Demark Williams for Deantre Prince.

Anthony was the leading tackler with 5 followed by Pegues, Suntarine Perkins, Ivey, C. Johnson, D. Williams and Saunders with 3 each and I. Young, Reginald Hughes and Trey Washington with 2 each.

Washington, Teja Young and Jack Damron had an interception each while C. Johnson, DeeJay Holmes, Isaac Ukwu, R. Hughes all had one sack each and DE Jamond Gordon chalked up a pair of QB sacks.

Ole Miss football practice at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss. on Saturday, August 12, 2023. (©Bruce Newman)

The three interceptions Rebel quarterbacks combined for were from Jaxson Dart, Spencer Sanders and Austin Simmons throwing one each.

Dart ran the first team offense against the first team defense in his time in the pocket, connecting on 7-9 passes for 94 yards, 0 TDs and a pick. He rushed for 16 yards and a TD on 6 totes. Sanders, splitting time with the ones and twos, was 9-17 for 140 yards 0 TDs and an interception. He rushed for 29 yards and a touchdown on 8 carries. Howard was 7-16 for 75 yards in the air and Simmons was 4-9, 66, 0 TD, 1 INT.

The receiving stats were spread out freshman Ayden Williams, playing with the twos, catching 3 passes for 55 yards; TE Michael Trigg with the twos 2-40; TE Kyirin Heath with the ones 2-24; WR Caden Lee with the threes 2-46; TE Hudson Wolfe with the 2s 2-20 and WR Joshua Pfeifier with the threes 2-35.

The top OL did not change with Jayden Williams and Micah Pettus at the tackles, Eli Acker/Victor Curne and Jeremy James at the guards and Reece McIntyre at center.

“All the players played hard and I believe we made a good first step today,” said Nix. “The defense had a good day and caused a lot of problems but the offense had flashes. We just have to get more consistent on that side of the ball and shore some things up.

“It was the first scrimmage. We will have more and hopefully we will progress accordingly in those. Overall, it was a good start, but we still have a lot to do.”

Several players were held out of the scrimmage due to injury. RB Ulysses Bentley IV, RB Matt Jones, C Caleb Warren, WR Jordan Watkins, LB Ladarius Tennison, and we did not see CB Deantre Prince dressed out. (We learned he had some dental issues from yesterday.) LB Khari Coleman, Kiffin said after the scrimmage, was being held out due to legal issues that are being handled internally.

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