Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin is not too fearful about Oklahoma’s offensive adjustments coming into the 18th-ranked Rebels’ assembly with the Sooners on Saturday afternoon in Oxford, Miss.
“We have got loads of stuff to work on ourselves, that we labored on throughout the bye,” Kiffin stated.
The Rebels have dropped two of their final three heading into the sport, speeding for simply 137.3 yards per contest.
“I really feel like we’ve been out of rhythm for a little bit bit right here,” Kiffin stated of his offense.
However whereas Ole Miss (5-2, 1-2 Southeastern Convention) has dipped on offense in three-point losses Kentucky and LSU, the Sooners have been struggling on that aspect of the ball all season.
After final week’s 35-9 dwelling loss to South Carolina, a workforce Ole Miss beat by 24 on the street in early October, Oklahoma coach Brent Venables fired offensive coordinator Seth Littrell. Tight ends coach Joe Jon Finley will take over playcalling duties and offensive analyst Kevin Johns shall be co-offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.
“It was an extremely arduous determination on many ranges,” Venables stated Tuesday. “With a ten,000-foot lens, it was not so troublesome. We weren’t taking part in profitable soccer on that aspect of the ball and thought a change could be acceptable — a change in management, a brand new voice, a brand new perspective a brand new lens, technique, game-planning, sequencing, all of these issues that go together with that place.”
The Sooners enter this week ranked 128th nationally in complete offense (out of 134 packages), 116th in passing offense and 114th in speeding offense.
“We have been an abomination on offense this yr,” Venables stated.
Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3) additionally will flip to a brand new quarterback.
Quarterback Jackson Arnold will begin in opposition to the Rebels, Venables introduced earlier within the week, after taking up for Michael Hawkins Jr. early in final week’s loss. He accomplished 18 of 36 passes for 225 yards and a landing.
Arnold began the primary 4 video games of the season earlier than being benched in favor of Hawkins.
“Jackson stepped in and performed fairly nicely,” Venables stated of Arnold’s efficiency in opposition to the Gamecocks. “Made loads of actually good choices within the sport, took command proper from the get-go, and once more, a number of drops that will have made the day even higher for him individually.”
It actually will not be simple for the Sooners to indicate enchancment offensively. Ole Miss leads the nation in fewest speeding yards allowed per sport (66.6) and ranks second in factors allowed (10.6).
Finley spent the 2020 season on Kiffin’s workers because the tight ends coach and passing sport coordinator earlier than becoming a member of then-head coach Lincoln Riley’s workers at Oklahoma.
“He did not name performs right here, and he is obtained a distinct state of affairs there,” Kiffin stated. “I do not suppose that him having labored right here earlier than would assist us in any respect in determining what he’ll do.
“With solely every week to name performs, often folks simply form of add a play right here or there however stick with the identical system. You possibly can’t reinvent the system in six days.”
The Rebels and Sooners have met simply as soon as earlier than within the 1999 Independence Bowl, a sport Ole Miss received 27-25.
–Discipline Degree Media
