Rebels get to regroup against Louisiana-Monroe
Ole Miss coach Matt Luke began picking up the pieces on Sunday after a 45-16 loss at No. 5 LSU, trying to determine how to get his team to compete better against upper level SEC teams.
The Rebels’ next chance is in two weeks — sort of.
Ole Miss will be back inside the SEC on Oct. 13 in Little Rock, but Arkansas, like Ole Miss, is winless in conference play.
This week the Rebels will take on Louisiana-Monroe in their final nonconference game. The nonconference has been a comfort zone for Ole Miss (3-2), which has averaged 614.3 yards and 53.6 points in wins over Texas Tech, Southern Illinois and Kent State but has now been outscored 107-23 in its two SEC losses.
Luke and his staff began this season knowing defense was where they needed the most improvement.
Tackling remains an issue, as does pass coverage in a secondary which has lost two starters and a key reserve to injury.
The troubling point of conference play is that there have been so few points.
Against LSU normally accurate quarterback Jordan Ta’amu occasionally missed open receivers, and those receivers — two of them projected as early NFL draft picks — dropped passes other times.
Drives bogged down, and the Rebels kicked short field goals in the first and second quarters when they needed touchdowns.
“We didn’t have the discipline and consistency it takes to go and win on the road in this conference. As a head coach you have a vision of what you want your team to look like, and when it doesn’t look that way you look at yourself first,” Ole Miss coach Matt Luke said. “We’re going to continue to work and get the problems fixed.”
This week the Rebels face an ULM team that was expected to compete in the upper tier of the Sun Belt Conference but has gotten off to an 0-2 start after a surprising 46-14 loss at Georgia State.
The Warhawks are averaging better than 400 yards a game but rank in the NCAA’s 100s in both scoring offense and scoring defense.
“Ultimately consistency is the key. To win in this league you have to be consistent. It wasn’t there, and that starts with me.”