Five Questions: McCready, Travers break down Ole Miss at California

Ole Miss (2-0) and California (2-0) square off on Saturday night at 7:30 CDT in Berkeley, Calif. RebelGrove.com publisher Neal McCready and GoldenBearReport.com publisher Trace Travers exchanged questions and answers earlier this week in advance of the SEC-Pac 12 showdown.

Neal McCready: 1. Weber State's Stefan Cantwell had nearly 300 passing in the first half last week, and Cal is currently 120th nationally in pass defense. What's going on with the Bears' secondary and what should be expected against Shea Patterson and company?

Trace Travers: The biggest issue I saw from that game were communication issues, execution issues, and self-inflicted wounds that allowed big plays deep. Play action caused safeties to bite down, which allowed a couple of deep balls to go for scores. The return of safety Jaylinn Hawkins should help, he was out with an injury (they’re extremely tight-lipped with this), but there’s been a lot of talk about working on technique with that group.

What they should expect is a mix of things, with Longo’s offense being more of the spread style that Cal has seen more of in recent years, Cal may go to more nickel packages than usual out of their base 3-4. They’re able to press on the outside, but they haven’t done too much of it at the current juncture. Aside from last week, it’s a group that aims to prevent big plays, which they’re going to try to get back on track to doing this through a variety of blitz packages, tight coverage on the outside, and a lot of different looks. I’d expect them to run a spy on Patterson as well.

NM: 2. With Patrick Laird's big day and Tre Watson's injury, where is the California running game enter this one?

TT: Tre Watson was ruled out for the rest of the season (Cal is going with the NHL injury reports, listing the reason as lower body). So it becomes the Patrick Laird show, after he’s had a couple of big days with three touchdowns against Weber and a big receiving TD against North Carolina. Beau Baldwin (Cal’s OC) will likely ride with the hot hand in Laird, though Vic Enwere, a big senior back from Missouri City, Texas, will see some reps.

With the actual running game, expect a bit of what Oregon has done in years past with the run game, as Justin Wilcox made the hire of former Oregon OL coach Steve Greatwood (who actually recruited Wilcox to Oregon back in the 90s). Laird’s been strong in waiting for holes to develop, and with Ole Miss struggling against the run, they’re likely going to test that early. Expect Laird to start, though Enwere will see time and backups Derrick Clark and Zion Echols may take some reps as well.

NM: 3. Ross Bowers was efficient against Weber State and went stat-happy against UNC. Where's his development, and how will Cal attack Ole Miss' defense?

TT: He’s been solid in the early going, though Cal has been spoiled over the past few years with the likes of Jared Goff and Davis Webb leading them from the quarterback spot. He’s been developing decently, though with some early issues in checking down to throws that aren’t at the sticks on 3rd down situations. He has the arm to hit the deep ball, and Jacob Peeler recruited and coached a number of guys who can go out and get it, including WR Demetris Robertson and Mississippi native Jordan Duncan.

Through the air, I expect the Bears to stick to what worked at UNC, getting guys open in space to make plays. That’s where Robertson’s extremely effective, that’s where leading receiver Vic Wharton has been effective, that’s where Laird has done some damage as well. Weber took some of that away with taking advantage of a down performance by the Bears and taking away some of the timing stuff through the press. That being said, they’re gonna test Ole Miss’s tackling in the open field.

A wildcard in this area is #99, fullback Malik McMorris. He’s 290 lbs, with fantastic hands and skills in space for a big man.

NM: 4. Through two games, what has surprised you with Cal that you didn't expect in the preseason?

TT: The biggest one was resilience. The Bears had to make comebacks in both their first two games. Ross Bowers is emblematic of this. He got destroyed on a targeting penalty at the end of the first half against UNC, comes back on the next play and throws a 67 yard TD to Vic Wharton. It’s a more mentally tough team than last year’s edition, and credit for that has to go to Justin Wilcox for bringing that ‘never too high, never too low’ mentality.

The other big one for me is linebacker play. Ray Davison and Devante Downs are both seniors with a ton of playing experience, but hadn’t been too successful over their first three years playing. Then Wilcox and Tim DeRuyter come in, and both have had excellent performances in the first two games, forcing fumbles, causing havoc, and getting the job done. Downs has especially benefitted, as he’s finally in a role that allows him to be the explosive blitzer that his skillset is perfect for. On the outside, the Cams, Saffle and Goode, have both adjusted to a new position at OLB (Saffle from 4-3 DE, Goode from a 4-3 LB), and have been productive, with Goode forcing a fumble Saturday as well. It’s the value of good defensive coaching at work.

NM: 5. How are the coaches, players and fans viewing this matchup as far as a visit from an SEC team? Texas, Ohio State and others have been out there recently, so it's not significant in that way, but it is the first trip by an SEC team in recent memory.

TT: One thing Justin Wilcox has done is to treat everything relatively the same, to prepare with an intense attention to detail, so the team isn’t really viewing this as too outside the ordinary. For someone like Duncan, who has friends on Ole Miss, it may mean a bit more, but it’s likely going to be just another game, despite this being the first SEC team to come to town since Tennessee in 2007.

For fans, it’s a bit more, and I expect a bigger crowd for this week than the last one. It’s in the middle of a three game homestand, one that has USC coming to town after this, and it’s been a heavily promoted game on billboards and advertisements on TV. It should be a fun atmosphere.

Trace Travers: 1. Ole Miss has struggled with the run a bit in the early going, what's been the biggest issue for them here.

Neal McCready: It’s been an ongoing issue at Ole Miss for the past five years. For whatever reason, Ole Miss can’t consistently run the football. Jaylen Walton had some success in 2013 and 2014, Akeem Judd had his moments last season, but it’s been an issue.

Some point to the offensive line, but frankly, Ole Miss is fairly talented up front. Greg Little is an elite left tackle. Rod Taylor is athletic on the other side. The interior line is experienced and solid. None of the three backs have stepped up yet.

Jordan Wilkins has never established himself as an every-down threat, Eric Swinney is just 12 months removed from an ACL injury and D’Vaughn Pennamon has yet to prove that he’s fast enough to hit the hole before it closes.

It’s a testy subject inside the program, but it’s almost impossible to win in the SEC without some semblance of a running game. I’m sure they’d love to establish one in Berkeley, but there’s likely very precious little margin for error on Saturday.

TT: 2. With Phil Longo coming in as the offensive coordinator, how much has the Ole Miss offense changed from a year ago?

NM: That’s a good question. Ideally, Longo would likely tell you, the offense would go faster than it’s gone in the past two weeks. However, it’s still newish, and sometimes, Ole Miss appears to get bogged down at the line of scrimmage somewhat. Longo uses Ole Miss’ talented wide receiver corps well. The Rebels use the short passing game almost like a running game, and they have weapons who are dangerous after the catch. Longo utilizes the deep ball enough to keep safeties honest.

Longo’s offense is more receiver-oriented than Hugh Freeze’s was. Freeze’s offense was built around the quarterback. Keep in mind Longo likely hasn’t shown anything close to everything yet. I suspect we’ll see some new wrinkles Saturday night in Berkeley.

TT: 3. How much has Shea Patterson grown since burning his redshirt a year ago? His stats show a highly accurate QB who can make a big throw deep, and that he hasn't gotten to run as much as his recruiting ranking suggests.

NM: Patterson has grown immensely. He was thrown into the fire last November and handled it pretty well, but there were moments when he likely felt overwhelmed. That’s not the case now. He’s the quarterback. It’s his offense.

To your point, Ole Miss wants Patterson to stay in the pocket more, go through his progressions and use his feet as a way to prolong plays, not necessarily as an escape route right away. Patterson had a tendency last season to flee the pocket quickly. Yes, sometimes that made for highlight-reel runs, but it’s difficult to build a successful offense around that on a weekly basis.

This year, he’s been more patient. He has a very accurate arm. He’s deadly in the intermediate game. I’m not sure that he has the deep-ball arm his predecessor, Chad Kelly, did, but he’s been effective with the long ball so far this season.

TT: 4. Ole Miss has a 48-3 edge in 3rd quarter scoring over two games. How good has this group of coaches been making halftime adjustments?

NM: Matt Luke said last weekend he’s not saying or doing anything magical at halftime, but you’re right; this has been a third-quarter team in the early going. It’s ironic, really, because Ole Miss was a terrible third-quarter team in 2016.

The halftime adjustments have been nice, but let’s be honest here: Ole Miss can’t endure too many more slow starts like the one they had against UT-Martin. The Rebels can’t afford to stumble out of the gate at Alabama, at Auburn, or against teams like LSU and Mississippi State and have any chance at a win.

The Rebels can’t scuffle early at Cal either. The Bears’ offense is too good. So, yes, the halftime adjustments are indicative of strong coaching, but in Ole Miss’ ideal world, they won’t have so much to fix at the half moving forward.

TT: 5. How has the coaching staff handled some of the tumult with dealing with the Committee of Infractions Meeting that Matt Luke has had to attend and how well has Luke kept the team together with everything going on around the program?

NM: This is going to sound snarky. I don’t mean for it to, but we’re about to find out. The NCAA story has been hanging over this program for five years, but it didn’t really get crazy until January. Since then, Ole Miss has received a second NOA, given itself a one-year postseason ban, seen its head coach resign for improper conduct and now faced the Committee on Infractions during a game week.

All of those distractions didn’t prevent Ole Miss from beating South Alabama or UT-Martin, but again, let’s get real: California is a different beast, and then nothing against the Golden Bears, Alabama and Auburn are right around the corner looking as menacing as ever.

The team appears to have rallied around Luke. They like him and respect him. He’s genuine. He loves Ole Miss. The players know that. However, there’s no way none of this has been distracting. There’s simply no way.

Luke was in Covington, Kentucky, this week from Sunday afternoon until late Tuesday. So were assistants Derrick Nix and Maurice Harris. It’s been an odd week, but then again, it’s been an odd nine months.

Will all of that have a negative impact? We simply don’t know yet. We’ll start to find out Saturday night.

Publisher's Note: RebelGrove.com editor Chase Parham contributed to this story.