Notes: No sentimentality for California native Corral versus Golden Bears

OXFORD — Matt Corral is a California native, but facing the Cal Bears isn’t exactly the stuff of sentimentality for the Ole Miss quarterback.

Corral, a product of Long Beach Poly, was offered by California out of high school, but he never considered the Bears and that recruitment never really went anywhere.

“I know a few kids,” Corral said. “I played against a few of them as well. I’m excited. They’re going to come here. They’re a ranked team and they’re very well-coached. There are a lot of good players on that team. I’m looking forward to that.”

Cal is ranked No. 23 after starting the season 3-0, including wins at Washington and over North Texas. Corral, who has led Ole Miss to a 2-1 start, said he knows Cal nickel back Traveon Beck and played 7-on-7 games against Cal quarterback Chase Garbers and regular season games against Bears wide receiver Nikko Remiglio.

“I know they know me or know of me,” Corral said. “I’m looking forward to it for sure.”

More than renewing acquaintances, Corral said he’s focused on facing a talented Cal defense, one that features a veteran secondary that has given opposing quarterbacks fits this year.

“They give a lot of everything and that’s something me and the receivers are going to have to do a good job of picking up,” Corral said.

Wide receiver Braylon Sanders, who was injured earlier in the loss at Memphis on Aug. 31 and hasn’t returned since, was back at practice Tuesday and should play Saturday against California.

“It’s just another receiver that I trust out there,” Corral said. “Me and Braylon have the on and off the field chemistry. We hang out a lot. That’s my brother right there, so I trust him. It’s just him getting reps and him getting back in shape.”

Sanders’ return aside, Ole Miss is pressing other receivers to develop. Elijah Moore leads Ole Miss with 18 catches. The next leading receiver has five catches.

“(Ole Miss wide receivers) Coach (Jacob) Peeler has been pressing them about doing the right things and making sure they do those every single play and really working them in practice,” Corral said.

“We’ve still got some puppies out there,” Peeler said. “They’re learning how to play. They’re just learning to execute and do the little things. I’ve seen some improvement. That’s for sure.”

Peeler coached at Cal before coming to Ole Miss. He’s familiar with Cal coach Justin Wilcox and much of the Bears’ roster. He said Cal’s travel to Oxford, acclimation to the Central Time Zone and to Southern humidity won’t be issues Saturday morning.

“I know they’ll have those guys ready to go,” Peeler said. “They won’t make it too big of a deal for sure.”

“At the end of the day, football is football, no matter what time it is,” Ole Miss defensive lineman Josiah Coatney said. “It may affect you for a couple of minutes but once the game goes on, you have 60 minutes to get the win and basically do whatever you can to be the best version of you and the best version of the team.”

Peeler said the Bears’ secondary has a lot of experience and “all the accolades are rightly deserved. They’re really good football players, a really good team and they’ve done a really good job on putting pressure on offenses that league.”

Coatney said Ole Miss’ defense has to work on tackling and consistency moving forward.

“We know we can be a great defense,” Coatney said. “We’ve made a lot of improvements but to get to that good to great defense, we have to do everything consistently. So we’re working on consistency right now and making sure we become the defense we want to be.”