OXFORD — Ole Miss’ offensive players had a Sunday morning meeting in the aftermath of Saturday’s 20-17 home loss to Kentucky.
There was no hiding from what happened in a game when the Rebels’ high-powered offense was tamed and the championship-or-bust dreams for this team were pushed a bit closer to the brink. There was talk about what went wrong, wide receiver Cayden Lee said, but the focus was more on how things can be changed for the better moving forward.
“We don’t want that result to happen ever again,” Lee said. “(Quarterback Jaxson Dart) was one of the guys who definitely took it the hardest. He’s the one who made sure we had that meeting Sunday. He kind of led the meeting and talked things over. He’s definitely taking it hard and this week, I feel like he’s got something in store. We’re going to do really good, I feel like.”
The 12th-ranked Rebels (4-0 overall, 0-1 in the Southeastern Conference) travel to South Carolina (3-1, 1-1) for a 2:30 p.m. CDT/3:30 p.m. EDT kickoff at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. The game will be televised on ESPN.
Lee will enter that game No. 2 on the Ole Miss roster in receiving, two catches ahead of former South Carolina star Juice Wells but 33 receptions behind Tre Harris. Against Kentucky, the Rebels offense was very Harris-centric, as Lee (two catches) was the only other Ole Miss player to catch multiple passes.
“Whatever it takes to get the win,” Lee said. “If it takes 10 people to get the ball to win or if takes one person to get the ball for the team to win, as long as we get the win at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter.”
Entering the season, the Rebels’ wide receiver corps was expected to be one of the strengths of the team. Five games in, Harris has emerged as a strong All-American candidate, Lee has been more than capable out of the slot and Wells has been a touchdown machine (four in five games), but distribution of wealth has been a bit of a talking point — especially after the loss to Kentucky.
“One thing I can say about our receiver room, in particular, is no one is just, ‘I want the ball. I want the ball every play.’ We support each other every single time Tre gets the ball, Juice gets the ball, J-Wat gets the ball. We’re just happy for one another. Whenever the ball finds you, you’ve got to be ready for it. That’s just the mindset I took coming into this season and when the play comes your way, you’ve got to make it.
“Saturday is definitely one we wind we could have back, everyone in the building, but I feel like it really just opened our eyes. We’re not the big dogs anymore. We’ve got to get back to the groundwork and go 1-0 every day like what’s been our mindset since the summer. We have to kind of reset and look at things differently.”
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Reunited: Ole Miss linebacker Pooh Paul played for three seasons at Arkansas with South Carolina running back Rocket Sanders.
“That’s my guy,” Paul said of Sanders, who has bounced back from an injury-plagued 2023 with the Razorbacks to rush for 286 yards and four touchdowns on 57 carries with the Gamecocks. “Pretty good dude. Runs hard, runs behind his pads, pretty elusive. Also, they have another running back, Juju McDowell, I know him from high school and played high school ball with him. He’s pretty fast and pretty elusive as well. I feel like we have to go out there, play hard, play fast and hit them first.”
Sanders had an All-SEC season at Arkansas in 2022, so Paul has seen him at his best and knows what to expect Saturday.
“He’s a bigger guy,” Paul said. “He’s got a bigger body. You have to come with your pads and come with your legs.”
Back to Columbia: Walter Nolen has good memories of Williams-Brice Stadium. He was with Texas A&M last October when the Aggies won there, 30-17.
“I love the fans there,” Nolen said. “They really get my hyped. I can’t wait to get there. I feel like I play better in away situations. I really feed off the negative energy a lot of fans give us when we walk into an away stadium.”
