No. 9 Ole Miss took a rough loss to No.
8 Florida over the weekend, and the bye week has given Pete Golding and his staff time to pick through what went wrong. The defense is the obvious place to start, but one offensive wrinkle from Saturday stands out just as much: Traylon Ray barely got involved.
That was a sharp turn from the Magnolia Bowl, when Ray torched No. 7 LSU for 115 yards and a touchdown on seven catches.
Against Florida, he finished with just two receptions for 17 yards. The difference in usage was immediate.
Ray saw only one target in the first quarter, and Laganza Hayward broke it up. His catches didn’t come until the third quarter, first on a two-yard grab on second-and-seven and then on a 15-yard conversion on third-and-five.
Ray has become an important part of the Rebels’ offense, so the quiet afternoon was hard to miss. But the explanation isn’t really about Ray himself.
Ole Miss just couldn’t get the offense rolling in the first half. Deuce Alexander had only two catches for 28 yards, and the Rebels managed just six points, both field goals.
Everything changed after that. In the second half, Alexander caught five passes for 106 yards and a touchdown, and Ole Miss put up 22 points.
Ray has already said John David Baker tends to ride the players who are hot. “If you're hot, he's gonna let you be hot,” Ray said in a postgame interview after LSU. That makes Alexander’s surge the likeliest reason Ray’s numbers dipped so sharply against Florida.
The bigger question is what Ray’s two-game swing says about where he fits in the receiver room. The answer is that he can absolutely be a featured piece, because he’s already shown it.
The challenge now is landing somewhere between the LSU outburst and the Florida quiet. No one is going to top 100 yards every week, but Ray’s value is going to come from consistency.
That balance will go a long way toward defining his season.
Ole Miss and Vanderbilt are scheduled to kick off on October 10th at 2:30 p.m. CDT, with the game set for ESPN.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Took A National Stage Loss Fans Wont Easily Ignore
Saturdays SEC showcase on ESPN ended up being a mixed bag for the league, but the loss that stung most for Ole Miss came in the kind of spotlight the Rebels do not get to control very often. Floridas win over Ole Miss was part of a high-profile Week 4 slate that also included Texas taking down Tennessee and LSU knocking off Texas A&M, with all three ABC telecasts drawing strong numbers and Texas-Tennessee delivering ESPN networks highest-rated noon kickoff in a decade.
For Ole Miss, the on-field result came with the added frustration of seeing another conference opponent seize the national conversation. The Rebels were already in the middle of a crowded Week 4 window that produced plenty of attention for the SEC, and now they have to sit with a result that landed in front of a big audience. Week 5 brings another round of league-heavy television inventory, including Alabama at Mississippi State, Tennessee against Auburn, Missouri at Florida, and Clemson hosting Miami in primetime, but Ole Miss will have to wait for its next chance to turn a national stage into something more memorable. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Offense Has One Urgent Fix Coming Out Of The Bye
After a blowout loss to Florida, Ole Miss has spent the bye week doing what every team hopes a midseason pause will allow: taking a hard look at what went wrong and resetting before the next stretch of games. For the Rebels, the biggest concern on offense has been getting out of the gate cleaner and finding better rhythm up front, where the line has been pushed to tighten its cohesion and set a stronger tone early.
Senior right guard Patrick Kutas said the loss should stay with the team as motivation, not something to shrug off once the schedule resumes. For Ole Miss, the challenge now is turning that frustration into sharper starts and steadier execution, because the bye only matters if the problems it exposed lead to real improvement when the Rebels line up again. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Has A New National QB Talking Point Fans Will Love
Bill Connellys latest quarterback rankings gave the SEC plenty of room to boast, with five league passers landing in the top 12 and a broader national conversation that will catch Ole Miss fans attention. ESPNs analyst put Miamis Darian Mensah at the top of the Power 4 group, but the Southeastern footprint in the list was hard to miss, especially with names like Trinidad Chambliss, Kamario Taylor, Keelon Russell, Gunner Stockton and Aaron Philo all drawing notice.
For Rebels followers, the most interesting part is the way the leagues quarterback discussion is shifting around young talent and fast-rising production. Kamario Taylors jump was singled out as a major improvement, and with Alabama and Mississippi State set to meet soon, the SECs quarterback hierarchy is likely to keep getting shuffled in real time. Ole Miss may not be the center of this particular ranking, but it is exactly the kind of national QB chatter that tends to matter in Oxford. [Read more 🡒]