Ole Miss hasn’t missed a beat on offense, even after the Lane Kiffin breakup that shook the sport last season.
Kiffin’s move to LSU came before the Rebels started their College Football Playoff run, and Pete Golding wound up steering the team through the pressure of the moment. Golding got Ole Miss to the national semifinals and was rewarded with the head coaching job this offseason. The bigger question, though, was what would happen when Kiffin and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. were gone from the offense.
So far, the answer has been simple: John David Baker has kept the machine humming.
The Rebels enter the trip to Austin with the ninth-best scoring offense in the country, and quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has pushed himself onto the short list of Heisman Trophy candidates. That is a bad break for a Texas team that has dropped back-to-back games to unranked Oklahoma and Florida and now needs a win to stay in the playoff conversation.
Baker didn’t come in looking to reinvent anything. In fact, he said before the season, “I would say 80% of it is exactly the same that it’s been," Baker said at a press conference before the season.
That approach has held through six games. Ole Miss is still running the Veer-and-Shoot look Kiffin and Weis built, with wide receiver splits stretched wide, tempo that keeps defenses on their heels, and constant stress on the end zone.
Baker was expected by some to lean harder on the run, but that hasn’t happened. The Rebels are passing on 54.11% of their plays, which ranks 22nd nationally, and they’ve got plenty of targets to feed.
Four different pass-catchers already have more than 225 receiving yards.
The spacing in the system keeps creating clean answers for Chambliss. One example from the source play shows how it works: Ole Miss lines up in a 2x2 set on the left hash, with Traylon Ray split past the numbers to the field.
Before the snap, Chambliss motions Kewan Lacy out near Ray, and the Louisville defensive back follows him. That tells Chambliss the Cardinals are sticking with the single-high look they showed pre-snap.
From there, the design does the rest. Chambliss has a single-high beater to the field, with Lacy on a slot fade and Ray on a bender.
Ray becomes the first read if the coverage holds. Louisville is indeed in cover three, so the outside corner has to widen with Lacy’s fade while the defender trailing him settles into a seven-yard hook zone.
That opens a window for Ray’s bender, and after Chambliss checks the center-field safety, he drives the ball to Ray for a big gain. With the formation stretched the way it is, the corner, the defender and the safety are all too far away to make a play.
Texas does bring a real defensive challenge, even after the Florida loss. Will Muschamp’s unit ranks seventh in the country in yards per game allowed, second in yards per play and has surrendered just eight touchdowns in six games.
The Longhorns have already seen two Veer-and-Shoot offenses, and both Texas State and Tennessee were held to a combined 17 points. Muschamp used different answers in those games, leaning on his run-stopping fronts against Texas State and getting more creative with the pass rush against Tennessee.
He’ll need another wrinkle here, but the base idea won’t change. Texas has to slow the run from light boxes on early downs so it can stay in two-high coverage and attack more aggressively on the back end.
If the Longhorns can do that, and if Muschamp’s added adjustment holds up, they’ve got a path to steady their season and keep their playoff hopes alive.
In Other News...
Texas Fans Finally Got Clarity On That Costly Fourth Down
When Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte talked about the Longhorns recent loss to Florida, one detail drew plenty of attention: the fourth-and-2 call that became a flashpoint afterward. Del Conte cleared up the confusion by saying the AI-driven Bevo Lab platform was not actually behind that decision, explaining that he had used the play as an example of the kind of suggestion the system could provide rather than something it specifically dictated.
Bevo Lab remains Texas sports intelligence platform, part of the programs push to fold more data and analytics into decision-making. Even with the recent losses piling up, Del Conte said he is not panicking and still expects a lot from the Longhorns, which is the standard at Texas whether the questions are about game management or the broader direction of the program. [Read more 🡒]
Pete Golding Sees A Different Problem In Texas' Offense
Texas offense has spent much of the season drawing scrutiny for the stops and starts that have kept it from looking as smooth as expected, but Ole Miss coach Pete Golding offered a different read on the situation. He pointed to more than just playcalling or execution, noting the kinds of small losses that can snowball over a game and across a season, including dropped passes and missed chances that have changed the feel of drives.
Golding also acknowledged the obvious flaws, from trouble getting the running game established to the pressure that has been on Arch Manning, while still framing the Longhorns as a team with plenty of talent and coaching. The bigger question, though, is whether Texas offensive issues are mostly a matter of tightening up the details or if the larger problem runs deeper than the recent numbers suggest. [Read more 🡒]
Austin Got A Texas Showdown Fans Wont Stop Talking About
Austin got a rare NBA spotlight at the Moody Center, and the exhibition-like feel of the setting did nothing to blunt the stakes when the Rockets and Spurs turned it into a tight finish. Houston came away with a 114-110 win, a result that felt notable not just because it was played in Austin, but because both teams are viewed as legitimate Western Conference contenders and played like it down the stretch.
Kevin Durant led Houston with a strong performance, while the late sequence belonged to Amen Thompson after he blocked Victor Wembanyamas last-second shot attempt to seal it. For Texas fans, it was the kind of matchup that fed the old in-state rivalry energy in a new arena, and the kind of ending that will keep people talking long after the final horn. [Read more 🡒]