Pete's Pigskin Preview, presented by Meadowbrook Wealth Advisors: MTSU at Ole Miss

welcome into another edition of Pete's pigskin preview presented by metab Brook Wealth Advisors of Raymond James I'm Neil mccrady that is mpw digital football expert Pete deise getting ready for week two on the ol Miss schedule the uh Rebels still ranked number six in the Associated Press poll now up to number five in the coaches poll are at home again this week after a 76 to nothing win over Ferman they play Middle Tennessee State it's a 3:15 p.m game you can see it on the SEC network if you're not in Vault Hemingway Stadium we'll get to that game we'll talk about the rebels Pete's going to uh show some film from last week's uh annihilation of um of Ferman a team that despite being down eight touchdowns still ran Tempo which upset Yours Truly quite a bit as the night grew longer and longer but we won't delve too much into that because that's a me problem that's not a you problem so we'll we'll talk about what the rebels did and looked like but first I want to tell you that we're brought to you by Meadowbrook wealth advisers of Raymond James it's a full service investment team based in Jackson Mississippi providing Financial Planning and investment management to clients across the state and surrounding areas Ryan giri and his partners are a local team that utilize the strength and resources of a national firm to bring their clients impeccable levels of service this includes uh access to investment strategies and portfolio managers not available to all investors if you are interested in a no obligation consultation or just want to be added to their monthly market update email list reach out to financial adviser Ryan giri with Meadowbrook Wealth Advisors of Raymond James it's 601 36822 one5 or Ryan that's r y n. giri GE a y at raymondjames.com Raymond James and Associates Incorporated member New York Stock Exchange sic Pete how are you sir I'm doing well how are you I am good um I was asking you this earlier is there a lot you can take away from a 76 to nothing SEC win over a u FCS opponent I mean I I've had people ask me like what do you what do you what do you take from that I'm like I don't know not much except om Miss looked really really good that's the what struck me was they looked like an elite team handling an FCS team I don't know that you can draw a hell of a lot more than that but you're much more of a football guy than I am so feel free to tell me I'm an idiot not not an idiot um you know there was there was very little cause for concern there's a play or two here or there and it's the things that are going to happen early in the season and if if you are um you know if you're one of the people that was concerned about how old Miss would look coming out of the kind of non-traditional Camp setting where you know it is it looked like El Miss maybe wasn't as physical as as a lot of teams or at least as a lot of people or kind of what they have in their head of what that camp process looks like knowing just from practice reports at least it appears that sometimes it almost appeared like guys were on a rotation where hey this guy's gonna be no contact today and it's about keeping them fresh and and you know there were signs of a little bit of that and that's going to happen um it certainly wasn't egregious it wasn't all too um but but there were some some little things uh you saw continuity on the offensive line a couple times where they're not in midseason form and part of that is maybe being down a couple of bodies um well they went through most of the preseason camp with uh Scott and Warren one of them at least being in the lineup and sometimes two of them being in the lineup and suddenly they both out of the lineup they went through most of the preseason camp with Jeremy James not working as a starter and suddenly he's working as a starter and then you throw in the two guys from Washington who both missed the first few practices of Camp because of various ailments and yeah there was some continuity stuff up front and you know this as a offensive guy offensive lines it's it's kind of like a kind of like a a a recipe a little bit you have to have all the ingredients and you sometimes have to put the ingredients in in a certain order you can't just it's not always a dump and and bake right no I absolutely I mean you know when you're when you're working a combo or a double team in theory the technique is the technique but you also learn who you're working with and you know their strengths their weaknesses you know who needs more help and and when you kind of take some of that continuity away some of that stuff gets you know can be a little hairy but and I I will say this and it's it's the one thing I will say about om miss playing Ferman is in no way shape or form was firm and a static defense they were very active there was a lot of movement they were somewhat aggressive and exotic and in some of the pressures and so there were times you know if they just lined up and played the Bas front and kept things very simple um and and om Miss had struggled there's concern um om miss having some plays they would like back versus a group that is outmatched and outmanned but at the same time as as firing live bullets and and not being static but but really moving and trying to create problems and and still finding some success despite the lack of continuity and with it being first game in and there's some other things that you know I mean so much what ol Miss likes to do in the Run game is about Jackson Dart and his ability to run the football and they limited that uh you know only a couple of times was that part of the equation in the Run game um you know I'm sure there were a couple of people that held the held their breath when oh miss was up several scores and all of a sudden dart's keeping the ball um yeah there was one there was one kind of a tall slender guy that wears a visor that I was watching at the time that that had a little mini coronary on on the play where Dart decided that despite the fact that the rebels were up 50 plus that he was going to jump over a linebacker that was that was not a that was not a moment that that particular person in enjoy that much no that no I I you know and and look they're they're calling the game like that not just because they want to protect him but I think to some degree because we talked about it last week the kid is the ultimate competitor and and you almost had to protect him from himself yeah in some regards right and and that's that's meant in the most positive ways yeah possible I think he would tell you that oh I yeah I I absolutely you know from what I again from what I can tell but no I mean I you know defensively um sure there were a couple maybe busting coverage um and and some of that again it's about continuity right um but but for the most part from the way that that Miss fit the and and Miss should look fast against Ferman but there was evident speed on the field defensively even when they went to the twos there was speed on the field um and and speed is always always a recipe for success in the SEC yeah I think that's a really good point and I think it's the one thing that when people like what did you take away the thing that I took away and I'd already seen this in practice but sometimes sometimes you can't really tell in practice especially when you're only seeing and this isn't complaining about access or whatnot but you only see the same three periods every practice so the practices after you've been to a couple of them they're all the same right you're just calling role you think you know what you see but you sometimes you don't know until you see it on a game film or game field I should say um the there's just more depth they they have more players who can be impactful um well and and Def line especially it comes to my defensive line wide receiver there's just more guys who can impact the football game than than Old Miss typically has no no question and you know from the Georgia game on that there's been a lot of time talked about Old Miss added size and we talked about it last week we they became a bigger football team and that's evident when you look at the backup defensive line when that when that group of twos rolled in the the drop off from a size standpoint was almost non-existent um but I I I do think when they got bigger but they got faster at the same time yeah and and and that's that's that's a good combination and obviously it's that offense wasn't the ultimate test and not what they're going to see moving forward in this season but you saw what you needed to see you saw guys reacting reading Keys playing fast um controlling the line of scrimmage and we saw some of the things that we talked about last week where you know you can't double team everybody in that front and and somebody's got a chance to win and we saw you know uh we saw different players flash at times and make some plays you know because they were the guy that got soloed um and and they handled it the way that you need them to handle it and they controlled the line of scrimmage and got in the back field Pete whenever you're ready take it away yeah so um you know I I I put it out there uh talking to some guys or put put it out there I guess on the message board today to see if there's anything specific anybody wanted to talk about um or or to kind of see us highlight tonight so I thought I would hit with some good some bad um kind of answer some of the things that that people ask to see um and there's a few things that just as I watched that I I thought were worth kind of of showcasing so one thing we talked about last year is damn every game oh miss started off with some type of a sale concept where the outside receiver was either going to push vertically to the post the inside receiver was going to be on this deep out route and off of protection somebody was going to end up in the flat and they were going to layer the defense with this high to low and more times than not it was oh miss hitting Watkins on the sideline for this cell route and so I thought it was interesting that no different than so many games last year that's how Miss chose to start the game again this year now I would imagine for some people uh that that you know maybe had not enjoyed themselves too much in the Grove and might have been sobered up by the rain after play one there might have been the slightest concern because you get pressure and you see a sack on on on play one and we'll kind of talk about it but but you can see it I mean they they come out and they they get what they want Ferman actually drops underneath it and they get a little bit of Collision on Kaden Lee in the slot right there but you see the receiver at the bottom of the screen I think it's Trey Harris he's pushing off the corner you get the slot is working to the boundary right there and it would have been a tough throw but you know and and dart chooses real quickly to go backside because he feels like 44 is getting underneath his route I think he also feels the pressure and as I go to the end zone here you know looking at the approach that M took to Spring you know there are going to be times where you know things aren't maybe as clean as you want so like if if you watch here again we've talked about the continuity on the front if you watch the defense they are all going to slant and they are going to stunt so 39 right here is responsible they're going to bring four off the edge and they're going to slant everybody and if the running back were to step up and work this way 39 is probably going to take him but because the back goes away he's going to pass him off and now he's going to activate into the rush and having some to it go ahead I'm sorry well you can see cppo here he's gonna step to the center he's gonna he's going to read 39 and when 39 is still he FS zero and he's going to bang back out into the end as the left tackle passes off zero and 39 goes to Loop they're going to swap that off they handle that really well the center does a nice job of understanding he has the nose if the nose were to cross back face he has no help so he stays Square on him what you see here in this scenar is you see presc scorn probably get a little too much depth and he goes out to number four instead of letting four come to him and protecting his inside so he kind of gives a two-way go to number four who chooses to get into a bull rush if if prescor steps up and takes away the inside he forces four around and this is probably a clean pocket where Dart has a chance to get rid of the ball comfortably because he gives up the inside leverage and gives up his inside hip on the bull rush Dart forced to step up and the play goes down as a as a sack or it may have been a one yard loss no loss so you know out the gate this is maybe one of those places where okay you wonder you know just from a technique standpoint maybe um you know if if you put 86 in the position enough to take that Defender off the edge and I'm sure the way old miss defense plays he's seen that look 50 times in Camp but it just it always comes back to technique right here he's got to do a better job of protecting his inside okay couple plays later the next play Miss gets into one of the most interesting run schemes I've have seen since Lane kein has been here okay so they're going to execute a Wham play so they are going to leave this nose who's shaded unblocked and they are going to bring 86 is going to come across and he is going to look to kick out that nose as the center steps to the right of the offense if the nose gets in his hip pocket he is going to come around and he is going to log instead of trapping that nose Okay and then what's interesting to me is the way they choose to handle it here on the left side of the offensive line typically if you were running some type of a Zone scheme all of these guys would be moving in the same direction and what they're actually going to do here is they're going to take the left tackle he is going to work up to build the wall on number four right here and they're going to take 71 he is going to go behind him almost like a pass play like a pass set and then he is going to trap the end so they're trying to get flow this Direction let the center take 39 and then try to kick or log the nose and crease the ball right here okay the pressure for Ferman ends up just the way that they stunt ends up helping them just a little bit they have this extra defender in the Box and what DART really has to see here is you know you have six blockers as an offense and you have seven defenders in the Box as a defense and we talked last week about math right and if you were to go back to the wide copy and you look at it he has a screen up top where he has two over two and one of those Defenders is almost 12 yards off the ball Jackson probably should have thrown this ball out there unless for some reason they told told him that the give was automatic because you can see as the Run scheme plays out they can get to 39 but they can't get to number four in the Run scheme right here so number four goes unblocked and he's the player that makes the play if four is out in the pass fit you have a great scheme right here and you get exactly what you want for that ball to spit and be on the safety and and you know I don't think om Miss had great success running the ball on Saturday I think they would probably tell you they weren't overly pleased with that more often than not Ferman did a good job of finding the extra hat to get into the box now we saw Old Miss throw the RPO several times out there and have a lot of success doing it there were probably some times where Old Miss would like to have seen kefin or excuse me seen Dart be a little bit more consistent recognition wise of getting the ball out in space but that's also me looking at not knowing when they've told him hey we're showing the look out there but reality is we're forcing you to hand this ball off I don't know when he's live when he's not you know kind of some of those decisions so I thought this was a really interesting uh scheme in the run you know for R Miss in the Run game it's the only time I saw it during the game I'm curious to see if it's something that that we continue to see moving forward now the other just hang with receivers go ahead we're just having we're having just letting the listener know in case they're listening we're just having a little connectivity issue here and there but go ahead sorry guys I I I'm not sure what's going on with the connectivity but you know WHL Miss might not have been great in the Run game they were really really good in the passing game and there were times where I felt like watching the game and again watching the replay That Old Miss was intentionally trying to get specific players the ball down the field they wanted to put on tape that they have multiple guys that are capable of making plays down the field they wanted to put on tape that they can attack you from a lot of different ways and they really do a nice job of one here okay so om Miss we're second and in medium here you're looking at a second and six they are going to take Tak first drive of the game they are going to take the outside receiver and they're going to run him vertical and his whole job is to clear the corner out of the zone is that aen Williams at the top uh I believe it is it's hard to see the numbers on this at the start of this clip yeah they're gonna take the slot here who's Kaden Lee and he is going to work a post through the inside of this safety okay if this safety were to rotate down and he were to rotate back and cover three he going to cross the face of this safety and he is going to be open all right if they stay too high and this safety gets dep he is going to cross face and try to force him to carry him they're going to take prescor here from from this winning position and he is going to work this cell route towards this corner so now when your outside receiver vacates and and uh you know clears out the Zone from the the cornerback and when Kaden Lee pulls the safety you're opening up this void that a flat player is not going to be deep enough that if prescor will run to grass and dart will throw him the grass a lot of opening they're going to take the single receiver down here at the bottom and he's going to go check up over the ball with a goal of holding these backers so that if the if the post route has to be flat because the safety's rotate now you hold the backers and you open up a window for Kaden Lee right behind them so you'll see here what happens as it plays out you get the clear out up top the safeties don't rotate they actually poach from the backside so what that means is as he goes inside he is reading number three and his number three Works vertical he is looking to catch anything that comes back across to him so instead of this safety getting depth he's going to stay low and look for any type of dig route any type of Crossing route comes back his way that means to the field we have to play with depth so as Caden Le attacks vertical you can see he bends it knowing right now I've crossed this safety's face this guy's got me we're clearing things out on the outside and you can see the void that's now being created for prorn and his angle of departure being tall and not being flat out of his break is going to keep him from allowing this Defender to tuck underneath so as the play continues to run there's the void stay tall and it's a good throw by Dart and it it is a great job you know in the NFL a lot of times you'll hear guys refer to what we see up top and again I do think that is Williams but we see that referred to as What's called the soldier route you're sacrificing yourself for somebody else his job is to run through that corner and lift him out of there if that corner were to come off any earlier he's got a chance to make a play but he has to respect the full speed vertical nature of the route he can't come off of it early and there's the dime right there drop it right in the window for a big play on the second down to get Old Miss down now in the Red Zone okay the very next play oh miss gets into Tempo okay and now you're looking at you know a quarterback with awareness of the system and an understanding of what's going on so they're going to push again you're going to get this out outside vertical his job is to clear everything out they're going to motion this running back out to the flat and prescor is going to run this stick route if this Defender leaves to take the running back you are trying to replace him with the football before the mic or the safety can react to the stick route what you see happening with the motion is you see multiple Defenders start to move with the back and that now gives him essentially a two on two backside because of how deep this boundary safety is so they're going to push juice Wells is going to push vertical into a dig route Kaden Lee is going to release inside right at this backer he's going to sit down if there's a window he's going to stay open if that backer is on his hip he's going to expand to the outside to pull that backer and open up a bigger window here again you see as the motion develops you you see the defense they're going to check to the sideline whatever there's the motion the Mike blitzes the will linebacker everybody pushes they're rotating cover three to the field he knows as soon as he sees the pressure and that will backer here start to drop he knows he's got a true two on two between 44 and this corner there's the rotation from the the boundary safety so Kaden Lee's going to run right at 44 sit in his lap that opens up the window right there between 44 and 20 there's the ball on time for an easy gain and when you've got explosive receivers and I think I said that was juice Williams or juice Wells and that's actually Trey Harris but there it is on time easy and he's always got a chance to make a guy Miss in space so nice maturation you know it's a good job by Dart he sees everything happening defensively finds his easy window right there ball is out in Rhythm it's an accurate throw and one of your best Playmakers is now in space uh with the football okay uh skipping forward coming back to uh to to the next drive go back to my wide cop here okay so om Miss is going to attack vertical right here all right getting into something very similar to to what we showed you how they actually started the game and I wanted to show this because in the offseason I I remember just seeing some things and hearing some things of people talking about Jackson Dart and his future what does the NFL hold for him and people talk about a big arm and what that looks like and a lot of times people think is the big arm is at the post is is it the fade ball and and it really hidden a lot of times you know I mean Joe Milton can throw the ball 90 yards that doesn't mean that that he's always going to be a great quarterback right right making Crossfield throw to the outside in rhythm with pace is such a big indicator for an NFL arm so if you watch this oh miss is going to push everyone vertical and you going to see Caden Lee is going to attack and stem this corner and then he is going to break into a deep out route and Jackson Dart is almost on the right hash so you're kind of right middle here from a field position standpoint ball is on the minus 10 yard line okay he's going to let this ball go from the from the four yard line and he is gonna put this thing with good Pace in Rhythm outside the opposite numbers where that ball is now caught on the 33 yard line yeah he throws it 29 yards in terms of length but it's further than that yeah yeah yeah I mean I'm not a math guy right but you start factoring in the angles I mean that that is a hell of a throw in Rhythm and and the thing about Kaden Lee and I say this as somebody that was familiar with Kaden as a high school player and I think last year it was about getting his body ready and a little bit of his mind and we saw that kid have a lot of success in the Peach Bowl one thing he has always been is a really natural route Runner he understands how to stem people so he gets this corner that is off and they're showing rotation so there they are they're rotating to cover three right now they're bringing pressure from the field um you know Parish does a decent job of picking it up and Kaden is gonna get in the window he's gonna show the post right now that corner is thinking protect the post protect the post and then watch Kaden stem the post here and then boom get out of his break back to the sideline with good body control to make that catch it's a great route on the outside by Kaden Lee it is a well thrown ball in Rhythm from Jackson Dart and and if ol Miss can complete these types of passes against top tier defenses they're going to be very difficult to defend because that is a a highlevel throw it is a highlevel route that's not a 10 yard comeback route it's not a 10 yard out route that is a Deep Cell route by an outside receiver that gives you a good post stem and with a guy like Welles or Harris in the slot on this particular clip they are going to occupy eyes and they are going to cause problems for a defense okay another really clean throw and then this you know big touchdown pass from Dart here uh really well thrown ball okay they do a great job again they're so versatile right now in that wide receiver room so down here to the bottom they're going to work the vertical the little stutter move with Harris and if this corner down here at the bottom had been any tighter they probably take that go ball on the stutter to Harris with the corner being so far off Dart quickly now boom he gets his eyes backside now because he knows from a leverage standpoint the hitch and go is not there so on the top of the screen to the short side of the field they run a switch double post so the slot receiver is going to spray release so he's going to release outside and attack The Leverage of that corner and at the top of his route he is then going to get to the post and he is going to stay tall and what they're trying to do now is isolate this safety you have leveraged the corner with your stem so now when when Kaden Lee comes underneath and breaks on his flat post you're just high low in the safety if the safety is down you're Over the Top If the safety plays with depth you have Kaden Lee now on this underneath post so you can see boom a lot of people use the term that Kaden gets in his wake he gets behind him right there you get the outside release by the slot receiver now as Kaden goes to bend it there's the safety safety is flat footed right now he is down the corner is out lever the receiver with his release top on the post the ball just has to be thrown inside and you know Wells doesn't have to wait very much on that ball it is in Rhythm it is pushed down the field the pocket is clean and it's absolutely an explosive for Miss so Ferman is Ferman is Ferman and manto man there they're not really are they so what what they're trying to play right here trying reason the reason I asked is that someone was asking about Ferman was just playing manto man and and that person would know a hell of a lot more about defense than me but I was watching from the Press Box and I didn't think it was as simple as them playing manto man so so they're playing they're they're playing a version of palms or or Quarters here right so that safety when number when number two goes outside so when he sees Wells expand and now he's responsible for the new number two which is Kad Lee that's come underneath once Kaden Lee pushes a certain vertical Landmark I've got him right once he clears those backers he's essentially mine it is a Zone principle that turns into a match or man principle once routes declare past a certain depth is it straight up manto man under no circumstances but it plays out that way from a responsibility standpoint once routes declare past a certain depth yeah I just I I don't know I didn't make a big deal out of it but it was like one of those things where the the question was asked in almost this condescending manner about Ferman I mean Ferman had to like sort of pick some poison right and and in this case they they weren't going to go out there and go hey we're going to go manto man with these SEC wide receivers they were trying to do different things they just they a they could didn't have the Personnel to do it and B old Miss's offense is really well tuned and they have a third-year quarterback that knows exactly what he's looking for and so he picked it apart well and listen if Ferman would have come out and said we're just going to drop eight and keep everybody deep the whole game oh miss would have thrown the ball underneath and ran the football and it still would have gotten ugly right I I think ultimately I think they made the decision that we're going to go be aggressive you know we are the underdog we know that so we're just going to go fight and we're gonna throw everything at you and we're g to play our game and we're going to see how it plays out yeah you got a cup of cyanide here and a cup of cyanide here you're picking which one you want to drink and and look if you're Ferman and you decide to step out of your character and out of what you want your identity to be and you still don't win the football game which they knew was unlikely to happen what have you done to make your team better so you're going to go do what you do you're going to go play what you play and and and that's how you're going to evaluate your kids on their ability to execute what you need them to execute to win in your league because they're not seeing this team in the Southern Conference no it's not happen absolutely right but at the same time if I can play that front with that pressure and that coverage and have some success against do miss then I feel really good about what that's going to look like against UT Chattanooga yeah that's that is their approach yeah that lets them evaluate their kids Sanford doesn't have a Trey Harris they do not under no circumstances right um you know moving forward another sack in the game right here and and I think this is one of those that that when you talk about from a continuity standpoint so miss is going to flash the back across they're going to lock Pettis on this side and because it is an odd front and you'll see 52 or uh the Right Guard actually Taps his hip right there he's telling you he's stepping down into a gap so he's really thinking these two guys so what happens right here as he goes to slide the nose comes to him okay the center nose nose just went away he is looking for something here and he overs sets to take it and I don't know if he thinks that the back is going to be responsible for 39 or if he just completely overs sets looking for something coming inside but when he overs sets by the time he realizes it and comes back underneath excuse me hit the wrong button and comes back underneath he now gets somebody late in his face and the mic just comes absolutely free okay it is a good job by Ferman it is a good job by 39 of being patient and it times up where 39 is here at the same time that 44 is working his stick inside and now because you know in a perfect world if you're old Miss what you want to happen here is as you pass things off you want 50 to trigger back inside onto this guy and as 71 feels the pressure from 50 that tells him the loop is coming where he should now take that and you want 50 CH to stay more square and hopefully see this to be able to slam back on it they miss it here it's a Well time pressure and there's the sack no Miss gets bailed out a little bit by the penalty but these are the little things that you need to clean up if you're old Miss um you know going back to and and I've I've already kind of raved on the kid a little bit tonight but I think we know the role that that Watkins has played in this offense in the last couple years and the versatility he's he's shown the fact that they feel like they can do so many of the same things with Kaden Lee really should make you feel good again about depth he's a more explosive Jordan Watkins in in a lot of ways I think you could absolutely argue that and so this was one of the things that I saw that made me really appreciate Kaden in this game so old Miss is GNA run a Duo concept where they are going to build as many front side combos as they can and they are going to feather out this backside and they're actually going to bring Kaden Lee across backer fits in he's gon to try to hug off of these Combos and spit the ball right on the outside if 39 were to fit outside the running back is going to try to keep it inside and now cut off of his Combos and we've seen om Miss use receivers to do similar things in the past but to show here that Kaden Lee can come across and you'll see here come the combos on the front side there comes 19 across right there build the wall there's the cut for the tail back and you can see it doesn't have to be a kill shot it has to be enough and he clearly shows he is willing to do enough and the fact that he can do that now gives you the cut and is able to help spring the running back for the next big play and that's such a little thing but from a football nerd standpoint from an offensive coordinator standpoint those are the things that the more I can get guys to buy in and do little things like that the more explosive it potentially makes me because it just gives me so much flexibility and freedom well you know this you're from Georgia but he's a remarkably smart kid good kid uh team player has a lot of football IQ and is also exceptionally athletic I mean there he's kind of the whole package he you know and I'll just side note here and I honestly don't know I need to go back and actually look at the counts but one of his absolute best friends in this world plays for Ferman and I I actually I'm curious to now know if Jaylen Mosen was dressing for Ferman and if he traveled with the group he's a one of their young defensive backs but I was asked to show the prescore and long touchdown right here okay and so one thing Miss does a ton of and it is an absolute staple is they run a ton of Y cross so your backside you're going to be over under and you're climbing on the cross and this backside guy has a dig but he's going to ultimately find the window and be friendly to the quarterback they're going to fake it to the tailback here who if he doesn't get protection responsibility is going to end up in the flat creating a little high low on the on the flat defender on the front side of the concept they will dress it up a hundred different ways they will run a traditional smash concept which we saw in the game they will run a vertical with the five yard out which is kind of the original way that it's the way a lot of aade teams have run this play it's the way Norm Chow going back in the west coast days have run this play a lot of teams now will actually push that to a 10 yard out route and what you're really trying to do is kind of yes no the front side if I get a chance for a two on two or a one-on-one matchup it's a very easy read and if I don't get a two on two if I'm outnumbered if something gets cloudy I'm GNA scan backside so my first read is to the short side here my second read my third guy and then I get my tail back down here in the checkdown so oh miss at this point in the game has thrown several screens to the boundary so what they're going to do right here is they're going to show the screen to juice Wells prescor is going to break down and show the screen and wait on number five to trigger and when he does he's going to release down the flat or down the sideline okay if this safety is sound he's going to expand to be over the top of this when the corner crashes and that in theory is going to open up the crossing route from the backside if that corner stays on the hash and five does attack the screen that's when you get the big play down the field to whoever is bluffing in this case that is prescor right here it honestly looks like this safety is confused or this guy is confused this safety rotates almost as if he's expecting be some type of cover three principle but the corner attacks like he's expecting cover two help over the top that's why you play with Tempo it's why you show all these multiple looks so you'll see right here is presc scoring comes down five attacks as if he's got help over the top but 22 the boundary safety has turned his butt to the sideline and is working to the field so as soon as pres scoring Throttle Down Show Hips show Numbers Show Low hands soon as five attacks prescores down the side Line DART sees it so does everybody on on on the sidelines now I'm going to get on the coach Soap Box really quickly and probably talk about my absolute favorite thing from Saturday Jackson Dart got pulled out of the game and at no point in the game was he disengaged defense on the field offense on the field didn't matter he was always there supporting somebody and he wasn't the only one I saw doing it juice Wells could have gone a lot of places and he was going to get paid to go a lot of money wherever he choose chose to go look at his Joy he knows what's happened right now and throws his hands up he is fired up about it this is a game that at this point Old Miss is already blowing out fman and we saw and we heard from some things going into the season about how close knit this group is that shows up when guys don't have the ball and they're not on the field and that's not me like saying oh this means Miss is going to do this or they're going to achieve that of course but you have to like from the standpoint of you know and you see on the sidelines look at how many hands go up they know it right now there's four hands on the sidelines up in the air and not counting kein and there's another one down here and then here's Wales celebrating and and you know seeing the engagement in those blowout situations where it's very easy for guys to be distracted but seeing the you know it's a it's a maturity standpoint absolutely it's a maturity thing yeah you know and and so it's the whole we've had some fun with it right the whole last dance thing and what does that mean and it's kind of there's a lot there but you've got guys like juice Wells and look the South Carolina games coming and it's going to be a storyline and I asked him about it this week and um if we get him again that week and I hope we do I'll ask him more about it because guys have said things and he left and there was some mixed opinion there as to whether he could have played or whatnot but I think if you listen to some of the answers from guys like Prince leaman Meen Walter Nolan um decoin Wright juice Wells others uh they there's a there's a in their opinion at least we'll find out over the course of time there's there's a culture that Lan kein Jackson Dart others JJ Pages have built that Old Mist that doesn't exist everywhere else now does that culture survive adversity we'll find out I mean like I thought Jackson dart's comment a couple weeks ago I was like hey you know what are you kind of looking forward to and he said I'm looking forward to adversity you know preseason camp you can generate some adversity but you know this Pete it's not real I mean it's it's it's artificial and so at some point I don't know if it's Kentucky I don't know if it's LSU I don't know if it's Oklahoma I don't know if it's you know um it will be Georgia Jesus um is you know there there will but at some point adversity will come and you'll find out just how Much Chemistry you truly have and so we'll we'll find out over the course of time but given where we are in the schedule right now I agree with you I thought there were some real signs I mean there was a zero% chance ol Miss was losing to Ferman zero it was never happening those two teams could play each other a hundred times Ferman would not win once everybody knew it and for them to still show up and play with that level of maturity and and stuff uh I I thought you could take that from it now they've got to turn around as as Lane said hey they beat Mercer last year 70 something to nothing and turned around the next week and Y and T Lane was iffy was good t l was good middle Tennessee is not going to beat Old Miss but can you repeat that same intensity can you do it again at Wake Forest who sucks can you do it against Georgia Southern who's not particularly a threat to you you know there's we'll find out over the course of time but I agree with you completely I thought there were some phenomenal signs on on Saturday in terms of kind of this team indeed being as team focused as goal focused as they talk about yeah that that was there was a point in the game where that's all I was watching I wasn't watching anything else it was it was what are the interactions like on the sideline who's where who's engaged um I've spent way more time on offense than I really intended to but I wanted to show this clip somebody asked me to talk about 12p because we talked about it last week and we did see two tight ends on the field at the same time for Miss and one of the things I talked about last week was you have to make a decision as a defense when there's two tight ends in the game and they're creating extra gaps how am I going to play it and we talked about how it can create one-on-one matchups for receivers this clip I I I'm gonna pretend that one of the young analysts watched this show last Thursday or Friday and Lane gave them a call late in the game and this is what they chose because they wanted to look good Neil So Right Here Old Miss put tight ends in the game it's definitely what happened right yeah for sure they put two tight ends in the game this is a you know down in the red zone and they're getting into a Duo scheme just a heavy downhill scheme Jackson Dart knows he is responsible for this backside safety he is GNA read that safety and as soon as that safety fits the box that is a one-on-one matchup with one of the best receivers in the country and you were going to have to be really good at corner to win that effectively multiple times over the course of a game and right here it it's stealing you see dart's eyes he's in the mesh the safety is downhill right now there it is easy pitch and catch walk-in touchdown like this is a solely this is two tight ends on the field creating a one-on-one matchup for an explosive player with a very simple RPO read for the quarterback it couldn't get much easier and so just a a really clean example of why you may see and you see if oh miss hands this ball off he's got a chance to to potentially you know if he makes one guy miss the extra guy that they can't account for he's got a place to score you know to spit and potentially score so just I think you'll continue to see more of that when Miss wants to see it so I'm going to try to move a little bit quicker right here um just kind of looking at this old miss defense you know one thing that that again speed size versatility all right and and I'm still figuring this roster out but one of the things that I loved about the way that they played defense the other night is they played with three safeties on the field and based on the alignment of the ball it dictated where the alignment was so in this case balls on the right hash for the offense left hash for the defense defense so you get 28 is down playing as the star he's playing as the nickel when the ball kicks over to the opposite hash 28 backs up he moves over and now five comes down the fact that you have that amount of Versatility and again it's firing will it look the same versus Auburn or Al whoever on the SEC schedule but the fact that you have the versatility for both of these safeties to play Down but also rotate back and play a deep path gives you so much that you can do on the back end as a coordinator it really gives you a lot of freedom lets you get into a lot of different looks having Corners that you trust to be here impr press regardless of opponent is always such a big thing okay I'm going to kick to the end zone real quickly and show this all right so oh miss from a fit standpoint they just continue to get better and better um you know here so what they're going to do is they're essentially gonna take the inside gaps and they are going to try and occupy them with the defensive line both linebackers here know that they're going to be responsible for C Gap instead of taking this wide player here and trying to get him inside the B they're inviting him now if he turns out he can be downhill if he steps down I'm going to come off his hip and as the as the sniffer number just hang tight little little connectivity issue right here as uh Pete's showing some some of furman's offense on H Saturday versus old Miss's defense early what appears to be early in the game because the linebackers are Cari Coleman and TJ doter so the early part of the game first quarter probably because P Paul played starting in the second quarter played a whole lot at linebacker for uh for ol miss the former Arkansas player um just kind of working on some connectivity issues in fact I'm going to hit the pause button here I'll get Pete back and we'll get back to you hang tight so you know oh miss because they have the ability they're they're big enough they're good in the interior they're going to place them here Ivy does a good job acrossing face so now both linebackers can fit to the outside so as they go to hand this ball both a gaps are occupied Nolan almost overshoots his Gap and P piges kind of almost knocks him back into it but pagis is able to get vertical Nolan's able to win on 72 right here Ivy fits and demands the double team so now seven wants to bounce the ball he wants to be out here but he sees the fit from the backer has to cut back underneath and between the job that one has done off the edge and P's getting vertical there is nowhere to go uh there were a couple snaps in the game where Miss bust coverage and you can see this this is the first one and you can see pre- snap here oh they're still talking right up until the point this ball is snaap you can see you know nine and five trying to communicate with one another and nine is clearly expecting help over the top so right here when he gets a vertical push and you can see he is inside leverage from the jump right here okay so when the outside receiver releases outside and nine stays inside he is expecting help over the top because when the slot receiver breaks out he has to be able to react to it I can't tell you who's wrong in this situation I think just whether it was the tempo that caused an issue a late signal or change from the sidelines but they're clearly still communicating with the ball snap so now because of the way the linebacker expands with this out route my money says that he's supposed to be deep but he sees the out route goes to break on it and because the safety is flat-footed and not playing a deep half technique it's a really good read and a good Ball by the Ferman quarterback um you know in response to what he gets right there to that boundary side okay it's like I said he he sees it the quarterback sees it now he sees now eyes are inside by number nine he is flat footed ready to break the out route and you can see the quarterback back is already he knows where this ball is going based on eyes of the corner and the Lang body language of the safety squeeze that whole shot I kind of liked their quarterback uh is it Carson Jones I think is his name um I thought he I think the kid's pretty good player absolutely um it'd be curious to see what his uh what his tenure at Ferman looks like if he continues to place the ball like he did at times yeah when he was protected in this game I thought he showed the live arm and some solid decision making for sure I did too I did too I I thought he did some good things I mean when you're running for your life I do think though you know those are things that doesn't miss is obviously GNA clear up those little communication things um you know if I can get this clip to load things are slowing down on me for some reason all right so one thing that I think we knew going into the season Miss likes their pressure they think they can get there with four probably um a decent amount they also feel more comfortable in the back end playing man man okay so right here I thought they did a great job playing manto man in handling communication so right now 23 is manto man on the tailback and six is probably about to to be a part of the pressure when they motion the back out you see everybody talking and as soon as that back goes in motion six now knows he's got to go take him and 23 is going to replace him and now be part of the pressure so they have handled that late communication okay they're going to rotate to cover one here and they're going to still play their manto man on the outside so they handle that switch right there they handle the motion the the the pressure up front is effective is a great job by the secondary right here passing off things that needed to pass off locking on the things that needed to lock off but adjusting the blitz path to get to the rush that they want and handle the motion at the same time was a really nice job that is not something you saw very much of out of this old miss defense last year uh we talked earlier you know tonight kind of starting off about obviously how much size there is but the athleticism of this defense and in this defensive front in particular just absolutely out outstanding you know so you're looking at here you're looking at the twos in theory um on the Interior right here and and guys rolling in but you watch right here you watch the shade there as he goes and almost gets cut he is going to read the pull of the guard and try to get in the pocket and maybe even look try to cross face of the center he gets cut by the center right there and his athleticism to get back on his feet in that scenario is astounding at the same time you take a guy that was a little bit under sized last year flashed and showed and he's a little bit more physical this year again it's firman it's early but you watch the bull rush here to take the inside gap on the edge here from four the linebacker patient here comes the cut right back into his lap but again you talk about the young talent and depth on this defensive line the fact that he gets off of his knees essentially plays the cut block and is able to redirect and be athletic enough to get back on that ball that is not something you have seen a ton of out of this Old Miss front the flip side is now you watch to the field they're going to slant The Tackle across his face if he continues to run outside he's going to get kicked out and they have a chance to get creased when he crosses face of this tackle he is athletic enough now to get his outside foot in the ground and still Collision the puller right there and try to get underneath that pull to make the ball spit back inside just again we have not seen that type of athleticism from an Miss front and we're not talking about the two upper classmen all SEC level players here um and so taking it with the understanding of who the opponent is um but at the same time just understanding the athleticism and the understanding of what's being asked of them is is encouraging as an Old Miss fan and again just talking about the freaking speed on the field defensively watching the way that they react to things and and if you watch this screen this is a double screen if nobody reacts to the motion by seven he's going to throw the swing to seven they're going to block one they're going to block two and if six doesn't expand that's where the ball's going once he expands now they're going to come backside and they're going to try to throw this tunnel to number one and they want to get guys out and that ball wants to hit right there okay oh miss obviously playing manto man so there goes the backer expanding with the running back in the motion they sense the screen every defensive lineman well three out of four sense the screen they turn they retrace was which is exactly what they teach them to do but my favorite thing about this play as I watched it is when he gets tackled the only Defenders not within five yards of the football are the guy that went to force the tail back because he had him in manto man and the backside Corner that is already started at a Pursuit angle just in case the ball spits that is what you want defense to look like at all times and so again the speed on the field the awareness the recognition um just and the way that they pursued the football and The Leverage with with which they pursued the football was very encouraging to me okay going back to negative really quickly this is the next bus we see so Ferman is GNA pack it in they're going to show a seven man now part of this is them being in the absolute right call against this pressure so old Miss is going to Blitz the corner typically what that means is you're going to get into some type of a cover three so you're expecting this guy to be over the top he's going to be deep middle three is going to bail here what we see here is when they Blitz the corner 28 gets caught up on the inside release here and the linebacker can't get out to get with that wheel route because of the action that he sees so just the right call if Old Miss is in a traditional cover three right there even if they're just playing traditional cover one right there I think you see this play get covered and it's not a completion it's a timing thing because Old Miss has the pressure on and I think 28's eyes may not be exactly where they're supposed to be right there he loses it there's a good decision Again by the quarterback a good Ball by the quarterback and you see an explosive play for Ferman that is going to happen sometimes but at the same time if you want to be confident in making these type of pressure calls you have to be confident that the rest of the secondary is going to know how to adjust and I'm sure that's one they spent some time looking at uh in the film room over the weekend last clip that I'm going to show um just again going back to you know have again you understand who it's against and if it looks the same in SEC play you know against Oklahoma then clearly there's a lot of reason to be excited but again you just look at how Miss fits the football you know they're they're using their stunts right there Ivy is going to come down and when he gets this down block he's going to come off the hip and he's going to take the first puller and he's going to spill it so he's going to attack the inside hip that's going to force the second puller around to this Edge man who is then going to hit it in the mouth and try to box it and you're trying to leave the ability of the backers to now scrape over the top unblocked and fit right in the Gap so there's Ivy boom he's going to spill there's five the safety and the tight end actually passes him up so in a perfect world they probably want him there and here's six who's unblocked to make the tackle instead the tight end is going to turn up on six there's five off the edge so if the ball spits to the outside there's the tackle here he se he feels it off the edge so he actually goes to cut back but pagis has done a great job of pressing the center fill the pull press the center and squeeze the play from the backside and there's just absolutely nowhere to go but if I'm on Miss right here from a fit standpoint seeing The Spill the box and both backers scrape now that's that is exactly how you want to fit that ball if there's anything you might want to see different you know it it's kind of tough here that he actually does a good job of staying square if this guy's upfield too much and his shoulders are turned you would see Paul underneath if he's too flat you see Paul 100% over the top right here you see him still working to get over the top because if the ball Cuts all the way back he knows that between Ivy and the backside safety you've got somebody to fit it so just from a structure standpoint you know Old Miss I thought did a really clean job of fitting things in the Run game obviously they reset the line of scrimmage time and time again with their defense to front and you really just had those two busts on the back end that both appear to be communication issues and outside of that it was really a clean game from M Miss defensively tell you what it's not clean Pete so what's not clean is Wendy's Saucy nugs you need extra napkins because you've had Wendy's nugs dipped in sauce but have you had them covered in sauce Wendy's new Saucy nugs take the crispy and spicy nugs you love turn them up to 11 choose between flavors like Buffalo honey barbecue garlic parm or if you're a real heat seeker try spicy ghost pepper it's uh only on uh Wendy's signature spicy nugs I dare you that's seven delicious ways to try the nugs you already love pick a flavor grab some extra napkins prepared to nug like you've never nugged before for a whole new way to nug it's got to be Wendy's at participating us Wendy's I gotta say the T the taste test you did last week made me want to go and uh try the ghost pepper you should absolutely that's on my to-do list it it needs to be on the to-do list I look forward to hearing about U how you like those try some of the Buffalo they're excellent the honey barbecue I love those as well if you're a a Parmesan guy you'll love those I'm not as much of parmesan guys other people but that's okay there's there's something for everyone at uh at participating us Wendy's all right so uh next week it's uh ol Miss and Wake Forest a game that when ol Miss scheduled it Wake Forest was a better program than it is today is what it is um we'll talk about that we'll talk about the the Demon Deacons a little bit it in the road next week it's Middle Tennessee this week there's just not a whole lot to say it's Derrik Mason's first year a lot of transfers they got a win in week one against Tennessee Tech it was close uh ol Miss is a 40 41 Point favorite as of uh as of right now it's a game that miss is going to win Miss is going to win it easily I'm kind of glad we did what we did instead of pretending that Middle Tennessee is going to be something that it's not but you know competition's coming Kentucky looked good in week one um I know LSU lost to Southern Cal and there's this LSU hot take that's out there there I think it's kind of premature um Oklahoma did some good things Jackson Arnold looked good um you know Arkansas looked good in week one against a really really bad team um Georgia looks like Georgia so their test their tests coming over the course of the season it's it won't be a uh it won't be easy but I like this Soul Miss team I think it's really good and as you just showed it's a really sound fundamentally sound athletic fast team team yeah absolutely I'm uh you know I'm excited to see where the team goes moving forward just as as competition continues to get better but if this team stays healthy uh in particular along the lines of scrimmage um you know obviously the all of the The Fan Fair and the excitement for the season it at this point certainly seems Justified all right we'll be back next week with another edition of Pete's Pig Skin preview it's brought to you by mebrook wealth advisers of Raymond James don't forget get in touch with them at 601 uh 368 2215 or ryan. raymondjames.com so for Pete DSE I'm Neil mccrady until next time have a great weekend uh travel safe we'll talk to you soon