Ole Miss Football: 2017 midseason grades by position
With Ole Miss football facing Vanderbilt this Saturday, the Rebels have officially reached the half way point of the season. Let’s take a look at grades by position so far in 2017.
It’s been a rough season for Ole Miss, but who really expected this season not to be rough? The Rebels started out 2-0 as expected, they dropped a winnable game to Cal and then was blowout by Alabama.
Next up was Auburn, who won by 21 points but the Rebels looked better and improved against them, at least in the second half. Ole Miss has an opportunity to get hot for the rest of October. The Rebels face Vanderbilt, LSU and Arkansas next, all at home. That leaves the Rebels with the perfect opportunity to improve and begin to close this season strong.
So where exactly do the Rebels stack up by position? Well, it can be varied. On offense, the grades look to be fairly good. Defense and special teams are a whole other story.
Honestly this team is all over the board, which makes sense. 2017 is somewhat of a transition year with all that has gone on from the NCAA, to the resignation of Hugh Freeze and ongoing speculation as to who will be the head coach at Ole Miss in 2018. The Rebels are also relatively young in most positions. Seldom does Ole Miss have seniors or even juniors in starting roles.
While the payoff may not be there now, the future could be bright for Ole Miss with the promising young talent. We’ll dive into the position grades now individually, starting with the offensive units, then defense and special teams.
Offensive Line
Grade: B
To this point, the 2017 season has been rough for the Ole Miss offensive line. They did a good job of protecting Shea Patterson in the first two games, but that all unraveled in the Cal game. Center Sean Rawlings went down with an ankle injury and it really disrupted the lines play and timing. That injury alone can be contributed to the reason why Ole Miss lost that game. As stated, it messed up the rhythm of the entire offense.
Rawlings came back by the Alabama game, but the line was simply outmatched. Against Auburn, Ole Miss was significantly better, even against a strong defensive front from the Tigers.
The starting five of Greg Little, Jordan Sims, Javon Patterson, Sean Rawlings and Rod Taylor are all former highly rated players and it shows in their levels of play and ability to move them all to different positions as needed. Little will continue to develop into one of the best left tackles in the entire country. As of now the grade for the offensive line is a B, but the Rebels look to be getting more consistent on keeping the pocket clean for Shea Patterson.