Ole Miss Football: Rebels run roughshod over Texas Tech

While Ole Miss football is banned from postseason play this year, that doesn’t mean the Rebels can’t put a pounding on the opposition.

Matt Luke, who was promoted from interim to head coach after the end of the 2017 season, and Ole Miss shined bright in Week 1, blasting Texas Tech in the Advocare Texas Kickoff, 47-27.

Jordan Ta’amu passed for 336 yards with two touchdowns, three different receivers went over 80 yards including star A.J. Brown and the run game found a workhorse in Scottie Phillips.

Due to NCAA sanctions  handed down under the Huge Freeze regime, the Rebels are banned from playing in any postseason contest this year. That, though, didn’t keep Luke from quickly accepting the job in Oxford when it was offered to him.

When Shea Patterson went down in 2017 with a season-ending injury, Ta’amu, who started his college career at New Mexico Military in JUCO, stepped in. He finished with 1,682 yards and 11 touchdowns, including at least 365 yards in his first three starts.

Plenty was made of Ta’amu and the offense during the preseason, and they more than lived up to the billing in gashing the Red Raider defense all day.

Less than a minute into the first quarter, Ta’amu hit D.K. Metcalf with a 58-yard touchdown strike. Texas Tech would answer right back, but Ole Miss scored the next 17 points, including a 94-yard kickoff return by Jaylon Jones and a 39-yard scoring run from Phillips.

Phillps, who replaced Jordan Wilkins in the backfield, also found the end zone from 65 yards out after the Red Raiders had made it a 10-point game, with Brown getting in on the big-play act with a 34-yard scoring strike from Ta’amu to clinch it early in the fourth.

That was the kind of day it was for Texas Tech, which also lost starting quarterback McLane Carter early. Freshman Alan Bowman was thurst into duty, completing 29 of 49 for 273 yards with a touchdown. The Red Raiders also showed balance on offense, running for 164 yards, including 90 yards and a pair of scores by DaLeon Ward.

It was obvious on both sides that the offenses of Ole Miss and Texas Tech are where the spotlight will shine, but if either hopes to achieve a winning season, they will need to shore up the defense.

There was just one turnover in the game, as the two combined for 1,032 yards. The Rebels averaged 7.5 yards per carry and 10.5 yards per pass. The Red Raiders were able to convert 8 of 19 third-down attempts to sustain several drives.