After two overtimes in front of 55,728 fans the final scoreboard read: Jacksonville State 49, Ole Miss 48.
“Maybe this was the wake up call we needed,” sophomore wide receiver Melvin Harris said.
Even with starting senior captain defensive end, Kentrell Lockett unavailable due to a heart beat out of rhythm no one believed an upset like this would occur. Except, quite possibly Jacksonville State themselves, a team that never gave in. Especially, after the Rebels were able to put together such a successful start. They led 14-0 less than six minutes into the game and 31-10 at the half.
“They (Jacksonville State) wanted it more than us,” junior running back Brandon Bolden said. “That’s point blank what it came down to. We couldn’t get to their level.”
Rebels head coach Houston Nutt described Saturday’s loss as the worst of his career. And not only did it come against a Football Subdivision opponent but also at the hands of one of his mentors, Jack Crowe. In 1990, while Crowe was the head coach at Arkansas, he hired Nutt to become his team’s wide receivers coach.
“My hats off to Jacksonville State and Coach Crowe,” Nutt said. “They have a great team. I applaud them but I am ready to get back and get our guys going. You never want to get started off like this.”
One of the team’s largest question marks coming into the season was how would the offense perform due to the key losses from a year ago in quarterback Jevan Snead, running back Dexter McCluster and wide receiver Shay Hodge. At the end of the day the offense, which debuted eight new starters didn’t seem to be the Rebels issue as they were able to put 48 total points on the scoreboard (31 in the first half alone).
The focus now, must shift to the Rebels defense which heading into Saturday was regarded by many this preseason as one of the tops in the Southeastern Conference. After giving up 49 points to a Football Subdivision opponent (39 which came in the second half if you include both overtime periods) the defense has to be concerned, yet must try to regroup.
“We didn’t execute, we didn’t make plays when the opportunity was there,” defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix said. “They created turnovers and we didn’t.”
Quarterback Nathan Stanley started the game for the Rebels and was impressive early, fueling the early 14-0 start. He finished the day 6-of-10, for 133 yards throwing for three touchdowns whereas his counterpart, transfer quarterback Jeremiah Masoli, concluded his highly anticipated Ole Miss debut going 7-of-10 for 109 yards with one interception.
Ole Miss totaled three turnovers on the day (two fumbles and the interception) whereas Jacksonville State gave up zero. A stat, which Nutt, said proved to be the true difference maker in the game.
The Rebels had more first downs, passing yards, offensive plays, total yards, red-zone score chances, kickoff return yards and time of possession than Jacksonville State and still fell short.
“We’ve got to watch this tomorrow,” Nutt said. “We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to correct some things and get back to work. It will be important, how we handle things in these next 48 hours.”