OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — After erratic play nearly cost No. 9 Mississippi in its season opener, coach Pete Golding has made consistency an over-arching theme while preparing for Saturday's home opener against Charlotte.
“The positive for sure was there were flashes and times when that was what it’s supposed to look like,” Golding said of Ole Miss' 41-38 victory over Louisville in Nashville on Sunday — a result that remained in doubt until kicker Lucas
Carneiro's 48-yard field goal as time expired.
“We’ve just got to get it more consistent,” Golding stressed.
Likewise, quarterback Trinidad Chambliss lamented what he termed, “bonehead plays in the first half."
But Chambliss rebounded to help Ole Miss score 31 second-half points, four individual touchdowns and guiding the game-winning drive in the final 75 seconds.
The final-play victory against a ranked opponent is viewed as a positive for Golding, with the luxury of a home opener against an unranked opponent prior to the highly-anticipated visit from No. 8 LSU on Sept. 19.
The winning kick “was the best thing” about the game and that reviewing video of Ole Miss' opening performance with his staff and players was not very pleasant.
"It doesn’t matter if you’re playing Louisville, or Charlotte or Delta State, you’re not going to like” the way last weekend's performance looked, Golding said. “This is about us. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing.”
Among the more striking developments within the Rebels defense in Week 1 were the number of missed tackles, broken assignments and the massive amounts of yardage given up because of such mistakes.
According to their own video review, the Rebels missed 19 tackles, resulting directly in 242 yards and three touchdowns for the Cardinals. Golding praised the collective hustle on defense, but said that was undermined by mental mistakes and poor tackling technique.
“Right now it’s about guys getting lined up right, seeing their keys, snapping to their secondary key and doing their job,” Golding said. “Hopefully they’ve got a little chip on their shoulder and will clean things up this week.”
The second year of coach Tim Albin’s rebuilding process got off to a painful start as the 49ers (0-1) lost 43-41 in three overtimes at home to the Citadel, a team in the second-tier Football Championship Subdivision. The 49ers, who play in the American Conference, have lost 12 of their last 13 games.
“In the last four games, we’ve played Tulane, Georgia and now, Ole Miss,” said Albin, alluding to the difficulty of his squad's schedule late last year and early this season.
“The Chambliss kid is the best I’ve faced in my 38 years (of coaching). Defensively, the speed of it — and of course the crowd” at Ole Miss will be challenging as well, he said.
Despite the struggle to find victories, the 49ers rolled up 538 yards of total offense. Quarterback Cole Gonzales, who has passed for more than 7,000 career yards, threw for 322 yards and three touchdowns in Week 1.
Tight end Caleb Odom provided the decisive third-down conversion catch to set up the game-winning field goal against Louisville. This week, while revisiting his Week 1 performance, Odom confirmed having eyesight problems last season.
“I’ve always kind of had bad vision, but I never took the initiative to have it fixed,” Odom said with a sheepish smile. “Last year that was a huge problem with me, so yeah, I went to the eye doctor and got some contacts and glasses and actually started wearing them.”
The Rebels' opener was “a heavyweight fight and so we’re definitely banged up,” Golding said. “But the good news is all X-rays were negative.”
Golding's injury list included running back Kewan Lacy (thigh), linebacker Keaton Thomas (foot), offensive lineman Tommy Kinsler (leg) and cornerback Antonio Kite (undisclosed), but the coach noted that none of those injuries are considered long term, and that none of those players were ruled out yet for this Saturday's game.
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