Hugh Freeze had better game plan, but Jimbo Fisher made better adjustments
ORLANDO — Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze only knows one way to run his offense: wide open at a furiously fast pace.
As a result, the No. 11 Rebels totally overwhelmed No. 4 Florida State for almost two quarters Monday in the Camping World Kickoff. The Seminoles had no answers for Chad Kelly and Co. cranked up to 11.
However, the senior quarterback and supposed Heisman Trophy candidate apparently wasn’t able to ease off the accelerator, even when the situation called for it. Up 28-6 and threatening to blow FSU out of Orlando, Kelly proceeded to turn the ball over liberally the rest of the way, which kept the ‘Noles in the game.
When the smoke cleared, the pseudo-home team authored its biggest comeback victory in school history, winning 45-34.
“It was a nightmarish second half,” Freeze said matter-of-factly at the postgame press conference.
Indeed. Florida State had eight possessions after intermission: field goal, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, field goal, field goal … take a knee. A strong start for the Rebs was answered by an equally weak finish.
But the game truly turned on the final drive of the second quarter. On 3rd-and-10 at the Ole Miss 16-yard line, redshirt freshman QB Deondre Francois — making his first career start — didn’t flinch in the pocket despite pressure up the gut. While he got popped, he still managed to find Travis Rudolph for a touchdown.
Instead of going to the locker room down three scores at 28-6, a two-score disadvantage of 28-13 seemed much more manageable.
“You have to give credit to Florida State,” Freeze said. “I really thought that things started to turn a little bit for them the last drive of the first half. And we blew a coverage there, or the technique on the coverage, and gave them a score right before half.”
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Whatever worked for Kelly (above) in the first half was taken away following intermission. His numbers at the break were sensational: 14-of-23 for 215 with 3 TDs and 1 INT. But in the third quarter, he failed to complete a single pass.
Meanwhile, the Seminoles put together a hard-to-believe 33-0 run from the end of the second period through the beginning of the fourth frame to turn a 28-6 deficit into a 39-28 lead. Francois, clearly gaining confidence — he’s from Orlando, too — with each possession, outplayed the veteran Kelly.
Playing a little loose with the football, which is a criticism of Kelly, he was picked off three times and also lost a fumble.
“They definitely came out of the locker room with a lot more life, and we turned the ball over twice,” Freeze said. “That really shifted the momentum to their favor. And when you’re playing in a game against one of the nation’s best teams, you can’t turn the ball over like that.”
It wasn’t all bad news for Mississippi. Facing a quality defense with future pros at every position, Freeze had his squad much better prepared than his counterpart, Jimbo Fisher. Kelly carved up FSU early.
However, Fisher has a reputation for being one of the better coaches in the country when it comes to making second-half adjustments. The first 30 minutes, Kelly wasn’t pressured at all. The middle of the field was uncovered and led to some big gains. When FSU did blanket his receivers, Kelly had room to scramble.
But the second 30 minutes, Kelly was sacked five times, his wideouts couldn’t get free and the running lanes were closed.
On the other side of the ball, the Rebs did a commendable job keeping Dalvin Cook — a Heisman contender in his own right — in check on the ground. He actually gained more yards receiving (101) than rushing (91).
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The night belonged to Francois (above), though. He connected on 33-of-52 passes for 419 yards with 2 scores. Most important, he didn’t commit a turnover. Even being sacked three times, he accounted for 59 additional yards on the ground. Losing a few defenders to injury, the Ole Miss secondary was on fumes.
The ‘Noles were 6-of-8 on third down during their 33-0 march, picking up a third-and-15 and a pair of third-and-10s.
“Certainly, we were really bad on third-down defense,” Freeze said. “Give credit to them, but we’ve got to improve those if we want to win these types of games.”
When the Rebs put points on the board, they do so in the blink of an eye. Kelly’s five touchdown drives took an average of 1:43 off the clock despite each being at least 72 yards in length. Boom, boom, boom — paydirt.
Their high-octane approach can be quite the asset, but it can be a liability, too. Among eight non-scoring drives in the contest, in seven of them Ole Miss possessed the ball for 1:18 or less. That left more time on the clock for Florida State to recover — less of a chance to get cold on the sideline, too.
Going a hundred miles an hour to build a lead is fine. But sometimes slowing it down a bit to protect said lead is warranted.
Walking off the bus, Freeze out-gameplanned Fisher. No question about it. Kelly was lighting up the sky. The Seminoles were on rollerskates defensively. Cook couldn’t find room to run. The Landsharks frustrated Francois at the outset.
That being said, while Fisher hit the reset button in the second half, Freeze continued to go back to the same well. The ‘Noles changed their fits up front to clog running lanes and altered their coverage scheme to fill vacancies between the hash marks. Francois started to understand what he could and couldn’t do.
The Rebels were comfortably ahead early on every judge’s scorecard. But their failure to deliver a knockout punch late cost them.
John Crist is the senior writer for Saturday Down South, a member of the FWAA and a voter for the Heisman Trophy. Send him an e-mail, like him on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.
