2018 College Football Team Previews: Mississippi Rebels
Mississippi Rebels
Location: Oxford, MS
Coach: Matt Luke (6-6)2nd Season
Stadium: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (Capacity: 64,038)
CSJ Projections:
9th: SEC (6th in West Division)
2nd: Mississippi
55th: FBS
57th: Division I
2017 In A Sentence: Ole Miss closed out the season winning three of its last four games and gave first year head coach Matt Luke a .500 season at 6-6 but a bowl ban of two years prevented the Rebels from a postseason game.
Biggest Shoes to Fill: NT/DE Breeland Speaks ranked second on the team in both tackles (67) and sacks (7.0). He finished the season with eight tackles for loss and was a second team All-SEC performer. Speaks was drafted in the second round of the NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs.
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Key Player: QB Jordan Ta’amu was a big part of the the last part of the season’s upward swing as he showed ability with his arm and his legs. He completed 65% of his passes and ended the year with 1,682 yards and 11 touchdowns. The now-senior threw for 365 yards or more in his first three career starts and will look to maintain that for a powerful Rebel offensive attack.
Fearless Prediction: With another year of the bowl bid ban, the Rebels will try to at least duplicate the 6-6 record and with a powerful offense, this year’s team should have no trouble scoring points. The issue may come from the defense that has just four starters back on a team that gave up over 34 points per game. Expect a five to six win season for this team as it grows with Coach Luke.
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football in the western half of the United States– the Big Sky Conference and Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
Reach him at this email or click below:
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About The Author
Kent Schmidt
Originally from LaMoure, North Dakota, Kent is a 1996 graduate of North Dakota State University. His prior writing experience is over 15 years having previously worked with D2football.com, I-AA.org, and College Sporting News before coming to College Sports Journal in 2016. His main focus is college football in the western half of the United States-- the Big Sky Conference and Missouri Valley Football Conference within the Division I FCS. And in 2017, he began also to look at the FBS Group of Five conferences of the American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid-American, Mountain West, and Sun Belt.
Reach him at this email or click below: