By Brett Hudson
A fiery passion flared quickly into Ole Miss starting quarterback Bo Wallace’s eyes when the tempo of the offense was brought up at SEC Media Days. Like a shark that smells blood – or a Landshark, a nickname the Rebels defensive players gave to themselves, on the field – he wanted more.
“I want to run this offense as fast as possible,” Wallace said. “I’ll go as fast as (Ole Miss head coach Hugh) Freeze will let me.”
That up-tempo, breakneck offense that has been getting 70-80 snaps in a single game has been wreaking its fair share of havoc on opposing defenses in the regular season and on the headlines in the offseason.
Many coaches, namely Arkansas’ Bret Bielema, have spoken out against the system and have even proposed rules to discourage the system.
“I want to qualify before I go any further, I’m partial, obviously, to what we do,” Freeze said. “I don’t think there’s absolutely any proof out there that there is any kind of safety concern. I mean, defensive linemen traditionally and most commonly are more athletic than offensive linemen – not all the time, but most of the time.
“I don’t buy into that philosophy at all.”
While Freeze can at least take a stab at controlling new rules designed to stop his offense, there is one thing that he can not begin to hope to control: how quickly the ball is ready for the next play.
No matter how fast Ole Miss has its players set, the defense can still get the necessary play changes and substitutions executed in between snaps if the referees take enough time to set the ball in between plays.
“I have great confidence in our officiating under Steve Shaw’s leadership,” Freeze said. “I know whatever the rules are, he expects his officials to do that.”
“Sometimes I have felt like, in games, whether or not it was our officials or another league’s officials, that it was different than the week before. Some of that could have been just me.”
