Ole Miss spent the week being told that Sam Leavitt’s legs were the problem it could not solve. Will Echoles, who finished with three tackles for loss and a sack, said the plan was never to chase him.
“Keeping him in the pocket, making him play quarterback, was a big thing in the game plan,” Echoles said. “When you give him time to sit back there and scramble, that’s when he becomes dangerous. He played great. He had some runs on us, but we ended up getting the job done.”
It is the same philosophy Pete Golding described from the other side of the podium — that the front was asked to contain and compress rather than pad a sack total. Golding’s version: “We’re not going to win this game based on sacks. We’re going to win this game based on scramble yards.”
It held up in the aggregate. Ole Miss outgained LSU 426-330.
He went at the interior
Asked what he saw that let the defensive line make life hard on LSU, Echoles was specific and unsentimental.
“For me, it’s their interior. Their interior pieces with their guards — I feel like there wasn’t the best, I’d say. But just taking advantage of the weakest links, and all the tells in the offense with the run-pass tells, knowing when they’re going to pass the ball, knowing when they’re going to run the ball.”
He also said the plan was more aggressive than what Ole Miss showed in its first two games: more blitzes, more downhill play, and more man coverage behind it.
“We wanted to make Sam Leavitt think fast. Just playing a little bit more man, allowing our DBs to show their ability to play man, closing the pocket. Just playing aggressive, I say — but trying to control the quarterback.”
The secondary got simpler, and it got healthier
Ole Miss’s back end has taken criticism through three weeks. Echoles credited two things: bodies, and a reduced mental load.
“Pete made some adjustments, just making things more simple. And we had got Sharif back and Antonio Kite. They play a huge factor in what we try to do on the back end. We knew that they were going to check a lot to get into a better call, so we had to check too. Just making things more simple for the back end to allow them to go play football.”
The names showed up on the stat sheet. Sharif Denson and Tah’j Butler led the team with eight tackles apiece, and Jaylon Braxton — who Golding said was flipped from safety back out to corner mid-game after an injury — came down with the fourth-down interception that ended it.
Practicing against Lane Kiffin turned out to be useful
The most quietly interesting thing Echoles said had nothing to do with emotion.
“We played Lane in scrimmages when he was here, so we kind of had a little bit of tendencies of what he’s going to do. It kind of helped us in the game.”
He was careful, though, to reject the framing that the week was about the opposing head coach.
“We know it’s a big game because we’re in it too. Not because Lane was the coach here, but because we’re playing too. So we had that mindset with a chip on our shoulder to just go out there and play ball.”
“It’s his program now”
Asked directly whether beating LSU makes this officially Pete Golding’s program, Echoles did not hedge.
“Yeah, I mean, I can say that. Super proud of him, how he gets us prepared, how the whole program runs now. He keeps us ready for any situation that’s put to us. I’m super thankful that he got the head coaching job. And yeah, it’s his program now.”
He was then asked why this team sprinted across the field at the final whistle in a way it had not after other wins. His answer was not about LSU at all.
“Honestly, I was trying to find Coach Savage, the strength and conditioning staff, because he’s a big role model for me as a freshman coming in. I was just enjoying the moment. When we got the interception at the end of the game, I just sat there and looked at the crowd, looked at the sky, thankful to be in the moment.”
Houston, Mississippi was watching
Echoles’s hometown held a viewing party, organized by his mother, that he found out about when she posted the flyer.
“I didn’t know they were having it until she posted the flyer. Super supportive. I got a big fan base back in Houston. They show up and show out every time.”
And on being a Mississippi kid in this particular win: “Man, it felt great. All across social media, that’s all I’ve been seeing — people coming to Oxford for the game. So it just meant a lot to go out there and get a win.”
His own grade
Asked to evaluate himself, he did the thing good players do and split the difference honestly.
“I think I played great. I feel like I could have made a little bit more tackles — I think I missed a couple. But I think I was very disruptive as a player. I feel like I had a bunch of pressures when I was rushing the quarterback, and I feel like I did my job. It takes everybody on the field. Everybody did their job, and you see the results.”
On the crowd, he had the line of the night: “It’s probably the loudest I’ve ever heard the stadium be, period.”
Ole Miss is 3-0, 1-0 in the SEC. Next up: at Florida, Saturday, September 26. Hotty Toddy 🦈