Ole Miss lost a football game for the first time this season, and the snap counts explain it in one number: six.
Six pressures. That is what 77 defensive snaps and roughly 112 pass-rush attempts produced in Saturday’s 52-28 loss at No. 21 Florida. No sacks. No quarterback hits. Six hurries and a batted pass, total, from an entire defense.
A week earlier, against LSU, this same group generated 29 pressures and three sacks in 72 snaps. Nothing about the personnel changed. Will Echoles played 54 snaps in both games.
Florida ran for 302 yards and held the ball for 36:59. Here is what the usage says, position by position, with the LSU share alongside it.
Offense
Quarterback
Trinidad Chambliss played all 64 snaps and dropped back 40 times. He graded 78.2 overall and 77.7 as a passer — both the best marks on the offense, and both well down from the 89.9 and 90.2 he posted against LSU.
He finished 25-of-34 for 298 yards and a touchdown, added 64 rushing yards and two scores, and the first of those was the 100th touchdown of his college career. Deuce Knight did not play. For the second straight week the backup quarterback was effectively unused — one snap against LSU, none in Gainesville.
Running back
| Player | Snaps | Share | vs. LSU | Pass block | PFF offense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Makhi Frazier | 38 | 59% | 0% | 81.0 | 68.1 |
| JT Lindsey | 22 | 34% | 44% | 33.8 | 53.8 |
| Joshua Dye | 4 | 6% | — | — | 62.7 |
| Kewan Lacy | 0 | — | 56% | — | — |
Kewan Lacy did not play a snap.
The leading rusher, a back who had scored on the ground in twelve consecutive games, who played 43 snaps against LSU and whose usage Pete Golding had specifically described two weeks ago as a deliberate plan to get him “really rolling so he could be healthy going into conference play” — was not on the field for a single play in the first road game of the season. JT Lindsey made the first start of his career in his place.
Nothing in a snap-count report says why a player is not in it. This is the third straight week this column has had to write that sentence, and it is the biggest of the three.
What did happen is that Makhi Frazier came back from zero snaps against LSU and fixed the protection problem. He took 38 snaps and graded 81.0 in pass protection — the best mark by an Ole Miss back this season by a wide margin, against Lacy’s 23.6 and Lindsey’s 13.7 a week ago. Lindsey’s 33.8 on Saturday says that part of his game is still a live issue.
Wide receiver
| Player | Snaps | Share | vs. LSU | PFF receiving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deuce Alexander | 58 | 91% | 91% | 79.4 |
| Johntay Cook II | 30 | 47% | 31% | 64.7 |
| Horatio Fields | 24 | 38% | 73% | 60.5 |
| Traylon Ray | 21 | 33% | 43% | 59.9 |
| Caleb Cunningham | 16 | 25% | 0% | 63.4 |
| Samari Reed | 14 | 22% | 4% | 61.2 |
Deuce Alexander was the best offensive player on the field. Fifty-eight snaps, 37 routes, a 79.4 receiving grade that led the offense, and seven catches for 134 yards and a touchdown — his second hundred-yard game of the season.
Caleb Cunningham is back. Sixteen snaps after a week at zero, eleven of them as a receiver, and a 63.4 receiving grade. Not a large role, but an answer to the question this column asked last week.
The room reshuffled hard underneath Alexander. Horatio Fields went from 56 snaps to 24. Traylon Ray, who led the team in receiving against LSU on 33 snaps, took 21. Johntay Cook II went the other way — 24 snaps to 30 — and turned it into a career-high four catches.
Tight end
Luke Hasz led the room at 45 snaps with a 71.2 overall and a 77.8 run-blocking grade — the best run-block mark on the offense, and a straight reversal of last week, when Caleb Odom outplayed him. Odom took 37 and graded 73.2. Michael Smith played seven and Hayden Bradley four.
That is now two weeks of the two-man rotation trading places. It is a real one-two, not a pecking order.
Offensive line
| Player | Snaps | Share | Pass block | vs. LSU pass block | Run block |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terez Davis | 64 | 100% | 89.4 | 80.1 | 53.1 |
| Brycen Sanders | 64 | 100% | 84.7 | 63.7 | 54.1 |
| Delano Townsend | 64 | 100% | 75.9 | 29.3 | 54.8 |
| Patrick Kutas | 63 | 98% | 75.4 | 65.8 | 63.3 |
| Connor Howes | 41 | 64% | 68.8 | 54.0 | 55.8 |
| Tommy Kinsler IV | 23 | 36% | 74.3 | 44.1 | 57.9 |
| Troy Everett | 1 | 2% | 71.9 | — | — |
This is the part of the report that does not match the scoreboard. Every single Ole Miss lineman improved his pass-blocking grade from the LSU game, several of them enormously.
Terez Davis graded 89.4 protecting the quarterback, the best individual mark of his season. Brycen Sanders jumped from 63.7 to 84.7. And Delano Townsend, who posted a 29.3 against LSU — the worst pass-block grade by any Rebel at any position this year — came back with a 75.9.
The right tackle split continued at almost exactly the LSU ratio: Connor Howes 41, Tommy Kinsler IV 23. Both graded better than they did a week ago.
Chambliss went 25-of-34 and was not the problem. Neither was the group in front of him. Ole Miss lost this game by 24 points with its best pass-protection day of the season.
Defense
The pass rush, or what was left of it
| Player | Snaps | Share | vs. LSU | Rush snaps | Pressures | PFF defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will Echoles | 54 | 70% | 75% | 17 | 0 | 66.8 |
| Blake Purchase | 52 | 68% | 65% | 12 | 0 | 71.6 |
| Kam Franklin | 49 | 64% | 61% | 20 | 1 | 59.9 |
| Jehiem Oatis | 42 | 55% | 32% | 13 | 1 | 62.9 |
| Michai Boireau | 39 | 51% | 38% | 11 | 0 | 58.7 |
| Jonathan Maldonado | 30 | 39% | 22% | 6 | 0 | 63.1 |
| Suntarine Perkins | 26 | 34% | 58% | 12 | 0 | 65.8 |
| Jamarious Brown | 21 | 27% | 35% | 5 | 0 | 58.9 |
| Jordan Renaud | 16 | 21% | 18% | 3 | 0 | 63.4 |
| Andrew Maddox | 7 | 9% | 0% | 0 | 0 | 53.1 |
| Talib Graham | 4 | 5% | 1% | 0 | 0 | 48.1 |
Read the pressure column again. Two. Two pressures from the entire front, across eleven players and roughly 90 pass-rush snaps.
Will Echoles rushed the passer 17 times and did not register one. A week ago he had seven pressures and a sack and posted a 90.8 — the best game any Ole Miss defender has played this year. On Saturday he graded 66.8 and disappeared as a rusher. Kam Franklin rushed 20 times for one hurry.
The other four pressures came from a cornerback and a linebacker. Jaylon Braxton had two on two blitz snaps. Luke Ferrelli had two on three. When the only players getting home are the ones being sent on purpose, the four-man rush is not working — and Florida had 36:59 to take advantage of it.
Suntarine Perkins played 26 snaps, his lowest total in a competitive game this season.
Linebacker
Keaton Thomas played 72 of 77 snaps — a 94 percent share, up from 78 against LSU — and was excellent: a 76.7 overall, an 80.2 against the run, an 83.9 in tackling, and a team-high 11 tackles with a pass breakup.
Tahj Butler posted the best defensive grade on the team at 78.7, and did it on 38 snaps — fewer than anyone else in the front seven who played meaningfully. Two weeks running now, Butler grades near the top of this defense on a part-time snap count.
Luke Ferrelli is the hard one. He played 48 snaps, graded 75.8 against the run and 82.2 in tackling — and 38.8 in coverage, after allowing four catches on four targets for 56 yards, 48 of them after the catch. Every ball thrown at him was completed, and most of the damage came once it was.
Secondary
| Player | Snaps | Share | vs. LSU | Tgt-Rec-Yds | Coverage | PFF defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sharif Denson | 69 | 90% | 97% | 8-5-86 | 36.7 | 41.8 |
| Jaylon Braxton | 68 | 88% | 85% | 3-2-6 | 71.4 | 70.3 |
| Antonio Kite | 54 | 70% | 75% | 2-2-19 | 69.3 | 60.7 |
| Edwin Joseph | 53 | 69% | 100% | — | 76.5 | 64.8 |
| Andy Jaffe | 38 | 49% | 8% | 1-1-5, TD | 49.5 | 51.0 |
| Joenel Aguero | 35 | 45% | 90% | 1-0-0 | 48.6 | 45.2 |
| Jalyn Crawford | 14 | 18% | 0% | 1-0-0 | 76.4 | 67.0 |
| Ladarian Clardy | 12 | 16% | 22% | 1-1-15 | 54.1 | 56.3 |
| Anthony Robinson III | 6 | 8% | 1% | 1-1-9 | 51.0 | 50.3 |
Jalyn Crawford played — 14 snaps, after a week at zero. That is the other open question from last week, answered, if partially.
The rest of this table is where the game went. Sharif Denson was targeted eight times, gave up five catches for 86 yards and a 38-yard long, and graded 36.7 in coverage and 41.8 overall — the worst mark on the defense. A week ago he was targeted seven times and allowed 29 yards. Same player, same snap count, a completely different afternoon.
Jaylon Braxton was the opposite and the best defender in the secondary: three targets, two catches, six yards, a 71.4 coverage grade and an 80.4 in tackling. Andy Jaffe went from six snaps to 38 and graded 51.0, allowing a touchdown. Joenel Aguero’s share fell from 90 percent to 45 and he still graded 45.2 with two missed tackles.
The team numbers underneath it all: 16 completions allowed on 22 targets for 196 yards — and 129 of those 196 yards came after the catch. Add 14 missed tackles, the same total as against LSU, and 302 Florida rushing yards, and you have a defense that could neither get off a block nor finish a tackle for sixty minutes.
The projected chart, based on usage
OFFENSE
- QB — Chambliss, with no functional backup snap count
- RB — Frazier and Lindsey; Lacy’s status open
- WR — Alexander, then Cook II, Fields, Ray and Cunningham in a flat rotation
- TE — Hasz and Odom, genuinely co-equal
- LT — Davis · LG — Townsend · C — Sanders · RG — Kutas · RT — Howes and Kinsler, split
DEFENSE
- DL — Echoles, Franklin, Oatis and Boireau, with Maldonado and Brown rotating
- EDGE — Purchase, with Perkins
- LB — Thomas and Ferrelli, with Butler
- CB — Braxton and Kite, with Crawford back in the rotation
- S — Denson, Joseph, Jaffe and Aguero — still unsettled
What it actually tells us
The offense was not the reason. Best pass-protection day of the season, 426 yards, 25-of-34 from the quarterback, a receiver over 130. Ole Miss ran 64 offensive snaps to Florida’s control of the clock and still scored 28.
The four-man rush produced nothing, and everything followed from that. Two pressures from eleven front players. Zero from Will Echoles on 17 rush snaps, seven days after he had seven. That is the difference between the LSU defense and this one, and it is not a personnel difference.
The tackling has not improved in three weeks. Fourteen missed tackles against Charlotte’s speed, fourteen against LSU, fourteen here — and this time 129 yards after the catch on top of 302 on the ground. Golding has said since the opener that this is the thing. It is still the thing.
And Kewan Lacy did not play. Two weeks ago his workload was the story of this column. On Saturday it was zero, with no explanation attached. That is the first question of the bye week.
Ole Miss is 3-1, 1-1 in the SEC, and off this weekend before going back on the road to Vanderbilt on Saturday, Oct. 10. The Rebels still have not released a depth chart.
Snap counts and grades via Pro Football Focus; team and individual totals via Ole Miss Athletics. Photo: JT Lindsey, September 26, 2026, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images.
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