Ole Miss is two weeks into the uncomfortable part of a bye week. The Rebels lost at Florida, had the following Saturday off, and have been left to sit in the result. Vanderbilt comes next, then Missouri, a road game at Texas and Auburn. Ole Miss played Florida without Kewan Lacy, its leading rusher.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis used the bye-week episode to argue that the defense does not need a new wrinkle. It needs fewer of them. Willis said the Vanderbilt plan should be five to 10 calls, heavy man coverage, and five or six rushers on nearly every snap.
Willis said he had put the idea to recurring guests John Fourcade and Todd Wade, and that they agreed. If an opponent beats that defense over the top, he argued, so be it. “Play fast, create negative plays, earn the right to be complex” was how he summarized it. Willis believes the unit is suffering from paralysis by analysis, a point he tied back to what Will Echoles said earlier in the week.
A regular guest Willis introduced as the mayor of Corinth said the defense thought more than it should have, and that Ole Miss was beaten on the line of scrimmage. Willis pushed back on the national pile-on, noting that only three teams in roughly 30 years have won three September games against ranked opponents.
Willis’s forecast did not move. He said Ole Miss should beat Vanderbilt and Missouri, and that the trip to Texas is where the Rebels find out what they are. Every goal, he argued, remains in front of them and achievable. He also cautioned that Vanderbilt is no longer the program Ole Miss fans remember.
Photo: Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy, September 12, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 3, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.