Pete Golding opened his Vanderbilt-week press conference with a number nobody asked for: 62 missed tackles this season, for 482 yards, which he said is 70 percent of the rushing yards Ole Miss has allowed. On Tuesday, linebacker Tah’j Butler was asked what fixes that. His answer was a percentage of his own.
“I feel like being physical and just going to make contact with someone is just a want-to thing. Like, you can’t really— can’t really teach— you can’t teach someone how to tackle for real. Like, it’s really more like 10% technique, 90% want-to.”
Tah’j Butler
🧱 The 10 Percent Still Counts
Golding’s own correction from the Florida tape was technical: leverage, angles, and missing toward your help rather than away from it. Butler did not dismiss that part. Asked what getting the right leverage actually means, he described it in a defender’s terms.
“Really just [pressing] angles whenever you— if you’re getting off a block or if you— if it’s an open field tackle, just knowing when to break down, knowing when it’s like time for you to just break down and just run through a tackle.”
Tah’j Butler
That is the tension in the room this week. The head coach is teaching the 10 percent. The players are saying the other 90 percent is on them.
⏱️ The Second-Half Problem
Butler named a pattern that runs through the whole season, not just Gainesville.
“We trying to start strong and finish strong. That’s been our problem for this whole year. We always start off good in the first half but come out, we’re not, we’re not coming out swinging. So we’re trying to harp on, you know, just being, staying consistent throughout the second half.”
Tah’j Butler
It matches what Golding said Monday, that the defense has strung together good quarters and good halves but has not done it for four quarters in any game.
🎞️ Watching Florida On Purpose
“Games like that, you know, it’s hard to watch, especially when, you know, you get blowed out like that, especially when it’s on defense. So we just had to go in there, watch it, however hard it was.”
Tah’j Butler
🔀 Two Quarterbacks, One Tell
Vanderbilt has played both Jared Curtis and Blaze Berlowitz, and Golding said the offense changes with the quarterback. Butler said the defense’s job is to read it before the snap.
“We just got to really just harp in on like knowing who in, knowing what they do. Like whenever number 1 or number 2 in, like knowing when they running the ball or about to pass the ball based off the personnel.”
Tah’j Butler
Ole Miss at Vanderbilt, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2:30 p.m. CT / 3:30 p.m. ET, FirstBank Stadium, Nashville. More all week at olemisshub.com.