Everything this column has complained about for a month got fixed in one afternoon.
Ole Miss ran 77 offensive snaps and played 73 on defense in Saturday’s 31-3 Homecoming win over No. 13 Missouri. The Rebels missed four tackles.
Four. Against Charlotte it was 14. Against LSU, 14. At Florida, 14. Six at Vanderbilt, and now four against a ranked team that threw it forty-one times. The season total through six games was 69 missed tackles; this was the cleanest tackling performance of the year.
And the player this column spent the week arguing should play more played more, and graded best on the field.
Defense
Nick Cull played, and led the defense
| Player | Snaps | Share | Tgt-Rec-Yds | Rating allowed | Coverage | PFF defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nick Cull | 34 | 47% | 3-1-5 | 42.4 | 74.2 | 76.7 |
| Joenel Aguero | 73 | 100% | 6-4-39 | 84.7 | 63.2 | 64.4 |
| Sharif Denson | 73 | 100% | 7-3-22 | 50.9 | 55.8 | 62.5 |
| Antonio Kite | 47 | 64% | 6-3-65 | 88.9 | 60.9 | 63.6 |
| Jalyn Crawford | 69 | 95% | 7-6-70 | 108.3 | 56.0 | 59.9 |
| Jaylon Braxton | 65 | 89% | 3-1-16 | 42.4 | 53.0 | 56.1 |
| Ladarian Clardy | 5 | 7% | — | — | 60.0 | 62.0 |
Nick Cull graded 76.7 — the best mark on the Ole Miss defense. He played 34 snaps, was thrown at three times, allowed one catch for five yards and gave up a 42.4 passer rating. He also did not miss a tackle.
He has the best season grade of any Ole Miss safety and has played barely a third of the snaps the room’s leader has. On Saturday he got 47 percent of them and was the best defender on the field. That is now an argument with evidence behind it twice.
And Joenel Aguero played all 73 snaps and missed nothing. A 83.8 tackling grade from a player carrying a 32.1 percent season miss rate is the single biggest individual correction in this report. Sharif Denson went 73 snaps for seven tackles and allowed three catches on seven targets — a 50.9 rating, his best coverage day of the season.
The soft spot moved to the corner opposite Braxton. Jalyn Crawford played 69 snaps — the most of any Ole Miss corner, five weeks after being at zero against LSU — and allowed six catches on seven targets for 70 yards and a 108.3 rating.
The pass rush came back
| Player | Snaps | Rush snaps | Pressures | Run defense | PFF defense |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Will Echoles | 52 | 36 | 2 (1 sack, 2 bat) | 72.7 | 73.2 |
| Kam Franklin | 46 | 31 | 1 | 82.2 | 69.7 |
| Blake Purchase | 36 | 20 | 2 | 64.5 | 68.5 |
| Jonathan Maldonado | 35 | 18 | 2 | 54.5 | 61.8 |
| Suntarine Perkins | 33 | 18 | 1 | 50.8 | 48.3 |
| Michai Boireau | 20 | 10 | 0 | 67.8 | 65.0 |
| Jehiem Oatis | 19 | 8 | 0 | 64.1 | 66.8 |
| Jamarious Brown | 17 | 9 | 0 | 60.5 | 58.3 |
| Jordan Renaud | 11 | 5 | 0 | 62.8 | 61.8 |
| Andrew Maddox | 9 | 6 | 0 | 66.8 | 67.0 |
| Landon Barnes | 9 | 5 | 0 | 59.3 | 71.2 |
| Jayden Curtis | 7 | 5 | 0 | 68.5 | 69.0 |
Fourteen pressures and two sacks, against the six pressures and zero sacks this defense managed at Florida. Will Echoles had the sack and two batted passes. Luke Ferrelli added a sack and a hit from the second level.
Kam Franklin’s 82.2 against the run was the best front-seven mark of the day, and it shows up in the box score: Missouri ran for 39 yards.
Landon Barnes played nine snaps and intercepted a pass — the first of his career — and graded 71.2 doing it.
The exception, and it is becoming a pattern: Suntarine Perkins graded 48.3, last on the defense. Thirty-three snaps, one pressure on 18 rushes, a 50.8 against the run, and the one ball thrown at him went for 43 yards. Three straight weeks now his grade has been a problem, and the season file says the same thing — eight pressures on 82 rushes.
Linebacker
Tah’j Butler had seven tackles, five stops and an 85.4 run-defense grade on 43 snaps. Keaton Thomas played 54 and graded 82.4 against the run and 80.8 in tackling. Both were excellent against the run and both were targeted and completed on every throw — Butler 3-for-3 for 41, Thomas 2-for-2 for 38, each allowing a 118.8 rating.
Luke Ferrelli, who leads the team with eleven missed tackles on the season, missed two more and graded 44.0 in tackling. He also got a sack. That is the Ferrelli bargain in one line.
The number that explains the scoreboard
Missouri was charted with 41 targets, 25 completions and 339 passing yards — and scored three points.
Ole Miss allowed 61 percent completions and gave up 140 yards after the catch, surrendered no touchdowns, took the ball away once and broke up three. A 77.2 team passer rating allowed. This was bend-and-never-break, and the four missed tackles are why the bending never turned into points.
Offense
Seventy-seven snaps, 40 pass and 37 run — the most balanced split of the season, and the one that produced 257 rushing yards at 6.7 a carry.
| Player | Snaps | Share | PFF offense | Key grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caleb Cunningham | 34 | 44% | 77.6 | 76.9 receiving |
| Kewan Lacy | 35 | 45% | 76.6 | 77.8 pass block |
| Terez Davis | 54 | 70% | 74.2 | 88.9 pass block |
| Brycen Sanders | 57 | 74% | 72.2 | 70.0 pass block |
| Trinidad Chambliss | 75 | 97% | 71.0 | 77.7 passing |
| Horatio Fields | 36 | 47% | 70.4 | 78.4 run block |
| Makhi Frazier | 40 | 52% | 70.3 | 72.6 rushing |
| Delano Townsend | 75 | 97% | 68.9 | 83.2 pass block |
| Traylon Ray | 30 | 39% | 66.9 | 69.9 receiving |
| Connor Howes | 70 | 91% | 65.0 | 71.3 pass block |
| Patrick Kutas | 75 | 97% | 63.4 | 41.7 pass block |
| Caleb Odom | 52 | 68% | 60.9 | 11.1 pass block · 4 pen |
| Tommy Kinsler IV | 30 | 39% | 55.6 | 53.2 pass block |
| Johntay Cook II | 30 | 39% | 54.6 | 82.7 run block |
| Luke Hasz | 49 | 64% | 52.8 | 73.5 pass block |
| Deuce Alexander | 52 | 68% | 51.0 | 48.6 receiving |
Caleb Cunningham graded best on the offense. Thirty-four snaps, three catches, 61 yards, a touchdown and a 76.9 receiving grade. He has the best receiving grade on the roster for the season and he just posted the best offensive grade in a win over a ranked team. The snap share is still 44 percent.
Kewan Lacy pass blocked at 77.8. His season mark coming in was 28.8 — the worst of any Ole Miss back. He also carried 16 times for 122 yards and graded 77.0 running it. If that protection number is real rather than a one-week spike, the one genuine hole in his game just closed.
Two linemen had unusual days in opposite directions. Terez Davis graded 88.9 in pass protection and Delano Townsend 83.2 — both season-best territory. Patrick Kutas graded 41.7, his worst of the year, on the same 40 pass-blocking snaps.
And the rough one. Caleb Odom caught a touchdown, graded 11.1 in pass protection and drew four penalties — four of the six Ole Miss committed all afternoon. He now has ten on the season, most on the offense by a distance.
Deuce Alexander graded last among Ole Miss players who took a snap, at 51.0. He played 52 and ran 28 routes. For a receiver who entered the day second on the team in season grade, it was his quietest afternoon of the year — and the offense did not miss a beat without him, which is the more interesting half of that sentence.
At right tackle: Connor Howes 70 snaps at 71.3 in protection, Tommy Kinsler IV 30 at 53.2. Same gap as the season file says.
What it actually tells us
Four missed tackles. After 14, 14, 14 and six. Against a ranked team that threw the ball 41 times and was chasing from the second quarter on. Whatever happened in the bye week and the two Saturdays since, it held.
The two players the grades said to play, played — and were the best Rebels on their side of the ball. Nick Cull led the defense on 34 snaps. Caleb Cunningham led the offense on 34. Neither is close to a full-time role.
Missouri threw for 339 yards and scored three points. No touchdowns allowed, an interception, three breakups, and a defense that tackled everything it touched. The yardage is going to look alarming in a box score and it should not.
And Suntarine Perkins is the one thing still going the wrong way. Last on the defense at 48.3, one pressure on 18 rushes, 43 yards surrendered on his only target. Three straight weeks. Texas is not the week to still be looking for it.
Ole Miss is 5-1, 3-1 in the SEC, and goes to No. 7 Texas on Saturday at 6:30 CT on ABC. 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: Will Echoles, Jonathan Maldonado and Tah’j Butler, October 17, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
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