When Ole Miss Football Resumes: The Defensive Line

For two or three years, maybe more, the common theme after signing day was “we are one or two defensive linemen short, but. . . . . . “

The ‘but’ – meaning wait until next year – never came and now the chickens have partly come home to roost from a depth and talent perspective.

And that’s not a good thing since the Rebels play in the SEC and everyone knows in this conference everything starts up front. Teams that show a weakness in the trenches, well, long Saturday afternoons are the rule rather than the exception.

In this series, which has been all offense until this piece, we have not written much about who has graduated, but on the DL, that’s a big chunk of the story. Benito Jones, Josiah Coatney, Austrian Robinson and Qaadir Sheppard are all departed now, looking for opportunities in the NFL.

New Defensive Line Coach Deke Adams is left with a spattering of youngsters on the inside and a little more experience but not a lot of depth on the outside, depending on how the new defensive staff plays things.

Let us briefly explain – if Co-DCs D.J. Durkin and Chris Partridge go with a base 4-3 and opt to move some or all of Sam Williams, Chuck Wiley, Brandon Mack and Luke Knox from OLB to DE, then the outside of the DL is looking pretty good. Word is they will have a multiple look with 4-3, 3-4 and 4-2-5 in play, so where those guys end up is still in the air.

Let’s be lazy and leave those gentlemen out of the equation for now and concentrate on the given, the for sure, personnel up front, starting inside.

Hal Northern, who has been sporadic since coming to Ole Miss from NWCC two years ago, is the lone senior DT and his presence has been, well, inconsistent with not enough flashes to project an upgrade of his contributions.

Junior Sincere David has spent more time hurt than active, which doesn’t state a strong case for him either.

Sophomore K.D. Hill and Quentin Bivens have probably been the most reliable of the returning defensive tackles to this point, but are they ready to be heavy influences on the DL? At 306 pounds and 300 pounds, respectively, they are big enough, but by today’s standards, barely.

The meat is hopefully coming from a pair of mammoth redshirt frosh in 6-3, 336-pound Patrick Lucas and 6-5, 331-pound LeDarrius Cox. If those two show progress when things crank back up, problem solved. If not, Adams will have his hands full.

On the outside at DE, one would have to be enthused about seniors Tariqious Tisdale and Ryder Anderson. They have good ability and enough experience to bookend the DL in solid fashion, but where is the depth coming from unless it is from a couple of the Wiley-Williams-Mack-Knox quartet of outside linebackers? Bivens played inside and outside last year and maybe he’s an option and Cox is listed as a DE, but is that where he will end up or will his 331 pounds be planted inside? We’d make a wild stab at inside, by the way.

Note: Anderson is coming off a season-ending knee injury from last year, but our understanding is that he is in “great shape” and ready to roll.

Of course, there’s always the chance signees DE Demon Clowney and DT DeSanto Rollins could come in and make an impact, but to be relegated to counting on that would be worrisome at best and scary at the very least.

Obviously, the new mentor has his work cut out for him – no small task at all considering all the variables – time, numbers, talent, experience.

For several years, the battle cry has been “we needed to sign two more defensive linemen, but. . . . “ and now the reality of not doing so is setting in more than ever with the departure of Jones, Coatney and Robinson, most notably.

The defensive line and its development will be one of the major areas of concern and one of the units that will deserve the most observation. . . .

. . . . when football resumes at Ole Miss.

SOURCE: Rounsaville, Chuck. "When Ole Miss Football Resumes: The Defensive Line." OMSpirit - 247Sports.com, 30 April 2020, https://247sports.com/college/ole-miss/Article/When-Ole-Miss-Football-Resumes-The-Defensive-Line-146648376/