Ole Miss’ biggest concern heading into their matchup with LSU this weekend is if Matt Corral will be at the helm for Lane Kiffin’s offense.
Corral sustained an injury following a 426 total yard performance against Tennessee in Knoxville last weekend. 195 of those yards came on the ground, one of the main reasons why Kiffin was so concerned with his quarterback’s health heading into the LSU game was because of the beating Corral took running the ball.
If Ole Miss elects to play Corral, LSU may not need to play as much contain or spy as often as they would have anticipated if Corral isn’t able to extend plays with his legs as he has so far this season. It may be in LSU’s best interest to test out things against Ole Miss’ defense early if they can, put seven points on the board, and then drop back into coverage and see what Corral has to offer.
If Corral doesn’t play, Ole Miss has two options.
They either play Kinkead Dent, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound backup quarterback out of Yazoo City, Mississippi, or they play John Rhys Plumlee, who moved to receiver after Corral took over the starting job last season.
Dent has completed two of his four passes this season for seven yards. He has 28 rushing yards on two attempts this season (a 26-yard run against Tulane and a 2 yard run against Austin Peay).
Plumlee has amassed 2,305 yards and 17 touchdowns from scrimmage in his three years at Ole Miss, throwing for 981 yards, catching 11 passes for 127 yards, and rushing for 1,197 yards. LSU fans know Plumlee well after he ran for 212 yards and four touchdowns against them back in 2019.
What Ole Miss could do is run the two-quarterback system they had back in 2019 against LSU, bringing Corral in sparingly and letting Plumlee operate an offense that will primarily focus on the ground attack. Corral threw for 89 yards and a touchdown in that 2019 LSU loss.
Either way, Ole Miss faces an LSU team that is coming off of an unexpected win over Florida. While talent, records, and statistics may indicate that this is going to be an Ole Miss win, I also believe that LSU’s ceiling is hard to gauge now that Orgeron’s firing is out of the way. Corral potentially not being in the picture for this game should give LSU fans hope for this weekend.
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