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Some pre-game notes here. UCA specialists have come out on the field and are loosening up. It's sunny and hot out there.
I'll have updates on Twitter @parrishalford and will be back here at halftime and after the game. Day After Observations returns tomorrow morning.
- Four of five games involving Southland Conference teams today were supposed to involve opponents from BCS conferences. One of those games, Nicholls State at Oregon State, was postponed, because of the effects of Hurricane Isaac on the Nicholls campus and team.
- Speaking of Nicholls, UCA coach Clint Conque, 51 and in his 13th season with the Bears, was an All-American linebacker at Nicholls back in the day.
- UCA is playing a BCS opponent for the first time. The Bears were in the D2 Gulf South Conference just six years ago. UCA is 18-12-1 against teams from Mississippi, including 13-5 against Delta State.
- UCA quarterback Wynrick Smothers, a running threat, will make just his second career start. His first also came against Hugh Freeze. Smothers was injured in UCA's 53-24 loss at Arkansas State last year.
- While Ole Miss quarterbacks Bo Wallace and Barry Brunetti struggled with interceptions this month, they face tonight a secondary that is considered to be the team strength for the Bears. UCA strong safety Jestin Love was the SLC Freshman of the Year two years ago and has totaled 11 interceptions in two seasons.
- An opportunistic UCA defense had six defensive touchdowns a year ago, three with fumbles and three with interceptions.
- Ole Miss ranked No. 100 in turnover margin last year, Freeze and Arkansas State No. 44.
- Tonight begins the 118th season of Ole Miss football.
- The Rebels are 82-26-5 in season openers but have lost their last two.
- The last three Ole Miss head coaches - Houston Nutt, Ed Orgeron and David Cutcliffe - won their debut games. Since 1933, Ole Miss coaches are 9-4 in debut games.
- Freeze has a 30-7 career record in stops at Lambuth and Arkansas State prior to Ole Miss.
- DB Charles Sawyer has the most consecutive starts of any Ole Miss player with 13. His status for a 14th start was in question much of this month after he sustained a torn quad on the second day of camp, but Sawyer is listed first on the depth chart. The second-most consecutive career starts belong to sophomore WR Donte Moncrief with 13.
If it looked like the QB position it really doesn't. Hugh Freeze praised both of his quarterbacks in the postgame. HE was very complimentary of Bo Wallace but was quick to point out the good things that Barry Brunetti did too, and Brunetti did good things.
It was Brunetti who led the Rebels on their third touchdown drive of the second half after Wallace had to have an IV late in the third quarter.
As I have said all camp, Wallace involves the receivers more. That was certainly the case tonight. Brunetti, though, showed his running skill. Two quarterbacks can help this team win, but it doesn't have to be equal snaps. I don't think it will be.
The offensive line has been a point of concern since the spring, and there was a mixed bag of results tonight.
Freeze said the negative plays on offense in the second quarter were due to some blown assignments up front. There were fewer of those in the second half obviously.
Bottom line, there was 565 yards on 78 plays leading to 49 points. Hard to argue with that.
We all know the competition amps up now, but this was a good beginning. We'll see where it goes from here.
Defensively, UCA gained 237 yards in the first half, just 110 in the second.
While it looked like the Rebels weren't very physical on the defensive front, Dave Wommack said that wasn't the case. Basically, he said his guys were too dominant, and they were getting upfield too quickly and running themselves out of position.
That created running lanes in the middle and UCA players took advantage.
That changed in the second half, and the Bears didn't score until 1:29 was left in the game, and Ole Miss had a number of reserves in at that point.
One interesting note, the Rebels had only 13 sacks last year but had four in the second half tonight. A good sign.
More in Day After Observations tomorrow.
PA, you did a great job predicting the Rebels would pull away in the second half. JB, save your latest sky is falling speech until next week.
Well, this is why we say it's really hard to tell about teams until they play a game.
After a month of writing that the defense had the upper hand in practice, the Ole Miss defense has been abused by FCS Central Arkansas and has allowed 237 yards in the first half.
The offense, meanwhile, has looked better than I would have expected. Bo Wallace led two touchdown drives in the first quarter, but then things began to stall. The offensive line obviously got some looks it wasn't prepared for, and at one point gave up three sacks and a TFL on four plays.
Two of those sacks came when the Rebels had reached the 3-yard line and seemed poised to score a third touchdown. They attempted a 29-yard field goal instead, and normally automatic Bryson Rose pushed it to the right.
As smooth as the offense looked in the first quarter it looked out of sync in the second.
Halftime adjustments were a big top for Houston Nutt's stuff last year. Nutt tried different things to fire up his Rebels after halftime, including exercising before the third quarter kick at Auburn.
In his first game Hugh Freeze is going to have to come up with some adjustments to avoid an embarrassing loss to a I-AA team. It would be the second such loss in three years for Ole Miss.
At the half, the Rebels have been outgained 237-231. UCA is averaging 6.4 yards per play.
Ole Miss is also averaging 6.4 yards per play.
The QB situation has been almost exclusively Bo Wallace, though Barry Brunetti contributed a 24-yard run on his series.
Wallace has rushed eight times for 47 yards and a touchdown and is 13-for-16 passing for 142 yards, no touchdowns and one interception. He was either hit when throwing or just had the ball tipped on his INT.
Freshman Jaylen Walton has a 10-yard touchdown run. Randall Mackey has carried seven times for 12 yards, and Korvic Neat has six catches for 75 yards.
JB