Houston Nutt had some good things to say about offensive lineman Rishaw Johnson following Monday's practice.

Johnson's development this spring is significant. While there are story lines and position battles all over the place, this is a guy who has very little game experience but does have some. He brings a natural physical approach to offensive line play that the staff is working hard to get out of its tackles, Bradley Sowell and Bobby Massie right now.

There isn't much depth on the offensive line, and the only man competing with Rishaw Johnson for the starting job is Rishaw Johnson. If he keeps his head on straight he'll be a starter and can possibly give the Rebels a player to build around on the interior.

Sowell and Massie are tlheir most experienced linemen, and they're counting on those two guys to be productive on the edge. They weren't very productive in the first scrimmage, and the OL as a whole left a lot to be desired. But the fact is, it's hard to get a good read on these things in practice. It's a young and inexperienced group going up against one of the SEC's best defensive fronts.

It's cliche, but the Ole Miss offensive line will improve for this reason.

Elsewhere ...

Baseball dropped four spots to No. 15 in the Baseball America Top 25. First baseman-outfielder Matt Smith says the team needs to "take control" of games.

That is an apt description for what the Rebels did not accomplish in Saturday and Sunday losses to Tennessee. They had chances early in both of those games but made mistakes on the basepaths. When they weren't running, Tennessee usually turned two, getting eight double plays on the weekend.

No Sunday pitcher has been announced, but it stands to reason David Goforth will get another shot.

He gave the Rebels a chance, got the game under control at the beginning. That's an improvement.

Goforth is a career reliever and doesn't have starter stamina yet. Perhaps that will come. For now the Rebels are going to have to fix some things with their long relief. They're going to have to "take control" from the mound in the later innings if they're going to win a Sunday SEC game, and as Tennessee showed, you can't expect to win the first two games of the series every weekend.