Pete Golding's subtle change that could make difference for Ole Miss defense, Lane Kiffin

OXFORD — Jared Ivey arrived at a mouthwatering conclusion during the second half of Ole Miss football's victory over Tulane.

The defensive lineman was fresh. The opposition was not.

What happened next followed a time-tested pattern. Like a prizefighter against a fading foe or a fresh power-play unit against a drained penalty kill, the Ole Miss defense swarmed until the Green Wave offense buckled. Providing the platform for a 37-20 comeback win, the Rebels' defense outscored the Tulane offense 7-3 in the second half after the 6-foot-5, 265-pound Ivey returned a fumble return for a touchdown.

Ivey and his teammates are calling the play a "thick-six."

"I felt fresher than I had felt going into halftime in a game ‒ not like a Mercer where the score was (73-7) ‒ in a game where we felt like it was gonna maybe go down to all four quarters. I definitely felt super fresh and also super confident," Ivey said Monday. "Mentally fresh as well. There wasn't a lot of mental clutter. We knew the situation going into halftime, we knew the adjustments we needed to make. We got the job done."

Ole Miss 'able to just roll guys'

Ole Miss' defensive starters played 66.4% of the unit's available snaps against Tulane. The Rebels played seven games last season that entered the fourth quarter with the outcome still in the balance. Only one ‒ a bowl game against Texas Tech that the Rebels trailed by 19 with 13 minutes to play ‒ saw Ole Miss use its defensive starters less. In two games against ranked foes last season, the Rebels deployed their defensive starters for over 75% of snaps both times.

"We're able to just roll guys," Ivey said. "I always say this whenever something like this comes up: You know, (the Tulane) O-line doesn't sub at all. Regardless of where they're at on the field, what personnel they got in, they're keeping the same O-line the whole game. We have to use that to our advantage, where we can just roll guys and go full speed the whole game."

If this all seems a bit trivial, consider this: Ole Miss lost the fourth quarter in four of its five defeats last season, with the only exception coming against Arkansas in a game that was over by halftime. Its defense allowed 10.6 points in those fourth quarters, on average.

The Rebels' defensive depth either did not perform − or was not trusted to perform – in pivotal moments last season. One competitive game into 2023, Ole Miss has already illustrated the power of rotation.

"It really makes us better and allows us to play faster," defensive back John Saunders Jr. said.

New Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding's willingness to rotate against Tulane might be partially owed to the Green Wave's fast-paced offense, which ran 84 plays. Ole Miss used its bench with similar frequency in the Texas Bowl last season, when Texas Tech ran 90 plays. Last season's median offensive pace was 70 plays per game.

The Red Raiders torched the Ole Miss defense in that game, posting 484 yards of total offense. The results against Tulane last week were much different, particularly in the second half, when the Green Wave ran 51 plays to net only 158 yards.

After Ole Miss spent an offseason chasing defensive players in the transfer portal ‒ knowing many of them would offer depth options rather than assuming starting roles ‒ the Rebels' defenders feel confident in their reserves.

"The guys behind me better be as good as me if we wanna go win this thing," linebacker Jeremiah Jean-Baptiste said this week.

"The ones are good. The twos are ones, too," Saunders added.

RUNNING GAME CONCERNS: Ole Miss football's sputtering run game gives Lane Kiffin cause for concern — but not change

Golding will have to decide whether to consolidate his rotation against slower offenses. Ole Miss (2-0) takes on Georgia Tech (1-1) at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday (6:30 p.m., SEC Network). The Yellow Jackets have run 68.5 plays per game.

Whatever Golding chooses, the Rebels showed the quality of their defensive depth last week. And that gives their playcaller one of his trade's most valuable commodities: options.

"Everybody wants to see everybody eat," Ivey said.

David Eckert covers Ole Miss for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at deckert@gannett.com or reach him on Twitter @davideckert98.

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This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Lane Kiffin: Ole Miss football defense better thanks to Pete Golding