Junior edge rusher Jared Ivey played an instrumental role and stepped up for the Rebel defensive front that was forced to play without veteran Cedric Johnson. The pass rush, led by Jared Ivey, was able to help limit Auburn to just 140 passing yards by forcing Robby Ashford to make adjustments on the fly while running all over the field in the Rebels’ 34-48 victory.
Ivey totaled four tackles (one solo), 1.5 tackles for loss, one sack, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. After a performance like that, the junior was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.
His reaction?
“I was just shocked,” Ivey admitted. “Then I went to Twitter, saw it and just retweeted it. (I) saw Quinshon (Judkins) won offensive (SEC Freshman of the Week) too, so super proud of him.”
Despite allowing less than 150 yards of passing, Auburn was able to gash the Rebel run defense for 301 yards.
“I mean we just gotta come play more physical, be able to make our checks (and) make our reads. And just go out there and play more violent and have a better game,” Ivey said.
Tank Bigsby led the charge on the Auburn ground game with 179 rushing yards, but Auburn’s dual threat signal caller also presented a challenge to Ole Miss’ defense.
Looking towards this week, LSU also has a swiss army knife quarterback in Jayden Daniels. How does Ivey and the rest of the front go about trying to improve tackling throughout the week?
“There’s a lot of things we do. We do bag work, donut stuff, we do a live period on Tuesday with the tight ends,” Ivey added. “So just anything we can do to get some tackling in, we take full advantage of that time.”
Since October and SEC play, the Georgia Tech transfer has recorded nine (five solo) tackles and has notched two of his team leading 3.5 sacks along with two forced fumbles. Ivey also had Ole Miss’ signature moment of the season so far when he knocked the ball free from Will Levis late in the game as Kentucky was driving for the win.
What’s been the difference from September to October for him?
“I just feel like you get those first couple game jitters out and then obviously we’re getting adjustments in and we’re working hard throughout the week to prepare each week,” Ivey explained. “Just trying to get better everywhere just week by week.”
The player who recovered the fumble Ivey forced against Kentucky? Tavius Robinson. Once again Tavius Robinson and Jared Ivey were on a collision course in the backfield with the quarterback and again featured another forced turnover.
Even after replays it wasn’t clear who stripped the football, but it was clear Ivey had recovered it.
“We have been fighting over it,” Ivey jokingly said. “Tavius I feel loosened it and then I drove through the tackle and knocked it out, I feel like. He doesn’t feel like that. There’s an angle where it looks like it’s all him and then there’s another angle where it looks like it was me. So, who cares? We met at the quarterback, party at the quarterback, doing our thing. Either way it was positive.”
The Rebels had five different defensive linemen registering a tackle against Auburn and had even more in the rotation trying to clog up rushing lanes.
How much of an advantage does that play for Ivey and the Ole Miss defensive front?
“I mean I think there’s a look, I think there’s a feel,” Ivey revealed. “Obviously from that first snap to maybe snap 50, snap 40, it’s not just me. I think, to hit on what you said, we got so many guys that can just go in there and rotate and refresh our game. It sucks for them (the opponent), but a lot of those guys just because of matchups don’t get to sub at all. So we just get to go back at them fresh over and over and over and over again. That definitely wears out on them.”
Ivey and the Rebels will now have a two-game road trip over the next two weeks, starting with a trip to Baton Rouge on Saturday, October 22 to take on LSU. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. CT and can be seen on CBS or listened to on the Ole Miss Radio Network. Inside The Rebels will be on site to provide updates, notes, facts, observations and more.
“I’m excited, I’m excited. Obviously it’s Death Valley so it’ll be crazy, but I guess I’ll see when we get there,” said Ivey.
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