OXFORD, Miss. (AP) -With a promising season slowly slipping away, Mississippi played its best game since January’s Cotton Bowl.
A few more performances like Saturday’s emphatic, 30-17 win over Arkansas, and the Rebels can plan on another trip to a good postseason game.
No. 24 Ole Miss was rewarded with re-entry into the Top 25. The Rebels began the season as a threat to win the Southeastern Conference and rose to No. 4, but all that vanished after losses to South Carolina and Alabama. Dexter McCluster was quiet offensively, and Jevan Snead had regressed since last year.
They were both at their best against the Razorbacks, the team Houston Nutt coached before leaving to take over at Ole Miss in 2007.
McCluster set career highs in rushing and receiving Saturday, and Snead threw for a career-high 332 yards.
Last year, Ole Miss beat Arkansas to start a season-ending six-game winning streak, culminating in a 47-34 win over Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl.
, it’s a matter of keeping the course and these last two weeks, you’ve seen the results.”
After losing to Alabama on Oct. 10, the Rebels beat Alabama-Birmingham and then dispatched Arkansas. The win over the Razorbacks was much easier than last season’s trip to Arkansas, when Nutt and Ole Miss escaped with a 23-21 victory.
On Saturday, the Rebels (5-2, 2-2) jumped ahead 17-0 and controlled the line of scrimmage throughout. They turned the ball over three times but still won comfortably.
McCluster touched the ball on about half the Rebels’ first-quarter plays and had already run for a career-high 108 yards by halftime. In the second half, he caught a screen pass, eluded the first line of defense and went 64 yards for a touchdown and a 24-10 lead. He finished with 123 yards rushing and 137 receiving.
“I knew to be patient. I knew it was going to come,” McCluster said. “It just happened that today I got the touches.”
Arkansas (3-4, 1-4) made it 24-17 in the third quarter when Ryan Mallett threw deep for Greg Childs and the ball was tipped right to Carlton Salters, who jogged the final few feet to the end zone. That 58-yard touchdown made the score look respectable, but the Rebels made 31 first downs to Arkansas’ 13 and outgained the Razorbacks 553-299.
previous weekend.
“Week after week we have a tough game and there are no pushovers,” offensive lineman Mitch Petrus said. “It seems like on every play we had nine or 10 guys doing their job, but it was just like it was one guy who didn’t make a play.”
Arkansas running back Michael Smith returned after missing the previous game with a bad hamstring, but he carried only six times for 35 yards. Mallett went 12 of 34 for 254 yards and was sacked four times.
“Basically we had a gap and we were still letting guys through that, and that is unacceptable,” Petrus said. “We’re not giving Mallett enough time in the pocket.”
Arkansas plays its next four games at home, but matchups next month against South Carolina and Mississippi State will take on increased importance as the team tries to return to a bowl after missing the postseason in 2008.
Ole Miss, on the other hand, should have plenty of confidence. At 5-2, the Rebels are actually off to their best start since 2003, when they began 8-2 with Eli Manning at quarterback. Ole Miss plays at Auburn next weekend before playing three of its final four games at home.
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