Five Plays: Ole Miss First Quarter

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - SEPTEMBER 06: Clev Lubin #50 of the Louisville Cardinals reacts to forcing a fumble against the Ole Miss Rebels in the first half of the Music City Kickoff 2026 at Nissan Stadium on September 6, 2026 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Carly Mackler/Getty Images) | Getty Images

Louisville went down to Nashville and battled Ole Miss to the final second on the clock. There were a lot of questions that the Cards needed to answer quickly, with the main one being how Lincoln Kienholz would play in his first career start. But UofL came out with a great plan, and they took advantage of some rough moments for the Rebels to put together a solid first quarter.

Let's dive into some plays that stood out to me.

This may have been my favorite play call in the entire game. Jeff Brohm came out early with a nice and easy throw for Lincoln Kienholz. Not only was it very obvious that Ole Miss would sell out to stop the run, but it was also important to get Linc outside of the pocket on his first throw. Getting him a clear picture of his target was a great idea.

This play was executed about as well as possible. The line sells the fake well while also doing a very good job of protecting the backside of the play. Linc sells the fake well and then gets his head around perfectly to identify his options. Jaleel Skinner not only runs this route with the exact angle it needs, but he also immediately gets upfield looking for more yardage. There's a good chance that this is a touchdown if Lawayne McCoy sees the defender trailing behind him in time to try to get a block on him.

Louisville's defense had an unbelievable energy to it early in this game. They set the tone early that they would be flying around the field and making plays. Ole Miss runs speed option to the wide side, and Stanquan Clark plays it nearly perfectly. He splits the difference between the ball and the pitch man while gaining width and staying close enough to Trinidad Chambliss that he could close down on him if he doesn't pitch the ball.

The one thing I would have liked to see from Stanquan here would be for him to run through Kewan Lacy instead of biting on this hesitation. He and Kaleb Beasley both need to trust their teammates to be there if Lacy cuts back here. This should have been a 1-yard gain at most, but he ends up getting up the sideline for five.

I wish I had all of the old plays I've clipped because this is a Mark Ivey call from the Bryan Brown/Nate Woody playbook. In a short-yardage situation like this, they liked to slant the line one way and fill with a linebacker. You can see that the nose tackle and defensive end to the top of the screen slant down to their right, and Stanquan fills in the gap that they leave behind to make the play on the runner.

The defensive line also does an exceptional job of holding the point of attack. That's not easy to do when you're turned like this, but they all plug up the hole with a big assist from 225-pound Antonio Watts, who takes up two blockers by just sticking his nose in the mix. They need this kind of play from their front all year.

I want to start by saying that I loathe any bootleg or sprint action passes to the left for a right-handed passer. They are very hard for guys to complete, and it gets harder when the throw is down the field. With that being said, this is a clear miss by Linc on a call that is meant to get him another easy throw. Tre Richardson is open on this play, and Linc just doesn't get it to him.

You can see that when he turns his head, Linc is already looking down the field. He then turns to the middle of the field, looking for an option. He should be getting his hips around and making the quick throw to Richardson, and letting his receiver make a play for him. He has to take the layups when he has them, because there will be a ton of calls this year designed to give him layups. The big plays will come naturally.

Ole Miss found a weakness in Mark Ivey's game plan even though they didn't exploit it much in the first half. They did take advantage of it on this play, however. Ivey ran a lot of Cover 3 on Sunday, which puts the outside corners in zone coverage from the numbers out and the safety in the middle of the field responsible for everything in the middle of the field. You can see Brycen Scott covering the outside receiver on this play at the top of the screen. Ole Miss motions Lacy out to the slot, and TJ Banks follows him.

This is a perfect play call against Cover 3. The receivers have wide splits, which takes them well away from the safety in the middle of the field just based on alignment. Lacy runs a wheel route, which keeps Scott well outside the numbers, and the Rebels' outside receiver runs a skinny post, then sits in the window of the seam between all three Louisville defenders.

Two things needed to happen on this play to at least make this throw a little tougher to complete. Scott has to split the difference on the switch here. Lacy is so close to the boundary that Scott can use it as an extra defender. Chambliss would have to throw an unbelievable ball to hit Lacy. Banks needs to get much better depth on this play. He turns outside (I'm nearly certain they are coached to do this, so he is not in the wrong), and when he does, he loses sight of the fact that there is no underneath threat. If he knew there was no threat, I would expect him to turn and run with the routes, which would have put him closer to the receiver at the catch.

Someone or multiple people are in the wrong on this play, and I'm not sure which one it is. Demeco Kennedy swims the guard on 2nd and 4, which seems like something you would not want him to do at all, and the clip above clearly shows why. He blows past the right guard, which opens up a massive hole for the running back to run through. I hesitate to say this wasn't his assignment because the other defensive tackle essentially does the same thing.

TJ Capers is lined up to the strong side of the formation with Stanquan next to him, getting downhill at the snap. Capers, however, hesitates before he crosses over to the weak side of the play, which puts him well out of position to make the tackle. I can't think of a reason to have Capers play this in this way. I do wonder if he saw the back take his initial step towards the left and tried to make a read. Either way, this didn't work for the Cards, even thought he play didn't go for much.

Louisville went out and grabbed two former cornerbacks to play safety for them this year. When they play man coverage, they like to play Man Free with a single high safety. They use the other safety to cover slots and tight ends, as we see here. Banks is in press coverage against a tight end, and he shows perfect coverage on the play before making a very nice break up on the pass. This is teach tape.

It's always great to see the staff make targeted decisions with the roster, and those decisions pay off. Banks played over 300 snaps for Ole Miss last year before deciding to hit the portal. Steve Ellis leveraged his relationship with Banks from his recruitment in high school to land him as a guy who can give the staff versatility in the secondary. Ellis and Ivey wasted no time utilizing that versatility to play aggressively on Sunday like we see on this play.