Masoli confident Rebels can recover

As feelings of disappointment and shock set in for the Ole Miss football team Saturday after their loss to Jacksonville State, one player came to the podium displaying a cool, quiet confidence about him.

That player was Jeremiah Masoli.

After being cleared on Sept. 3, one day before the Rebels’ game against Jacksonville State, it was unclear whether Masoli would play or if he did, how much he would play.

That question was answered rather quickly, as Masoli ran onto the field late in the first quarter, drawing a standing ovation from the 55,000 plus fans packed into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. For Masoli, getting back to football was a relief.

“It was great, just taking the field with my teammates for the first time, I was nothing more than happy,” Masoli said. “This week’s been a little rocky. I just hung in there and kept encouraging the guys.”

On the field, Masoli may have been a little unprepared due to a lack of reps during practice game week, but the talent that made him a Heisman Trophy candidate at Oregon was on display. 

Throughout the game and overtime, Masoli led four scoring drives, including three that went for touchdowns.

“I did alright,” Masoli said about his performance. “The interception was on me, I shouldn’t have done that.”

That interception was one of three costly turnovers by the Ole Miss offense Saturday. Even with the turnovers, Masoli still thought the Rebel offense was effective on Saturday.

“As the game went on today, we were feeling pretty confident. Then in the second half, we got a sluggish and Jacksonville State took advantage of it,” Masoli said.

At the end of the day, Masoli had accumulated 138 total yards of offense, including 7-of-10 through the air for 109 yards.

In a decision that may have surprised fans, Masoli was the quarterback in both of the overtime periods, and that decision proved to be a good one as Ole Miss scored on both possessions. The reason for that, according to co-offensive coordinator Dave Rader, was simple.

“We played Jeremiah because we felt the threat of the option and use of the option game would be needed,” Radar said.

With both coaches and players admitting that this loss would be a tough one to deal with, Masoli may be the player that leads the recovery as he has been in this situation before with Oregon’s season opening loss to Boise State in 2009.

“It was a big blow for us; we all thought we were going to win that, guaranteed, 100 percent,” Masoli said. “But one of the things I did learn from that is you get better. You get better every day one day at a time. Last year, we come out on top in the (Pac-10) conference and those are still our goals and those are still intact and we can still do that.”

The experience of Masoli has been spoken of repeatedly in recent weeks, but his ability to recover from a shocking and disappointing loss may be his most underrated characteristic and one that could help save Ole Miss’ season.