Ole Miss air raid? Rebels passing offense shows potential greatness in opener vs. Florida

OXFORD — Lane Kiffin wants Elijah Moore to break records. 

"I thought Elijah was really special from looking at film last year and getting to work with him," Kiffin said. "When I first met him I told him 'Hey, you've got to work harder than anyone in the country because you're going to shatter the school record for most catches in a year.'"

Moore is well on his way to set the records Kiffin wants him to. The junior receiver caught 10 passes for 227 yards in Ole Miss' 51-35 loss against No. 6 Florida Saturday. He finished six yards shy of tying A.J. Brown's record for most receiving yards in a single game in Ole Miss history and had another huge play taken off the board too. He caught a slip pass and ran 22 yards after the catch for a touchdown but that play was taken off the board because of a holding penalty.

But Moore wasn't the only Ole Miss player who put up massive numbers on Saturday. Sophomore quarterback Matt Corral did too. The quarterback completed 70.9% of his passes for 396 yards and three touchdowns with one interception that came on a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage. Prior to Saturday, Corral had never thrown for 300 yards in a game or thrown more than two touchdowns in a game.

Saturday marked the first time any Florida defense allowed more than 400 passing yards since Sept. 20, 2014. In that game, Florida faced off against an Alabama offense led by first-year coordinator Lane Kiffin. Kiffin built his gameplan around a receiver that day too. Amari Cooper caught 10 passes for 201 yards and three touchdowns in that game.

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Kiffin's confidence in Moore's ability to shatter records relates to what he was able to do with Cooper and others. Kiffin coached Cooper to Alabama's single-season receptions and receiving yards records and did the same for pass-catcher Marqise Lee at USC. 

"As you saw today, had we had a full 12 games I think he would've done that," Kiffin said of Moore. "It'll be a lot harder obviously with 10 conference games and no non-conference games."

When asked about Kiffin's expectations on him, Moore said he doesn't care about individual records. His team lost. That's all that matters. No matter how well the offense played, that wasn't good enough.

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But that's not necessarily true. This performance was a stark departure from the way Ole Miss' offense operated in 2019. Last year's Rebels were as run-first as any team in the SEC. They finished with the No. 9 rushing offense in the country and the No. 102 passing offense. They only passed for more than 250 yards as a team in one game, and that came in a losing effort.

This year's offense looks different. Florida had the No. 7 scoring defense in the country last year. The only opponent that scored more than 30 points against the Gators went on to win the national championship.

Now in their first game as a unit, Kiffin and offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby dreamed up an offense that shredded a defense with that pedigree. Mostly through the air. With a quarterback who only threw for six touchdowns all last season. 

More tests are ahead. Next week Ole Miss faces Kentucky, the team that ranked No. 2 in the nation in pass defense last season. Then eight more SEC games await. It's not time to rest on the laurels of one good offensive performance.

But just think about this stat: The last time an Ole Miss offense gained more than 400 passing yards and more than 600 total yards in a game against an SEC opponent was on Oct. 4, 1969 against Alabama with Archie Manning at quarterback.

If nothing else, this is a start.

"To have an output like that of almost 600 yards against what's normally a top-10 defense in the country," Kiffin said. "Last year even great teams struggled to move the ball against them. That was really good to see."

Contact Nick Suss at 601-408-2674 or nsuss@gannett.com. Follow @nicksuss on Twitter.