BLOG — Rested from the recent Christmas break, the Ole Miss Rebels continued work for their BBVA Compass Bowl matchup with Pittsburgh Friday afternoon.Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze held a walk through practice Thursday, the first for the team in six days, before opening workouts back up to the general public and media. Ole Miss will practice Saturday and Monday in Oxford before heading to Birmingham, Ala., to finish up work for the bowl that will be played at Legion Field.
Sophomore quarterback Bo Wallace took limited snaps Friday as Freeze continues to try and rest this year’s Conerly Trophy Award winner.
“It’s been the same that it’s been. I don’t think anyone can look at him and say he’s 100 percent but he’s been that way for heck, 10 weeks or so,” Freeze said of Wallace who has dealt with a sore throwing shoulder since the Tulane game. “He’ll be ready. I think him sitting out a couple of weeks makes him sorer initially when he starts back. He threw quite a few balls (Thursday) night and I’m sure he’s feeling sore today. But he’ll be fine.”
Junior Barry Brunetti took the majority of the snaps during Friday’s practice, much like he has since bowl work started.
“He’s gotten a lot of reps, he and Maikhail (Miller) both. There are a lot of times where you’re real pleased with him, he’s just very inaccurate,” Freeze said. “He does a lot of things well. We’re not scared to play and we’re going to prepare to play him. He’ll see action regardless of how Bo plays because he deserves it.”
Getting back
Freeze said all the players reported back from the Christmas break with the exception of linebacker Aaron Garbutt, who apparently had his flight delayed.
“It went smooth. We had one or two flight issues but one has made it back and one is on his way now,” Freeze said. “Everybody else was on time and handled it maturally. It was a little rusty getting going last night in the weights and the conditioning and some of the other stuff we did. I thought we had a good plan though, instead of trying to take them through a full practice. I think today would have been a little less than desired if we had done that.”
Below is video interview with senior defensive tackle Gilbert Pena, who talked about his future playing career in the NFL, among other topics.
(December 28, 2012)
