Ole Miss' defensive struggles this season have been well documented, and have also dominated the conversation around the team. The Rebels are coming off a much needed bye before making the trip to Nashville this coming Saturday to take on Vanderbilt.

The Commodores present a different hurdle besides being a conference game, however. This will be the first time the Ole Miss defense takes the field in two weeks, offering up an evaluation on whether things are genuinely improving, or if its' more of the same.

Back on Track or Losing Ground?

The damage from the Florida game is worrisome to say the least, but the way back from it is something that, on paper, should be fixable, especially over the bye week. Tackling is the primary culprit. Rebels' head coach Pete Golding counted 62 missed tackles during the Florida game, which undoubtedly played a major part in the unit allowing a staggering 302 rushing yards.

The yardage totals against Vanderbilt will not be determined solely by making tackles, but it will play a role. Tackling has to be objectively better from every level of the defense come this Saturday. With anchors like Suntarine Perkins, Keaton Thomas, Will Echoles and Kam Franklin, this is a defense with excellent tacklers. Perkins has 196 career tackles and 19 sacks, and Keaton Thomas had back-to-back 100+ tackle seasons at Baylor before coming to Oxford in the offseason.

The numbers show that the players on the defensive side of the ball can tackle, and tackle well. Why that hasn't translated onto the field is the main question, and one that the coaching staff has been working on for over two weeks now. The likely disconnect is simply communication. Seven of Ole Miss' 11 defensive starters against the Gators transferred in during the offseason.

That points to the coaching and communication lacking in a lot of areas. It's one thing to have players who individually can make plays, but the other 10 on the field have to be seeing the same things and executing their assignments correctly. That isn't a major structural issue; it's simple procedure and is the exact thing that gets addressed during a bye week.

But it's one thing to recognize the problem; it's another entirely to go out and execute and show that the problems are actually being addressed. Vanderbilt will be the make-or-break game in that regard. If the defense is executing correctly, that's clean execution against a conference foe on the road, which could go a long way in bolstering the defense's psyche.

Only when the ball is snapped next Saturday will we know for certain where the defense is headed for the rest of this season.

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