Snead shining for Rebels

• By PARRISH ALFORD
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Nov 21, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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OXFORD, Miss. — There were plenty of smiles at the south end of “The Swamp” in late September.

Ole Miss players scurried around team buses hugging friends and family and celebrating the marquee victory that had for so long escaped the program.

The Rebels had just knocked off No. 4 Florida 31-30, and the biggest smile from offensive coordinator Kent Austin was reserved for his No. 1 pupil, quarterback Jevan Snead.

“He got him one,” said Austin, himself a former Ole Miss quarterback.

Snead “got him” that signature win as the starter not because he torched the Florida secondary play after play, but because he was good for plays within the game.

Snead was 9-for-20 against the Gators, but threw only one interception and made the big throws he needed to make — a lob for an 18-yard screen pass touchdown to Cordera Eason and a strike to Shay Hodge on the run that went for 86 yards. Hodge’s grab proved to be the winning points.

Expectations followed Snead to Ole Miss, because he’d once been up for the same job at Texas. He was also a Parade All-American, a prep star in Stephenville, Texas, who gave a verbal commitment to Florida.

Many expected Snead to stabilize an Ole Miss position that had been substandard since Eli Manning’s senior season, the last time the Rebels were eligible for a bowl game.

“The quarterback obviously has to be accurate, and has to protect the football,” Austin said. “When things break down, because it’s not going to be perfect on every play, he has to make plays.”

Snead has made plays most of the season as his 17 touchdown passes would indicate.

The difference in the Rebels’ three-game win streak is that he’s protected the football too. He has thrown just one interception in the last three games, unlike earlier in the season when he would force throws or try to gut out the extra yard or two and end up fumbling.

Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt would like to see Snead’s 53.5 percent completion rate much closer to 60 percent.

But as Snead, a sophomore in his first season as a starter, continues in the “work in progress” mold in which Austin described him in August, the staff will gladly trade the interception for throwing the ball away.