UT quarterback Justin Worley jumps over UTC's Dee Virgin and Zack Rayl at Neyland Stadium.TENNESSEE (3-3, 0-2 SEC) AT NO. 3 OLE MISS (6-0, 3-0)7 p.m. * Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Miss. * ESPN, 106.5 FMTHE MATCHUPTennessee's struggling offensive line figures to have its hands full again, and the Ole Miss defense, which allows an SEC-low 11.8 points and ranks third in the league in yards allowed, is strong at every level - particularly in the secondary.Ole Miss probably has the best defensive line among Tennessee's remaining opponents, but the Rebels have just 11 sacks this season. Safeties Cody Prewitt and Trae Elston, cornerbacks Senquez Golson and Mike Hilton and nickelback Tony Conner account for 10 of the Rebels' SEC-leading 12 interceptions this season.Tennessee quarterback Justin Worley has thrown five interceptions, but two were at Oklahoma and two others came against Florida, which played mostly man-to-man coverage, as Ole Miss will. The Vols will have to be creative in finding ways to protect Worley, and it'll be up to him to protect the ball from the Rebels' ball-hawkers.ONE TO WATCHIn his first two seasons as the starting quarterback for Ole Miss, Tennessee native Bo Wallace threw 40 touchdown passes and 30 interceptions and developed a sort of Jekyll and Hyde reputation. Thus the monikers "Good Bo" and "Bad Bo" came to be part of the SEC lexicon.In the first half of this year's season opener, the senior threw a trio of interceptions, but he was masterful against Alabama: 18-of-31 passing for 251 yards and three touchdowns, including two in the game's final six minutes. Tennessee's defense is 16th nationally in yards allowed and held its last two opponents below 100 yards passing, but the Vols have shown they can turn teams over, too, as their 14 takeaways rank sixth in the SEC.To pull the upset, Tennessee will need to add to that tally and hope Wallace, who is turnover-free in three SEC games, has the kind of erratic game he occasionally has.IN THE ENDOle Miss has not been 6-0 since 1962, when it started 10-0, and the No. 3 ranking is the program's highest since the Rebels were the preseason No. 1 in 1964, but this appears to be a bad matchup for Tennessee, particularly the Vols' sputtering offense, which ranks just 118th out of 128 FBS teams in yards per play.In their six road games against ranked teams under second-year coach Butch Jones, the Vols have committed 18 turnovers. Three turnovers at home cost the Vols a win against Florida two weeks ago. Such mistakes against a very good Ole Miss defense could make for a very long night for Tennessee.The Vols must avoid beating themselves offensively and lean on their improved defense to keep them in the game.PREDICTION: OLE MISS 24, TENNESSEE 7
KNOXVILLE - For the rest of the 2014 football season, Tennessee tight end Ethan Wolf and more than 15 of his teammates will have the label linked to their names.
With each passing week and game, though, it fits less and less.
A promising freshman class will play its seventh game for the Volunteers tonight, but some of those first-year players, along with their coaches and teammates, probably don't consider themselves freshmen anymore.
Wolf said this week he feels that way.
"We got thrown into the fire," he said. "I mean, I've almost been here a year, so I do feel a little bit older than what I am, which is exciting because I've got a lot of time to improve the small mistakes in the game and get stronger. Only God knows what's going to happen after that, especially with Daniel [Helm] and all the freshmen that have been playing.
"We've got a lot of guys out there, and it's exciting to see how much time we have to get bigger and stronger and faster and smarter and see what things are going to happen."
What Tennessee hopes happens is what's happened at Ole Miss, the Vols' hosts tonight.
When Hugh Freeze replaced Houston Nutt as the coach at Ole Miss in December of 2011, the Rebels were coming off an abysmal 2011 season, when they were 2-10, winless in the SEC and lost to Louisiana Tech, LSU and Mississippi State by a combined score of 110-13.
Two-plus seasons and a top-five recruiting class later, Freeze has Ole Miss ranked third in the country and off to its first 6-0 start in more than 50 years.
And earlier this week, Freeze, who went 7-6 and 8-5 with two bowl wins in his first two seasons in Oxford, said Tennessee's trajectory under second-year coach Butch Jones is "eerily similar of my journey."
He elaborated on that comment on Wednesday's SEC coaches' teleconference.
"The first thing I see is that they've recruited extremely well," Freeze said. "We can sit here all day, and none of us are great coaches without players that can make plays, and Coach Jones and his staff have certainly done that. They've got tremendous young talent, and that's kind of the way we were after our first full recruiting class.
"We played a ton of freshmen, just like they're doing, and those freshmen are scary. They're obviously young and make mistakes sometimes just like ours did and still do, but they are so talented, and it's a scary talent because not only have they recruited well, but they're playing with a deal of hunger and passion, which I think we did in our first couple of years also.
"[We] were in games probably that we maybe didn't stack up as well, but we were in a lot of games with those teams. I think that's exactly what they're proving this year. It's only a matter of time before they break through."
Freeze's first season with the Rebels included a 35-point home loss to Texas and four SEC losses by a combined 13 points, but it ended with a flourish. First, Ole Miss beat Mississippi State in the Egg Bowl to reach bowl eligibility. The Rebels then beat Pittsburgh in the BBVA Compass Bowl.
That was a springboard to a 2013 signing class that included three Rivals.com five-star prospects -- defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, the nation's No. 1 overall prospect, receiver Laquon Treadwell and left tackle Laremy Tunsil -- and nine four-star recruits, most notably defensive back Tony Conner.
The class ranked seventh in the country according to Rivals, and many of those recruits played significant roles in 2013, when Ole Miss went 8-5.
After finishing 5-7 with an upset of South Carolina and losses to Georgia and Vanderbilt by a combined four points in Jones's first year, Tennessee inked a 32-player 2014 signing class that was ranked in the top five nationally.
Nine of those new Vols have started games on offense or defense, and 15 others are contributing in some fashion.
"There's a lot of true freshmen that are playing [in the SEC], but I guarantee you this: Nobody has asked of their freshmen what we've asked of them," Jones said. "Sometimes, to be quite candid with you, it's unrealistic what we've asked of these kids, but it's where we're at in the program. I think they've handled it exceptionally well."
There are differences in what Freeze and Jones inherited upon their respective arrivals.
Ole Miss's last class before Freeze's arrival included five-star defensive end C.J. Johnson, three players -- linebacker Serdarius Bryant, safety Cody Prewitt and cornerback Senquez Golson -- currently providing the backbone to the Rebels' stingy defense this season, and starting guards Aaron Morris and Justin Bell.
Receiver Vince Sanders, a former four-star recruit with three touchdown catches in 2014, was part of the 2010 class.
From Derek Dooley's final class at Tennessee, only four players -- receivers Pig Howard and Jason Croom, safety LaDarrell McNeil and defensive tackle Danny O'Brien -- are making significant contributions for the Vols this season. That 2012 class also included zero offensive linemen, which led to Tennessee starting two freshmen and playing one starter out of position on a line that's allowed an SEC-worst 23 sacks this season.
"I think every situation you inherit is different in and of itself," Jones said. "What was the existing talent pool like? What was there in the program? There's reasons for everything. I think there may be some similarities, but there's a lot of distinct differences as well.
"A lot of times," he added, "it's what's there in terms of a culture, a mindset."
The key to success for any program is the "acquisition of talent," as Jones put it, and developing players.
Jones has Tennessee in a better place than it was when he took over, and he remains confident in the program's direction under his watch.
"I don't really want to talk about the past," he said. "All I can talk about is the present and the future of where we're going, and I'm excited of where we're going. Coaches in the past have worked exceptionally hard, and I respect them, and that's always been my philosophy.
"But we can only control what we control, and that's winning the moment and the future direction of this program."
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.