Just before kickoff of the Egg Bowl on Saturday, Ole Miss defensive coordinator Dave Wommack announced that he was retiring at the conclusion of the 2016 season. The end of the season came a few hours later after Wommack’s defense gave up 48 points and 566 yards of offense, ending the Rebels’ hopes at a bowl berth.
Wommack has been with Hugh Freeze since his arrival in Oxford and enjoyed big-time success in the early years, but oversaw a unit that slipped in 2015 and cratered in 2016. Crippled by key injuries, years of recruiting negligence at the linebacker position and the inability to fix schematic problems, the Ole Miss defense finished this season ranked 77th in defensive S&P+, 63rd in efficiency and 107th in explosiveness.