The Missed Play that Sparked Kenny Yeboah's Best Career Drive
In a series of our irony, it was actually missed block actually spurned the biggest drive of Ole Miss tight end Kenny Yeboah's career.
On the first Rebel drive of the fourth quarter in Saturday's loss to No. 5 Florida, Yeboah whiffed badly on a block on Florida linebacker Ventrell Miller, allowing Miller to blow up Jerrion Ealy on a swing pass for a six yard loss.
Despite the blown block, despite not being targeted in the game until the fourth quarter, the next play call went Yeboah's way.
"The coach called one of the plays I should get the ball on. I saw the wide open grass and I took advantage of it," Yeboah said. "Matt (Corral) threw me a nice ball and we just kept the series rolling. It was all up to the coach's play call, so I'm glad he gave me the opportunity."
But it wasn't just that next play that went to Yeboah for a 33 yard gain, getting his revenge on Miller over the middle – he was. the target of three of the next four plays after the missed block.
Credit Yeboah for not checking out after the ball never went his way over the first three quarters. For a guy that told The Grove Report over the summer that he "truly loves to block," that's going to be a big part of his year with the Rebels.
But when his number is called he's clearly more than capable of making big plays.
"Honestly, I wasn't thinking about it the whole game. I knew it would come, I just didn't know when," Yeboah said. "I just kept playing hard the whole game and blocking as much as I wanted to catch the ball."
A grad transfer from Temple, Yeboah's five catch game for 91 yards and touchdown is the biggest game in his career statistically. His first game at the SEC level, playing against the No. 5 team in the nation, topped every single game he had in three years as a starter at Temple.
Despite stepping up to the highest level of college football, Yeboah said he was never nervous and really wasn't even thinking about how different things were on Saturday. he showed out regardless.
“The people are just bigger with four and five-star players,” Yeboah said. “They are great players, smart. I went out there not really nervous. I had been playing as a fourth or fifth year starting at the tight end position. It felt really normal to me, not thinking about us playing the No. 5 team in the country.”
Yeboah finished Saturday as Ole Miss' No. 2 receiver in targets, receptions, yards and touchdowns. He's going to continue to be an integral part of the offense moving forward.
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