OXFORD, Miss. — As optimistic as Ed Orgeron was heading into his inaugural season as Ole Miss's head coach, he braced himself for the worst.

With his team now staring at a 1-2 record, 0-1 in the Southeastern Conference as it prepares to head to 10th-ranked Tennessee Saturday, Orgeron has seen just that in the Rebels' last two games.

''You'd like to be prepared for the best, but I'm also prepared that we have to build a program here,'' Orgeron said. ''Whatever may come, I have to be ready for it and I have to have some answers. And if I don't have answers, I have to find them. We're looking to do that.''

There are plenty of questions that need answering. Such as, how to get better, and more consistent play out of the offensive and defensive lines? How do they improve the running game? How do they eliminate the poor tackling that has taken place the last two weeks? How do they stop the costly penalties and mental mistakes?

Those are just some of the pressing questions Orgeron and his coaching staff are faced with this week as they try to right a ship that is clearly headed in the wrong direction.

In the Rebels' 24-14 home opening loss to Wyoming Saturday, the offense was held to 282 total yards. The Rebels committed four turnovers. They were inept on third down, converting just 2 of 13. And they had the ball for just 22 minutes, 59 seconds.

''Where do you start?'' offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said. ''It was obviously disappointing. You want to see progress, and I thought we saw it from week 1 to week 2. I didn't see much this week. It was the same old thing with penalties and turnovers. We've just got to keep working.''

Defensively, the Rebels did make some progress. Considering they were left on the field 15 minutes longer than the offense, and often left in bad situations, the fact that they allowed just 24 points was somewhat of a moral victory. Still, they missed too many tackles and found themselves out of position at inopportune times.

''We've got to come out and play, that's the bottom line,'' linebacker Kelvin Robinson said. ''On defense, we've got to make tackles. We can't be missing so many tackles. And the offense has to move the ball. That's just basic football.''

For the first time since replacing coach David Cutcliffe last December, Orgeron has had to defend his method of rebuilding the program. His answer to that is to stay the course.

''We just need to keep on grinding,'' Orgeron said. ''We need to keep on doing the best that we can, just keep on sticking with the program. I've seen this program work. I've seen it with my own eyes. I've been with it 24/7 and we're doing the exact same thing.

''We're going to work and we're going to stay positive with our young men and we'll get them to play. I'm excited with the way our freshmen are playing. We are not going to change the offensive or the defensive systems just because it's not operating the way we want right now. We're going to stay with the same system.''

Two questions were answered for Orgeron Saturday night. The first is to go with Micheal Spurlock as the team's quarterback after sophomore Robert Lane's debut ended with a 7-of-15 performance for 37 yards, two interceptions and a fumble.

The second is to commit to freshmen running backs Mico McSwain and Antonio Turner. McSwain rushed for a career-high 114 yards on just seven carries, including a 60-yard touchdown run, his second touchdown run of more than 50 yards in three games.

In his first game receiving carries, Turner had 29 yards on eight rushes while showing a knack for running between the tackles.

''It's good to see new people coming into the program and competing and earning playing time,'' Orgeron said.

While some Rebel faithful have given up on the season, the players are looking forward to Saturday's game at Tennessee. To them, with eight games remaining, there is plenty of time to salvage the season.

''When you're building something, it's going to take time to try to work together and get things done,'' senior cornerback Travis Johnson said. ''If we just keep working hard in practice, things will get better as the season goes on.''