University, MS (U-WIRE) -- It seems like all season when one Rebel went down another was asked to step up so that the team wouldn't miss a beat.

In the wake of senior Mario Hill's knee injury that has sidelined him the past two weeks, fellow senior wide receiver Mike Espy has stepped up his game and is on pace to have a career season, if he can keep it up. Against the Vols last Saturday, Espy had a career day, catching 10 balls for 115 yards. The spectacular day comes after leading the Rebels with 57 yards receiving the week before and catching a touchdown.

"Every good quarterback I've been around has always had the one guy they always start to look for," offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said. "And with Mario gone that was nice to see Mike become a guy to be counted on."

The way Espy has been playing he could end up having a career season. His first two seasons he had 30 catches a piece and last year when the entire offense struggled, his number of catches dropped to 24. This season, he already has 16 receptions for 202 yards which puts him on pace to break the 30-reception mark.

"On offense, I thought our wide receivers played well at times," Orgeron said. " Mike Espy at times made some really good catches along with Taye Biddle."

Mazzone wants to settle quarterback Micheal Spurlock down to help the wide receivers.

"Well you know, that's kind of a double-edged sword," Mazzone said. "Because he scrambles around and makes great plays and a lot of times he didn't really need to scramble around to do that. On a play Mike [Espy] was open initially, then he kind of got spooked out of the pocket and he scrambled around and found him later on."

Since Hill has been sidelined, Espy has stepped his game up, especially in against Tennessee. Spurlock found Espy a lot in the 27-10 loss. Espy's 10 grabs beat his previous career high of six receptions for 157 yards against Texas Tech in 2003. That type of performance was needed to keep the Rebels in the game with Hill out due to a knee injury.

"Spurlock was just putting the ball in my hands," Espy said. "Mario, he wasn't playing, but somebody had to step up. And I felt like I did that a little bit."

Spurlock was pleased to see his friend step up his game.

"That's what I'm talking about," Spurlock said. "That's my boy. I mean I'm just thankful that he was able to step up and make the plays he did make. And like I told him. I was like, 'Great game and I'm expecting bigger and better things from this day forward.' "

Espy has always felt a bond with his quarterback on the field.

"Most definitely. I always felt like the chemistry was good between Spurlock and me," Espy said. "We just have that connection on the field. We started to do that lately. So the chemistry is definitely picking up."

Espy's contributions aren't just catching balls from the quarterback. He has always been a solid punt returner. This season he has established himself as even a greater threat. Last season he averaged only 5.6 yards per return. The average may seem a little low, but Espy has stopped just short of giving coaches heart attacks by his willingness to not call fair catches. Even though he is gutsy enough to take a lot of hits by not fair-catching the ball he has never had a fumbling problem.

This season he has turned his punt returning up a notch. Through four games he is averaging 13.2 yards per return. He broke a 51-yard return against Vanderbilt at a crucial point in the game that nearly brought Ole Miss back and he busted a 31-yard return against Wyoming.

He deflects all the credit to his coaches and teammates putting him in position to make plays. It's just the team doing the fundamentals right.

"It's the scheme, it's the system," Espy said.

"It's an easy scheme, easy system, that everyone can pick it up. It's just fundamental football."

(C) 2004 Daily Mississippian via U-WIRE