The market had Florida favored by 2.5 before drifting to 3.5, and 87 percent of the money came in on the Gators. Ole Miss got within 24-21 in the second half and never got closer. The Rebels come out of their open week at Vanderbilt on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC or ESPN. Pete Golding never addressed the media during the bye; only a pair of players spoke.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis argued the defensive problem is posture, not personnel. Ole Miss has spent four games dying by a thousand cuts, Willis said, and the correction is to send five rushers on every snap rather than drop eight into coverage. Dropping eight neutralizes the front seven, because any quarterback can scheme short completions against a rush that never arrives.
Willis pointed to the first half against LSU, when pressure on Sam Leavitt propped up the run defense and the secondary at once. Guest Brad Logan of Talk of Champions put it on the roster instead. Logan said that defense’s leaders, Suntarine Perkins and Will Echoles and Kam Franklin, have to take accountability for Gainesville.
Logan argued the season has gone to script. Florida was the trap game flagged all summer, and Florida then lost at Missouri the following Saturday. Home field, Logan said, has mattered more this season than ever. Vanderbilt needed a late comeback against NC State and did not look good against Georgia, and its quarterback’s availability is unsettled.
Logan splits the schedule into halves of six games and wants Ole Miss to finish the first at 5-1, which leaves no room to treat Nashville as a tune-up. He expects the game tight early before Ole Miss pulls away after halftime. Finishing better than 9-3, Logan said, will be very difficult.
Photo: Kam Franklin, September 26, 2026, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 5, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.