Ole Miss has entered the red zone 20 times this season and never left empty. Eighteen trips produced touchdowns and the other two field goals, a 90 percent touchdown rate that leaves the Rebels one of 11 teams still perfect inside the 20. Against Vanderbilt the offense led 42-3 at halftime. Missouri visits Oxford on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis argued the Vanderbilt result mattered less for its margin than for where it was won. Both lines of scrimmage were a mauling inside the first eight minutes, Willis said, and Vanderbilt could not run up the middle, which he treated as the whole test: a team that cannot run on this front cannot do anything else.
Former Ole Miss quarterback John Fourcade would not carry that forward to Missouri. The Tigers have a better defense and a better club, Fourcade said, are ranked inside the top 25, and have cleared 200 rushing yards in consecutive weeks. He called Saturday the game on the schedule that scares him, with the home date the one thing in the Rebels’ favor.
On the red zone, Fourcade went to the arithmetic: two field goals return six points where one touchdown returns seven. He credited the new play caller, wanted Kewan Lacy restored as a front-line back, and read the touchdown pass to defensive tackle Jamarious Brown as a legal formation rather than trickery, since Brown carried an eligible number.
Ole Miss wears navy and gray Saturday, with the market at six and a half. Fourcade took the Rebels to cover and predicted a win by 10 to 14 points. Trips to Texas and Oklahoma and home dates with Georgia and Auburn follow, and Willis argued style points have stopped mattering: beat Missouri, beat Texas, beat Georgia.
Photo: Kewan Lacy, October 10, 2026, at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 12, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.