Ole Miss led Vanderbilt 42-3 at halftime last Saturday and comes home for a 3:30 p.m. Eastern kickoff against Missouri. Missouri arrives with a running back on back-to-back 200-yard games who leads the nation in broken tackles, and 19 sacks. Ole Miss has surrendered roughly one sack per game, best in the SEC. Florida, the last team to run at this defense freely, gained 302 yards.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis argued the outcome turns on where the scoreboard lands, not any single matchup. If the game climbs into the 30s, Willis said, that is advantage Ole Miss. A 17-10 game is the version that gets the Rebels beaten.
Former Ole Miss offensive lineman Todd Wade, a weekly guest, credited the open week after Florida with more than healing: the staff found systematic errors that had run all season and went back to fundamentals. The difference showed at the edges. Florida attacked the ends, moving Blake Purchase and a walked-up Suntarine Perkins; against Vanderbilt a rotation including Kam Franklin pushed back and never let the Commodores turn a corner.
Missouri is the harder problem because it is balanced, Wade said. It can run and throw, runs the same 4-2-5 as Ole Miss, rarely surrenders a big play and is stopping the run. He called pass protection a strength of this line and said Trinidad Chambliss gets rid of the ball under pressure. His grade: “He’s almost perfect.”
Willis put the defensive math on first and second down, where winning puts the game on Missouri’s quarterback rather than its back, and said Pete Golding has called Missouri the least aggressive front Ole Miss will face. Wade called Saturday the game of the year, said a loss likely ends the playoff case and predicted Ole Miss 34, Missouri 31.
Photo: Trinidad Chambliss, October 10, 2026, at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 16, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.