Auburn arrives in Oxford on Saturday having lost 38-17 at home to LSU. Its best result of the season is a three-point win over Georgia in Athens, and its point totals include 27 against Georgia, 21 against Vanderbilt, 17 and 14. Ole Miss comes in off a loss at Texas, where it trailed 24-3 before tying the game. The two programs have not met since 2023.
Locked On Ole Miss host Steven Willis spent game-day morning handicapping the SEC slate, and his read on his own team was that this one is Ole Miss’s to lose. Willis said he believes Ole Miss has the better team, and that the Rebels would have to help Auburn to keep Auburn in the game. He stopped short of saying it definitively.
A Locked On Bets handicapper placed Auburn well below the top of the league. He argued Auburn sits closer to Vanderbilt than to Ole Miss, Texas, Georgia or Alabama, and is middle of the road rather than a playoff-caliber team. The Georgia win, he said, was the one result in ten where Auburn finds a way, and the LSU loss is the truer measure.
The case for Ole Miss, he said, runs through its response to its other loss. Ole Miss lost to Florida by 24 and then won at Vanderbilt by 35, and he reads Auburn as the same class of opponent. He said Auburn’s totals mean this will not be a low-scoring game the Rebels grind out, so they will have to score. Three interceptions, as Trinidad Chambliss threw at Texas, will not work.
He took Ole Miss to cover, saying the Rebels bounce back and win. Willis closed by looking ahead to Georgia, seven days away, and said this team cannot afford to look past anybody.
Photo: Tah’j Butler, October 26, 2024, at Lane Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Peter Casey-Imagn Images.
Adapted from the October 31, 2026 episode of Locked On Ole Miss, hosted by Steven Willis, part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Watch the full episode.