Trinidad Chambliss graded 85.7 against Auburn. It is the best single-game offensive grade any Ole Miss player has posted this season, and it came seven days after he threw 52 passes and three interceptions in Austin.
Asked what was different, he did not talk about scheme.
“I feel like I got too in my head the past couple of weeks, even Vandy, Missouri, and then obviously at Texas. Like, having those games where I was kind of off and some uncharacteristic things, I would say. I think there just was a lot on my mind, me looking kind of past, into the future. And there’s a lot of expectations about me and stuff and all that.”
That is a quarterback naming a three-game stretch, unprompted, and saying the problem was between his ears. The grades do not disagree with him.
“A lot of fog”
Pete Golding used the phrase “cut it loose” at his own podium. Chambliss used it four separate times. Asked whether that is the easiest thing in the world to do or the hardest, he gave the most revealing answer of the night.
“It depends on how your mental is and who you surround yourself with, and kind of just going back to clearing the clutter in your mind. Because I feel like there was just a lot of fog in my mind a little bit. I was thinking about a lot.”
He said the fix came from family, from prayer, and from conversations with a member of the staff — and he was specific about what they told him to stop thinking about.
“Don’t worry about the next level or anything out there, or any Heisman Trophy, any of that stuff. Like, just focus on having fun. Remember your why, remember why you’re doing it.”
And then the line that will travel:
“A year ago or two years ago, I was at Ferris playing in front of like 1,000 people. So just kind of getting back in that mindset to just go out there, have fun, like enjoy this, man. Like you’re going to miss it down the road.”
On running it again: “I still am a dual-threat quarterback”
Chambliss ran seven times against Auburn and graded 79.7 as a runner — a number he has not approached since September. Asked whether the runs were designed or improvised, he said both, and then explained the shift in posture behind them.
“Just watching our tape and having some self-scout through our games this year. Just getting back to just playing free, not pressing and not trying to force throws. If I see green grass, take off. Use your legs. I came here as a dual-threat quarterback, and I still am a dual-threat quarterback.”
Worth noting against the record: in the three games before this one he had fewer than ten rushing yards in each, including seven at Texas.
On the interception, and on Deuce Alexander
He threw one. He said it did not move him.
“Yes, I was a little frustrated at the time, but it didn’t really change my mood and change the way I was playing the rest of the game. Like, I didn’t press. It is what it is. Next play mentality. I still trust Deuce. I still trust all my receivers.”
That is the same player Golding found in the tunnel afterward to tell him to keep his head up. Both the quarterback and the head coach went out of their way, independently, to say Alexander is fine.
On Shekai Mills-Knight: “I think he was on scout last year”
Asked where Mills-Knight has grown most, Chambliss answered with toughness — and specifically mental toughness — and laid out exactly how crowded that room was.
“Coming into a room and coming to a school like Ole Miss with Kewan having all the hype in the running back room. And then we bring in Makhi Frazier. And then also facing a really good defensive line, being a young guy — I think he was on scout last year too.”
He described coaches “pressing him” and “getting on him” to see how he would respond, and said the answer came in practice before it came on Saturday.
“It’s tough, not getting a lot of reps throughout the whole year. And then Kewan gets banged up and we’re rotating a lot of running backs. So him just being engaged and stuff too — props to him.”
On Will Echoles in the backfield
The defensive tackle took two offensive snaps. Chambliss admitted he was nervous about the handoff.
“I was kind of nervous with the exchange, ’cause you never know how it’s really gonna go in a game because the big guys don’t really touch the ball that often, especially Will being a defensive lineman. So we were practicing that exchange throughout practice and it was solid.”
“We got Big Will in there finally,” he said. “They did their little dance again.”
On Georgia, and on playing it at home
It is the third straight year these teams have met, and Chambliss acknowledged it is starting to feel like something.
“Feels like we’ve kind of been back and forth with Georgia the past couple years. And we know them, they know us. So it’s really just like a really chess match… They know probably my tendencies and what we like to do on offense. And we know what they like to do on defense.”
On the matchup itself he was blunt about what decides it: “It’s going to come down to whatever team makes the least amount of mistakes really, and who capitalizes on those mistakes.”
And on the venue, after a game that kicked at 11:45 in the morning and still filled up early:
“Our fans bring it every home game. Even today it was an 11:45 AM kickoff and it’s packed before it kicks off. And they’re into it — on third down the crowd’s hype and super loud, making it difficult for that offense. So we can’t do it without them.”
Georgia is in Oxford on Saturday night.
Photo: Trinidad Chambliss, October 31, 2026, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images.
Quotes from Trinidad Chambliss’s Auburn postgame press conference, October 31, 2026. Snap counts and grades via Pro Football Focus.