The Auburn Tigers turned out to be exactly what this Ole Miss team needed. On Sunday’s Locked On Ole Miss, I looked back one more time at the 45-15 win that moved the Rebels to 6-2 — and I think it did something bigger than win a game. It put the blueprint for beating Georgia on film. We got Trinidad Chambliss right, the defense worked its way from shaky to stingy, and the run game proved it can carry a night when the explosive plays aren’t there. With Georgia coming to Oxford on Saturday under the primetime ABC lights, here’s what mattered from the show. Hotty Toddy.
Auburn was the perfect get-right game
If you were going to script a bounce-back after the way things went in Austin, it would look a lot like Saturday. This was the perfect tonic. Trinidad Chambliss got back to being Trinidad, the defense started slow and then clamped down, and Ole Miss put up 45 points on a day when it wasn’t even clicking everywhere. You came out of it healthier in spirit and a whole lot more confident, which is exactly what this team needed with the schedule turning where it’s turning.
The Rebels finally put the “win ugly” tape on film
Here’s the part that matters most to me going forward. For five years, teams have tried to take away Ole Miss by loading up to stop the explosive plays and daring the Rebels to be patient — the Vanderbilt plan that Texas had the athletes to pull off. Auburn tried the same thing. And this time, without Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss just ran it down their throat anyway. Shekai Mills-Knight and Makhi Frazier grinded out tough yards, the Rebels were a ridiculous 13-of-16 on third down, and they were willing to put together six, seven, eight-minute drives to get into the end zone.
It was only 14-9 at halftime, but Ole Miss was in control the whole way, and once the dam broke it turned into a mauling in a hurry. That’s the demoralizing stuff — a defense builds its whole plan around taking away the big play, and you just matriculate the ball down the field until it breaks. You had to put that on tape before a defense as talented as Georgia’s walks into your stadium. Now it’s there.
Why this offense might be better than last year’s
I’ll say it: offensively, this Ole Miss team is better than it was a year ago — not necessarily in raw numbers, but in the stuff that wins November games. The old offense was all explosive plays and downfield shots, which was fun, but when a team took that away, there was no Plan B. Think Tulane in 2023, Kentucky in 2024, Washington State last year. It was all sizzle, no steak, all hat, no cattle.
John David Baker’s version is different, and different doesn’t mean worse. The Rebels are winning on third down, they’re scoring in the red zone, and they can rip you apart in the game when they know what you’re doing. Everybody wants to panic about the slow starts, but that’s one drive out of twelve. When you score on eight of your twelve possessions, that’s not an offense problem — that’s complementary football, and it travels.
Georgia week: a locked-in Ole Miss can roll the Dawgs
Now the big one. Baker has game-planned against this Georgia defense twice already, so there’s a base of knowledge here that matters. I’d expect Ole Miss to lean on the middle of the field — Caleb Odom, Luke Hasz and Michael Smith — throw to the backs, and let Trinidad cook and use his legs the way he did against Auburn. Vegas opened Georgia as roughly a field-goal favorite in Oxford, and that number will move all week, but this is a game Ole Miss can win if it simply plays well. The Rebels don’t have to play over their heads; they just can’t play poorly.
At its best, I think this is the best team in the country, and a locked-in Ole Miss can roll Georgia, not just beat them. The catch is the Rebels don’t always play that well that long or that often — and the crowd has to be rabid, same as the LSU night. Win this one and the road opens up: an Oklahoma team that just gave up 42 at home, then Wofford and Mississippi State. It all starts Saturday night.
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