Tah’j Butler watched last season’s Sugar Bowl at home in New Orleans. He thought about going. Then he checked ticket prices.
I’m from New Orleans, so I’m like, maybe I should come to this game. I look at the prices, I’m like, nah, it’s too expensive. But I’m watching, I’m like, yeah, like, I want to, like, I want to play in this environment.
Tah’j Butler
Butler was at Georgia Tech then, so Georgia was already a rivalry game for him. Now he’s an Ole Miss linebacker, and he had two of the Rebels’ four sacks against Auburn on Saturday. On Monday, Pete Golding said Butler is getting better every week and finishing on the ball carrier.
Fixing what Florida and Texas did
Ole Miss’s two losses came when Florida and Texas ran the ball, much of it zone and zone read. Georgia runs a lot of the same. Butler said the fix isn’t complicated.
We just got to be consistent at what the coach is telling us to do. Like, you know, just being physical at point of attack, getting downhill, making plays when we— when we got to do it, like just doing our job.
Tah’j Butler
Asked if it comes down to communication, he said yes, and that it changes week to week because every opponent is different.
Different teams do different things… It could be, it could be quite challenging, but, you know, we figured that out. I feel like we way past that.
Tah’j Butler
“Out-physical them”
Butler’s scouting report on Georgia’s offense was one sentence long.
They’re a physical group. We just gotta, we just gotta come in and just try to out-physical them.
Tah’j Butler
Ole Miss held Auburn to 63 rushing yards on 27 carries Saturday. Georgia will be a bigger test, and Butler has been waiting for this game since he watched the last one on TV.
Quotes from Tah’j Butler’s Georgia-week press availability in Oxford, Nov. 3, 2026. No. 2 Georgia (7-1) visits No. 10 Ole Miss (6-2, 4-2 SEC) on Saturday, Nov. 7, at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC. For more, listen to Locked On Ole Miss every weekday, or join the Everydayer Club.