Ole Miss Vs Texas Decides Whether the Rebels Pass Kentucky

Rece Davis, the host of ESPN’s College GameDay, went on The Pat McAfee Show on Wednesday and called Ole Miss the second-best team in the SEC behind Georgia. It is a fair take on talent, but the Ole Miss vs. Texas game on Saturday night in Austin is the first real chance for the Rebels to prove it on the field.

Davis did not hand out the label for free, either.

“I think you still look at Ole Miss as a contender, and based on the way things are unfolding in the SEC, I think you can make a pretty good argument that they’re probably the second-best team in the SEC behind Georgia at the moment,” Davis said on McAfee’s show. “But in order to be that and maintain that, they’ll need to play well on Saturday night.”

Kentucky Has the Better Case Right Now

Here is the problem with crowning Ole Miss today. The SEC standings show Kentucky tied with Georgia at 4-1 in league play, while Ole Miss sits fourth at 3-1 behind Tennessee, which just beat Alabama 26-10.

Kentucky’s resumé is the deepest of the bunch. Will Stein’s team won at Texas A&M, beat LSU 35-34 in overtime and handled Oklahoma 21-13 last Saturday, and its only loss came against Alabama. Ole Miss, by comparison, owns one statement win, a 31-3 rout of Missouri, and one ugly loss.

The AP voters lean towards Davis, with Ole Miss at No. 7, Tennessee at No. 11, and Kentucky at No. 12 in this week’s poll. The honest read is that Ole Miss has the second-best roster in the league while Kentucky has earned the second-best record, and those are two different things.

The Florida Loss Still Hangs Over Ole Miss

Davis admitted the Florida game shook him, and it should shake anyone picking the Rebels in Ole Miss Vs Texas this week. Florida beat Ole Miss 52-28 in Gainesville by running the ball 52 times for 302 yards and six touchdowns, and the Gators scored touchdowns on their first five second-half possessions after the Rebels pulled within 17-14.

Davis pointed to the secondary as the weak spot, and the numbers back him up. Louisville quarterback Lincoln Kienholz threw for 307 yards against Ole Miss in his first start, and Florida’s Aaron Philo threw for 196 yards as the Gators attacked the Rebels in more than one way. Still, the bigger red flag is a run defense that got pushed for 302 yards.

Pete Golding, the first-year Ole Miss head coach who took over when Lane Kiffin left for LSU, has the offense to cover for that. Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has 1,676 passing yards and 14 touchdowns, and Kewan Lacy, who sat out the Florida game with a shoulder injury, ran for 122 yards against Missouri. Lacy topped a preseason ranking of SEC running backs for a reason, and Makhi Frazier added 101 more yards in that win.

Ole Miss vs. Texas comes down to desperation

Texas is 4-2 and 1-2 in the SEC after two straight three-point losses, and Arch Manning is hearing benching talk for the first time. Davis understands what kind of opponent that creates, and his warning about the Longhorns might be the smartest thing he said all morning.

Texas might be stumbling, but a team with that much talent is still perfectly capable of making Saturday night uncomfortable. The Rebels cannot assume those two narrow losses will make the Longhorns any easier to beat.

The Longhorns will likely be without Colin Simmons, though. The nation’s sack leader with 10.5 sacks suffered a high ankle sprain against Florida and is expected to miss the Ole Miss game. That’s a major loss for a Texas defense trying to make Chambliss uncomfortable.

Texas still ranks No. 11 nationally in total defense, allowing 272.5 yards per game, and owns a 6-2 lead in the all-time series. But Ole Miss won 44-23 the last time it played in Austin in 2013, and the Rebels have the backfield to run out a Texas front without its best pass rusher. Ole Miss vs. Texas should turn on the ground game, and the pick here is Ole Miss 27, Texas 20, with Lacy carrying the load.

If that happens, Davis gets to say he called it, and Ole Miss heads into its Nov. 7 home game against Georgia with a real claim to the No. 2 spot. If it does not, Kentucky still has that 4-1 SEC start and a win over LSU, making Davis’ No. 2 label a harder sell.