Caleb Harris
In a Top 15 SEC showdown, the No. 14 Ole Miss Rebels open up conference play at home this Saturday against the No. 7 ranked Kentucky Wildcats: their first ranked opponent of the season.
Both teams are coming into the matchup 4-0, despite beating their last opponents by one score.
The Rebels are coming off a 35-27 win against Tulsa in a game where the score was 35-17 in the half, but a quarterback change by Tulsa proved to be a challenge for the Rebels’ defense to stop. Ole Miss’ offense struggled in the second half and were shutout.
Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said earlier this week, “We’ve got a lot to still work out. We had a lot of guys miss last week, injury-wise, who hopefully will be back this week…We’re a work in progress. My hope is we continue to improve, maybe more than some other teams, because we didn’t have many returners and we have so many new people, so hopefully you improve throughout the year more than you normally would.”
This will be by far the toughest opponent that the Rebels have faced up to this point in the season and will be a monumental measuring stick for how good this Rebel team is.
The Rebels’ rushing attack has been on fire so far as they rank fourth in the nation, averaging 280.3 yards per game and a total offense that ranks 20th in the nation.
The Kentucky defense is ranked 17th in the country and only allowed an average of 108 yards rushing per game. Ole Miss knows that the Wildcats will plan on stopping their rushing attack, something that Kentucky has been successful with over the past few years.
Both the Ole Miss and Kentucky programs have seen great success, with Kentucky having a winning record in five of its last six seasons, including a bowl victory over Iowa in the Citrus Bowl last season.
The Rebels have 12-straight home victories, which is their longest home winning streak since 1964.
“I would’ve taken that,” Kiffin said about the win streak at home. “I normally say, ‘hey, we have high expectations and always want to do better,’ but that’s a pretty good number, and I guess Mark (Stoops) might say the same thing, especially playing in the SEC….We’ve got a lot of good pieces as we’ve seen… We have a chance to be really good, but a lot of things have to happen.”
With their biggest test of the season coming up this Saturday, a Rebel win at the Vaught will create a lot of momentum and confidence for the team.
