Week 7 brings a slate built around pressure, return trips, and a few teams trying to prove they can handle the moment.
The headliner starts with first-year starting quarterback Keelon Russell, who has been nothing short of amazing. The Heisman hopeful is trying to steer his team to a big road win after the season’s first loss, and the game will air on ABC.
Later in the day, Missouri gets a chance to test itself in one of the SEC’s toughest settings. At 2:30 p.m. on the SEC Network, the Tigers will meet Ole Miss in a matchup that puts one of the conference’s hottest teams against a Rebels group still fighting for SEC contention.
Austin Simmons is in the middle of a strong first season at Mizzou, and now he gets a shot to go back to where his college career started and beat his former team. The setup gives this game a sharp edge: Simmons is facing the program that chose to move on from him and hand the job to Trinidad Chambliss. He’ll see a defense he used to face in practice every day, and he’ll also line up against the quarterback who replaced him in Oxford.
Ole Miss enters with a little more momentum after its bye week. The Rebels dropped a game to Florida three weeks ago, then came back last week and overwhelmed Vanderbilt. Missouri, though, has a chance to make things uncomfortable if it can keep leaning on its balanced attack and take advantage of the road setting.
That’s the challenge with this one. SEC road games are difficult enough on their own, and the emotions tied to a quarterback returning to his old school could make the environment even trickier.
The night slate wraps with Kentucky heading to Norman, Oklahoma, for a 6:30 p.m. kickoff against the Sooners. Both teams are coming off major victories, which makes the biggest question simple: which side can handle success better?
Oklahoma brings one of the conference’s best defenses into the matchup and will try to keep Kentucky’s offense under wraps.
There’s also a bigger picture running through the whole week. These games feature teams ranked ahead of LSU, including some still on the Tigers’ schedule. If upsets start piling up and LSU keeps winning its own games, the path ahead could open a little more for the goals the Tigers had going into the season.
In Other News...
LSU Defense Just Took Another Hit It Couldnt Afford
LSUs defense was already short on answers, and it took another hit early against Mississippi State when edge rusher Princewill Umanmielen left in the first quarter after making his second tackle. He was checked on the field by LSU trainers and then spent the rest of the first half watching from the sideline, a rough development for a unit that has been trying to piece itself together.
The timing matters because LSU has already had to absorb injuries to two other starting defenders this season, leaving the Tigers with even less margin for error on that side of the ball. Any extended absence would only deepen the challenge for a defense that can ill afford to keep losing experienced pieces as the schedule moves on. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Got The Bounce-Back Win Fans Wanted At A Cost
LSU got the kind of response it needed Saturday, blanking Mississippi State 31-0 and putting together the sort of complete performance that had been missing in recent weeks. The defense set the tone early and never let the Bulldogs get comfortable, shutting down drives and turning multiple fourth-down chances into empty trips while the offense found a steadier rhythm behind quarterback Sam Leavitt and running back Dilin Jones.
The win, though, came with a familiar sort of concern for a team still trying to get healthy. LSU also came out of the game with new injuries to key players, including wide receiver Jackson Harris and edge rusher Lamar Brown, adding to the uncertainty surrounding a roster that finally looked organized on the field. Leavitt's better timing and confidence were a promising sign, but the larger question now is whether the Tigers can build on it without losing more pieces along the way. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Is Pushing An Eligibility Fight The SEC May Not Tolerate
LSUs latest off-court battle is not about a game plan or a depth chart, but about whether the school has gone too far in pushing eligibility rules on behalf of its programs. The issue has flared around former professional players brought in by mens basketball coach Will Wade and football coach Lane Kiffin, with the school leaning on legal action to get those players onto campus teams despite NCAA restrictions.
Louisiana courts have already granted preliminary injunctions that helped some of those former pros suit up, but the bigger threat is now coming from the SEC itself. The conference has warned that LSU could be expelled over what it sees as a lack of institutional control, turning a roster-building strategy into a potential league-wide crisis for an athletic department already under scrutiny. [Read more 🡒]