One year after Ole Miss reached the College Football Playoff semifinals, the Rebels have been a more uneven team in 2026, but they still bring plenty of firepower into Saturday’s matchup with Oklahoma.
The Rebels are 6-3 and sitting at No. 19 in the CFP rankings. They need to win their final three games to keep any outside hope of reaching the playoff alive.
Even so, this is not a team the Sooners can treat casually. Ole Miss’ offense, with dual-threat quarterback Trinidad Chambliss at the controls, ranks among the SEC’s top five in total offense, scoring offense and passing offense.
Chambliss is the engine. He has thrown for 2,359 yards, 18 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season, while adding 187 rushing yards and seven scores on the ground.
He’s one of the nation’s best quarterbacks, but the ball has come loose at times. Over the Rebels’ last three games, he has thrown five interceptions, including a rough outing in last week’s 42-7 loss to Georgia, when he completed 18 of 34 passes for 170 yards and an interception.
That gives Oklahoma a clear path into the game: pressure Chambliss, make him uncomfortable and force the kind of mistakes he’s shown he can make.
The Rebels also have a backfield option starting to emerge in true freshman Shekai Mills-Knight. He has only gotten carries in three games, but he’s already up to 165 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Against Georgia, he was one of the few bright spots, finishing with 52 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries. With star tailback Kewan Lacy out for the season, Mills-Knight looks like Ole Miss’ best answer in the run game.
Oklahoma will need to wrap up cleanly against the 6-foot-2, 220-pound back.
Ole Miss has also had to rework its passing game after losing its top two receivers from 2025, De’Zhaun Stribling and Harrison Wallace III, to the NFL. Deuce Alexander has stepped into the lead role and become Chambliss’ most dependable target. He leads the Rebels with 669 receiving yards and five touchdowns, and he’s already topped 100 yards twice, doing it against Florida and Louisville.
That puts a lot on Oklahoma’s secondary, which was excellent last week against Florida. Courtland Guillory, Peyton Bowen and Eli Bowen will need another sharp performance to slow Alexander and the rest of the Rebels’ passing attack.
Horatio Fields has also become a major piece for Ole Miss. Now at his third school, he trails only Alexander with 453 receiving yards and is tied for the team lead with five touchdown catches.
Four of those scores have come in the last four weeks, and he had two touchdowns in the Rebels’ back-and-forth loss to Texas. Alexander may draw the most attention, but Fields is every bit the kind of receiver Oklahoma has to account for.
Then there’s tight end Caleb Odom, who has become a real factor in the middle of the field. He ranks third among SEC tight ends with 383 receiving yards, behind only OU’s Rocky Beers, who has 518, and Kentucky’s Willie Rodriguez, who has 405.
Odom was on last year’s Ole Miss team that made the CFP, though he spent most of that season backing up Dae’Quan Wright. This year, he’s the Rebels’ most-used tight end and has made the most of the role.
Oklahoma already saw what can happen when a tight end gets loose, with Rodriguez catching two touchdowns in the Sooners’ 21-13 loss to Kentucky on Oct. 17.
Odom, at 6-foot-5 and 240 pounds, has to be handled better.
In Other News...
Oklahoma Suddenly Faces Game Day Uncertainty With Ole Miss Stuck Traveling
A nationwide FAA ground stop tied to a telecommunications outage has thrown a fresh layer of uncertainty onto game day, and Oklahoma is feeling the ripple effects with Ole Miss among the teams caught in the travel mess. The issue has halted departing flights across the country, with the FAA and U.S. Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy confirming that planes are staying grounded until further notice.
For the Sooners, the immediate concern is simple: an opponent that is supposed to be on the road may not be able to move on schedule, and the disruption could affect everything from arrival timing to the usual pregame routine. Even after flights begin moving again, delays are expected, leaving this matchup with an unusual amount of waiting attached to it before anyone gets to kickoff. [Read more 🡒]
Jason Witten Just Got A Massive Vote Of Confidence At Oklahoma
Jason Wittens move into coaching has already drawn plenty of attention, and Jon Gruden just added another layer of credibility to it. Gruden, who coached Witten with the Raiders, spoke glowingly about the former tight ends work ethic, preparation and leadership, pointing back to the habits that made Witten such a dependable player in the first place.
For Oklahoma, that kind of endorsement matters because it reinforces the idea that Wittens coaching path is built on more than name recognition. Grudens praise also underscored how smoothly Witten has carried those traits into coaching roles at the high school and college levels, giving the Sooners a familiar football voice with real respect from one of his former NFL coaches. [Read more 🡒]
Oklahoma Just Landed A Huge In-State Recruiting Win Again
Oklahoma kept a prized in-state talent home again, landing a commitment from Kamieon Compton-Nero, the consensus No. 1 player in Oklahoma in the Class of 2028. The 6-foot-3, 185-pound safety from Owasso High School gives the Sooners another early recruiting victory in a cycle that already had plenty of national attention around his name.
Compton-Nero was rated No. 42 overall in the 247Sports composite rankings and had narrowed his list to a heavyweight group that included Notre Dame, Ole Miss, Alabama and SMU. For Oklahoma, the commitment is more than just another addition to the board - it is the kind of in-state win that can shape a class and send an early message about how the Sooners are approaching the next wave of recruiting. [Read more 🡒]