College football’s Sunday slate opens with a matchup that has plenty of playoff weight behind it, even if it’s only Week 1. No.
9 Ole Miss and No. 24 Louisville meet in an SEC-ACC showdown that puts two ambitious rosters on the same field, and both sides have reasons to believe they can make noise this season.
Louisville’s best path is pretty clear: lean on the run game, trust Jeff Brohm’s experience in bigger spots, and try to turn this into a four-quarter fight. Brohm has a track record of knocking off ranked teams, and the Cardinals have leaned heavily on the transfer portal to reshape the roster.
At the center of that ground-first approach is Isaac Brown, who gives Louisville a real chance to control tempo. He led the FBS with 8.8 yards per carry, nearly a quarter of his runs went for 10 or more yards, and no other back has averaged more yards per touch over the last two seasons.
He’s also third in yards after contact.
If Louisville can hold up up front against Ole Miss’ pass rush and get the Rebels out of rhythm early, the Cardinals have a lane to keep this one tight. That would also help their defense, which needs to create mistakes and disrupt Ole Miss before the Rebels settle in.
Still, Ole Miss enters with the cleaner talent edge and more continuity where it matters most. Pete Golding’s group brings back quarterback Trinidad Chambliss after a standout season, and Kewan Lacy gives the Rebels another dangerous piece after breaking school records on the ground a year ago. The roster has also been strengthened by portal additions, giving Ole Miss more ways to control the game and attack Louisville from multiple angles.
That matters especially against a Cardinals defense trying to handle a new Rebels quarterback and a lead rusher with proven production. Ole Miss should be able to push the pace, work the edges, and make Lincoln Kienholz deal with a level of pressure he hasn’t seen before.
Neutral-site games can sometimes tilt toward the team that is simply more prepared, and Brohm’s staff has had all offseason to build a plan for a Rebels offense that does have some new pieces around its stars. But the key difference here is those stars. Chambliss and Lacy give Ole Miss enough firepower to generate explosive plays, and that’s the kind of edge that can start to separate the game after halftime.
Louisville can hang around for a while behind Brown and the run game, but Ole Miss has the better roster balance and the more reliable playmakers. The Rebels look built to take control late and pull away in the second half.
In Other News...
Pete Goldings Path To This Ole Miss Job Was Anything But Typical
Pete Goldings rise to the top job at Ole Miss was not the standard assistant-to-head-coach handoff. After Lane Kiffin departed for LSU, Golding was elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach and rewarded with a five-year, $35 million contract, a move that gives the program continuity at a moment when it could have easily unraveled. His path has included stops at Alabama and UTSA, but he is now the latest coach asked to keep the Rebels from losing momentum after a season that already carried serious postseason weight.
What makes Goldings case especially unusual is how much of his value came from what happened in 2025, when he served as Ole Misss interim coach and helped guide the Rebels to two College Football Playoff wins. The contract reflects that leap in trust, with bonuses and a buyout clause built in, but the bigger question is how he translates an interim surge into something more durable. Ole Miss didnt just need a caretaker, and now Golding gets the challenge of proving this path, however unconventional, can still lead to a lasting run. [Read more 🡒]
Jeff Brohm Still Carries The Purdue Upset Reputation Into Another Test
Jeff Brohm has spent enough time in the sport to know that rankings alone do not settle much, and his track record against elite teams has become part of the conversation every time one of his squads draws a heavyweight. Across 12 seasons as a head coach, he has gone 5-8 against top-10 opponents, with most of that damage coming in the more recent stretch since 2018, when his teams have proven capable of springing the kind of surprises that linger.
That reputation is what makes the 2026 season opener at No. 10 Mississippi worth watching closely. Brohm already owns notable victories over No. 2 Ohio State in 2018 and No. 2 Miami in 2025, and even his Louisville run against top-10 foes produced a split. For Ole Miss, the meeting offers an early test against a coach who has built a rsum on making highly ranked teams uncomfortable. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Gets Its First Real Test In A Spotlight Opener
Ole Miss will step into the national spotlight to open the season against Louisville on Sept. 6, with the matchup set for Nissan Stadium in Nashville. For a Rebels team that will spend the offseason building toward bigger goals, this is the kind of opening night that gives everyone an immediate read on where things stand, and it comes with the added lift of a neutral-site stage and a crowd that should feel plenty invested.
The broadcast setup matches the occasion, too, with the game landing on ABC and streaming available through Fubo and the ESPN app. For fans watching from home, it will be one of those early-season tests that feels bigger than a normal opener, and the buildup will only grow as kickoff approaches and the attention around the Rebels starts to build. [Read more 🡒]