After a 34-27 setback against No. 11 Texas, No. 12 Ole Miss turns right back into the SEC grind this Saturday against Auburn with a simple mission: get a win streak started and keep the College Football Playoff path alive.
The Rebels have five regular-season games left, and the math is pretty clear from here. If Ole Miss wants another playoff berth, it likely has to run the table.
That makes this game against Auburn more than just another conference test - it’s the first step in a stretch that includes No. 3 Georgia, Oklahoma, Wofford and Mississippi State.
For Ole Miss, the biggest question starts under center. Trinidad Chambliss had one of the roughest outings of his career against Texas, finishing with fewer than half his passes completed and throwing for two touchdowns and three interceptions.
The third pick came on a Hail Mary at the end, but the performance still raised real questions after he had spent much of the season in the Heisman conversation and among the country’s top quarterbacks. Saturday gives him a clean chance to show the Texas game was the exception, not the new standard.
The backfield situation is just as important. Texas didn’t just contain Chambliss - it also wiped out Kewan Lacy’s night before he exited with a dislocated shoulder.
Lacy managed only 36 rushing yards on 16 carries before the injury, and he’ll miss at least the Auburn game, with potentially more time to come. Makhi Frazier has been the main replacement at running back this season, and Shekai Mills-Knight and JT Lindsey could also get carries.
Ole Miss has plenty of pop in its offense, but it still has to show it can replace what Lacy brought on the ground.
Defensively, the Rebels are trying to keep the good vibes moving in the right direction. After giving up 52 points in the Week 4 loss to Florida, Ole Miss responded with back-to-back blowout wins over Vanderbilt and No.
23 Missouri, allowing just 20 combined points. Last week against Texas, the defense didn’t collapse the way it did against Florida, but it did take a step back while giving up 34 points.
There were still plays worth building on - a defensive touchdown off a strip-sack by Blake Purchase and two interceptions from Jalyn Crawford - but Texas still found the end zone four times and added two field goals.
That makes Auburn a useful measuring stick. The Tigers come in unranked, and this is the kind of game Ole Miss needs to handle if it wants to build momentum before the Georgia trip on Nov.
- Auburn may not be ranked, but it is the only team that has beaten Georgia this season, so a convincing win would still mean something for a Rebels team trying to steady itself after its second loss.
That’s the backdrop for Week 9: Chambliss under pressure, the run game short-handed, the defense looking to reset again, and Ole Miss trying to make sure this doesn’t become a November slide.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Gets A Chance To Exploit Auburn's Biggest Problem
Auburn heads into its Week 9 trip to Ole Miss coming off a loss to LSU, and the Tigers are trying to steady themselves in a spot where their offense has been especially vulnerable. The captain group they announced for the game includes Byrum Brown, Hudson Kaak, Kenneth McManus IV, Elijah Melendez and Cody Digler, a mix that reflects how much Auburn will need its experienced players to keep the operation together on the road.
For Ole Miss, the most obvious opening is the same one Auburn has struggled to close all season: the run game. If the Rebels can make the Tigers one-dimensional, it puts even more pressure on Melendez and the rest of Auburns defensive core to hold up in a difficult setting. Auburn is still trying to find answers after the LSU game, and this matchup gives Ole Miss a clear chance to make that problem matter again. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A Playoff Pressure Game Auburn Would Love To Ruin
Ole Miss gets Auburn again this Saturday, the first meeting between the programs since 2023, and it arrives with a little more edge than a routine SEC date. The Rebels have taken the last two in the series, even though Auburn still owns a commanding 35-12 lead all-time, and this one carries the kind of pressure that comes with late-season positioning and College Football Playoff attention.
Auburns recent surge has made this matchup harder to ignore, especially after the Tigers knocked off Georgia and reminded the league they can still swing the conversation around the top of the SEC. If Auburn can keep winning the rest of the way, the path gets very interesting in a hurry, which is exactly why Ole Miss cannot afford to treat this as anything less than a dangerous trap game. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A Real Depth Test Against Auburn Again
Ole Miss heads into another Auburn matchup carrying a long injury list, and the numbers alone tell the story of how thin the margin has become. The Rebels released a report listing 15 players, with 10 already ruled out, three questionable and two probable, which puts real pressure on the rotation as the SEC grind continues. Kewan Lacy and Edwin Joseph are among the players unavailable, while Terez Davis and Jalyn Crawford remain in the questionable column.
Even so, the Rebels have been leaning into the next-man-up approach that every contender eventually has to trust. Makhi Frazier is among the backups expected to step in, and the offensive line has continued to lean on its chemistry even as injuries have changed the personnel around it. Auburn has a way of exposing any softness in the depth chart, so Ole Miss will need the same kind of plug-and-play response again if it wants to survive the evening intact. [Read more 🡒]