No. 9 Ole Miss comes out of the bye week and heads to Nashville for a tough SEC road test against Vanderbilt, with kickoff set for 11 a.m.
CT on Saturday, Oct. 25.
The Rebels are trying to shake off the taste of the Gator defeat, and this matchup should tell a lot about how they respond. Pete Golding has had two weeks to sit with that loss, and now Ole Miss gets back to work in an SEC environment where nothing comes easy.
Vanderbilt enters with some uncertainty, but also some help on the way. Jared Curtis, the five-star quarterback who turned down Georgia to land with the Commodores, missed last week’s game against the Bulldogs because of injury. Vanderbilt hung around early, trailing just 21-14 at halftime, before being shut out in the second half in a second straight SEC loss.
There’s optimism on the injury front for both sides. Curtis and Kewan Lacy are both trending toward playing in this one, which would give each team a key piece back in the mix.
Ole Miss has controlled this series lately, winning five in a row and six of the last seven. Still, this is an SEC road game, and those are never simple. Vanderbilt is not the same team Ole Miss has seen in the past, and the Rebels will need their defense to match the talent on the roster and get the ball back to their Heisman candidate quarterback early and often.
On the other side, Vanderbilt’s offense runs through Curtis, Junior Sherrill and Sedrick Alexander. That group doesn’t quite match Trinidad Chambliss, Lacy and Deuce Alexander, but it’s still enough to make things interesting if Ole Miss isn’t sharp.
One other thing to watch: whether there are any changes to the defensive rotation. Based on the names available, though, a major overhaul doesn’t seem likely.
In Other News...
Eli Manning Just Picked Family Over Ole Miss Loyalty
Eli Manning is already taking a stance on one of Ole Miss biggest upcoming games, and it comes with a family-first caveat. On the Pardon My Take podcast, the former Rebels star said hell be pulling for Texas when the Longhorns face his alma mater on Oct. 24, with nephew Arch Manning leading the way at quarterback.
For Ole Miss fans, its a familiar kind of twist from the Manning family tree, and Eli made clear this is the exception rather than the rule. He said he supports the Rebels in every other game, while his brother Peyton has taken a similar line by siding with Texas over his own alma mater as well. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Has A Finishing Problem It Must Fix At Vanderbilt
Ole Miss has spent the last couple of weeks sitting on a familiar question: how does a team that builds multi-score leads keep from turning clean wins into tense finishes? The Rebels had to lean on late-game offense to get past Louisville and LSU, and those scares have made the downtime before Vanderbilt feel less like a breather and more like a chance to sort out a nagging issue.
Vanderbilt offers the next test of whether the Rebels can close the door against an SEC opponent without inviting drama. For Ole Miss, the bigger concern is not just getting ahead, but protecting the edge with sharper execution when the game tightens and the final minutes arrive. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss Is Climbing Fast With One Concern
Trinidad Chambliss has gone from intriguing name to one of the fastest-rising quarterbacks in the country, at least in the eyes of ESPN NFL Draft analyst Jordan Reid. Reid recently slotted the Ole Miss signal-caller as his No. 3 quarterback prospect for the 2027 NFL Draft, a nod to the way Chambliss has played in the 2026 season and the way he has kept defenses off balance as both a passer and runner.
For Ole Miss, the timing matters because Chambliss is expected to keep steering the offense into an important matchup with Vanderbilt. Reid pointed to the traits that have fueled Chambliss' rise, but also flagged one area that could matter as the NFL conversation gets louder: his size. For now, the Rebels have a quarterback whose stock is moving up quickly, even if the long-term evaluation is still being written. [Read more 🡒]