No. 4 Ole Miss heads into Saturday’s trip to The Swamp with plenty to prove, even after stacking up three straight wins and beating LSU in a game that carried extra weight for Pete Golding’s program.
The Rebels have been here before, though. A big victory can leave a team vulnerable the next week, and Ole Miss knows Florida has been the kind of place where focus can slip.
That’s the backdrop for a matchup between two 3-0 teams and two players who have already worked their way into the Heisman conversation: Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and Florida running back Jadan Baugh. Baugh is on the fringe of the race, while Chambliss is the favorite.
Baugh has run for 458 yards, second-most in the country, and scored eight touchdowns, which is tied for the most in the country. Chambliss doesn’t have the flashiest raw numbers, but he has been the engine for Ole Miss and has carried the Rebels to ranked wins over No.
16 Louisville and No. 10 LSU.
Saturday gives Baugh a chance to force his way deeper into the Heisman discussion, especially with Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy listed as a game-time decision and unlikely to steal the spotlight. It also gives Chambliss another shot to strengthen his case while keeping Ole Miss from walking into a trap game.
Florida coach Jon Sumrall was caught off guard when he learned the Gators were favored this weekend. "There's a lot of good drugs out there, huh?" Sumrall said Monday.
The concern for Ole Miss is obvious: after a huge win that the team and its fans had circled since Kiffin left, there’s always a chance the next opponent gets treated like an afterthought. Golding has insisted that won’t happen, but the Rebels have already seen this movie before. In 2024, they lost to Florida in The Swamp one week after beating Georgia in what was supposed to be a program-defining win that pushed them toward the playoff picture.
Golding was the defensive coordinator for that team, so the memory sits right there as a warning. He won’t want a repeat.
There’s also the question of whether Ole Miss can keep Florida’s offense under control. The Rebels’ defense had a rocky start over the first two games, with the secondary hit by injuries to Florida transfer safety Sharif Denson and cornerback Antonio Kite. Last week, both players were healthy for most of the game, and the improvement showed.
Now Denson goes back to The Swamp for the first time since transferring, and he’ll have a key role in slowing Florida’s passing attack with quarterback Aaron Philo. Baugh is the bigger name in the backfield, but Philo has been productive too, with 8 touchdowns total and nearly 800 yards on the season. Put that together with Florida’s other offensive weapons, and Golding’s defense has its hands full.
If Ole Miss gets through this one without stumbling, the Rebels will have a lot to feel good about heading into the bye week.
In Other News...
Lane Kiffin's Latest LSU Comment Will Fire Up Ole Miss Fans
Lane Kiffin had a familiar, and likely unwelcome, message after LSUs loss to Ole Miss: the Rebels got the kind of emotional, high-stakes response that comes with a game treated like a season-defining moment. He pointed to Ole Miss quarterback turning in a strong performance and said LSU had chances to win, which only added to the sense that the Tigers let one slip in a game that clearly carried extra weight.
For Ole Miss fans, the comment lands as a pointed reminder of how much respect their team earned in that matchup. Kiffin also framed the loss as a lesson for LSU, stressing the need to take something from the experience and handle similar situations better next time, but the larger takeaway for the Rebels is hard to miss: they were the team LSU circled, and they played like it. [Read more 🡒]
Mizzou Fraternities Turn Ole Miss Tragedy Into An Urgent Campus Warning
The University of Mississippi is still waiting for answers after two students were found dead this week, and the cause of death has not been determined. Police responded to calls of a possible overdose, and kratom was reportedly found at both investigation sites, adding another layer of concern around a case that has already landed hard on campus.
The ripple effect has reached well beyond Oxford. The University of Missouris Interfraternity Council used the tragedy as a warning for its own students, urging them to take drugs and alcohol seriously and stressing the importance of Narcan in overdose situations while also expressing support for the Ole Miss community. In college life, news like this tends to travel fast, but the reminder behind it is plain enough: the risks are real, and for now the larger questions around what happened in Mississippi remain unanswered. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Just Added Fuel To Ole Miss LSU Tension
Lane Kiffin helped keep the temperature up around an already charged SEC matchup during the leagues coaches teleconference, calling Ole Miss win over LSU the Rebels Super Bowl and tying the result to his own history in Oxford. His comments only added another layer to a rivalry that already carried plenty of attention, especially with the quarterback play from both sides still lingering in the conversation.
Pete Golding didnt take the bait for long. The Ole Miss coach pushed the focus back onto the bigger picture, stressing that his program is built around preparing for the full season rather than circling one opponent on the calendar. For the Rebels, it was a reminder that the noise around LSU can follow them, but it does not have to define their approach. [Read more 🡒]