No. 4 Ole Miss heads into its first real road test of the season on Saturday, and the Rebels are doing it with some uncertainty attached to their backfield.
The Rebels travel to Gainesville to face No. 21 Florida in a matchup between 3-0 teams that have each opened SEC play at 1-0. Florida entered the week as a three-point home favorite, a line shaped in part by the status of junior running back Kewan Lacy, who showed up as questionable on Wednesday’s initial availability report.
Pete Golding said Monday that Lacy’s availability will be decided closer to kickoff.
“(Lacy) got an MRI (Sunday) morning. It wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was,” Golding said this week.
“He’s going through the rehab process right now, and we’ll monitor the reps throughout the week. He’ll be a game-time decision.”
That uncertainty hangs over a game Ole Miss has already seen go sideways in Gainesville. In the Rebels’ last trip there during the 2024 season, they arrived as double-digit favorites and a top-10 team, but left with a loss in the final minutes. The defeat also kept Ole Miss from reaching 10 regular season wins.
This time, the Rebels are approaching The Swamp with a different label attached to them: road underdog.
“We're the underdog anyway going into the game. So I mean I don’t know how you can take them lightly anyway,” Golding explained on Monday.
“But just the mindset. I think we had some guys on that team before that hadn’t played there.
I think it’s a unique atmosphere there. They do a really good job.
It’s a hard place to play…but I knew going into that game that’s a hard place to play.”
Ole Miss has not won in The Swamp since 2008, and Saturday gives the Rebels another chance to change that. Wednesday’s first availability report for both teams was released with Lacy listed as questionable.
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LSU Fans Have A New Reason To Be Furious About Ole Miss
Lane Kiffin left Oxford with more than a loss to sort through after LSUs trip to face Ole Miss, zeroing in on what he described as a rules issue tied to the in-game atmosphere. He said the music and crowd noise kept rolling as the centers hand was on the ball, which he argued runs afoul of SEC regulations that require music to stop before the snap.
The complaint only adds another layer to a night LSU would rather forget, with Ole Miss staying unbeaten and the Tigers taking their first loss of the season. For Rebels fans, it is the kind of gripe that usually follows a home win in a loud building, but for LSU it gives the defeat an even sharper edge as the postgame debate shifts from the scoreboard to how the game was played. [Read more 🡒]
Urban Meyer Just Validated What Florida Fans Are Starting To Believe
Florida has spent the week trying to build on the kind of performance that can change a season, and Urban Meyer just added another voice to the optimism around the Gators. Now working as an analyst and part of The Triple Option podcast, Meyer said he expects Florida to beat Ole Miss in the upcoming matchup, pointing to the way the Gators have been playing and the coaching behind it.
Jadan Baugh is part of what Meyer likes about Floridas chances, with the running back emerging as a key piece in the offense. For Ole Miss, it adds another layer to a game already carrying plenty of attention, especially with both teams coming in off recent performances that have shaped how this meeting is being viewed. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A No. 1 Test Some Insiders Don't Trust Them To Pass
Ole Miss is headed into a marquee SEC matchup with plenty of momentum, but not everyone around the sport is sold on the Rebels carrying that confidence into the next step. Both teams arrive at 3-0 after recent conference wins, and the stage is set around quarterback Trinidad Chambliss for Ole Miss and Florida running back Jadan Baugh for the Gators, two players who have helped give their teams early-season belief.
Even Rece Davis, who placed Ole Miss No. 1 in the AP Poll, leaned the other way when it came to the actual result and picked Florida to win. That kind of split view only adds to the intrigue, because it captures the larger question around this game - whether Ole Miss is ready to back up its ranking against a Florida team that has also shown it can handle SEC pressure. [Read more 🡒]