No. 7 Ole Miss heads to Austin on Saturday with plenty on the line, while No.
19 Texas is trying to stop the slide and keep its season from slipping further. The Rebels are 5-1 overall and 3-1 in SEC play, riding a two-game winning streak into Week 8.
The Longhorns come in at 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the league, staring at a second straight loss and needing a response at home.
The playoff picture hangs over everything. A victory would keep Ole Miss’ College Football Playoff path looking as clean as ever, and it would leave Texas in a tough spot when it comes to staying in the hunt. The stakes are high enough already, but the matchup carries an added layer because Arch Manning is set to face the program whose name is all over campus.
Manning also enters the week needing a strong outing of his own. With the conversation around his play growing louder, a steady performance would go a long way toward quieting the noise and helping him hold onto the starting job.
Ole Miss On SI’s Tyler Komis and host Bailey Flanders broke down the game in Episode 106 of The Rebel Rundown, laying out the biggest things to watch in the SEC showdown.
A big part of the discussion centered on Texas offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian, who Golding described in glowing terms earlier this week.
“I think (Steve Sarkisian is) one of the best play callers in the country, and it’s not close,” Golding said of Texas earlier this week. “I think he does the best designing plays to get his best player the ball in stride as well.
I think what’s unique about this year to me is when you watch them on tape, they’ve had a lot of bad luck. I mean, there’s a lot of things you’ve actually watched on the tape, hitting guys in stride, hits them in the chest, ball bounces off, get a pick, you know, all those type of things.
I think somehow it’s been lost that they’ve beaten the number one team in the country. They were the number one team in the country at some point.
They haven’t played perfect. But Arch is still an elite player.
They’ve got elite skill and a really, really good coach. So we’re going to have our work cut out for us.
I just think the consistency there that you talk about, sometimes it’s a lack of protection, sometimes it’s a drop, sometimes the defense makes a good play. But a lot of it to me has been bad luck, to be honest with you.”
The message from the Ole Miss side is clear: Sarkisian’s system is the same problem no matter who lines up at quarterback, and Manning’s talent is not in question.
“I think Sark runs his system and has been really effective everywhere he’s been. So I think regardless of who’s at quarterback, that’s not going to change much.
Obviously there’s packages and short yardage and field position to where you got to be aware of certain things that he’s done in the past. But obviously (Arch has) elite arm talent has been in the system a long time.
I think some people have shown him some different looks and taken away some first reads and applied some pressure and all that. But the perception that he’s not an elite player right now is crazy to me…We know what we’re going up against.
I know the perception of what it is right now, but I still think it’s an elite offense.”
In Other News...
Texas Faces One Brutal Test Protecting Arch Manning Against Ole Miss
Ole Miss has already spent much of this season proving it can handle high-end competition, with Pete Goldings defense navigating four ranked opponents and coming away with three wins. That track record is a big part of why the Rebels are getting attention heading into the matchup with Texas, a program that has slid from No. 1 to No. 19 after back-to-back losses and now has even more pressure on every snap.
The conversation starts up front, where Ole Miss has leaned on a pass rush that can change the tone of a game and force quarterbacks into hurried decisions. Texas will spend plenty of time worrying about that edge pressure and the Rebels disruptive front, while Ole Miss still has its own offensive cleanup work to handle if it wants to make the most of another marquee SEC chance. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Gets One More Jolt Of Hype Before Texas Showdown
The No. 7 Rebels head to Austin for a ranked SEC showdown with No. 19 Texas that already carries real College Football Playoff weight, and the pregame buzz has only grown louder. The Longhorns are dealing with notable absences in Colin Simmons and Hollywood Smothers, while the quarterback situation has also been unsettled enough that backup KJ Lacey Jr. has been getting more first-team reps than usual.
Ole Miss has also picked up a little extra fuel from the national conversation, with several familiar voices weighing in on the matchup. Desmond Howard, Nick Saban, Pat McAfee and Dalton Kincaid have all offered predictions for the game, and most of them landed on the Rebels as the team more likely to leave Austin with a win. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Gets A Chance To Prove A Popular Model Wrong
ESPNs SP+ model is leaning toward Texas in this weekends SEC matchup with Ole Miss, even as the Longhorns arrive on a two-game losing streak and the Rebels carry plenty of momentum of their own. It is the kind of prediction that adds a little extra edge to a game that already has plenty riding on it, especially with both teams trying to shape the bigger picture in conference play.
For Ole Miss, the matchup offers more than a chance to bank another important SEC win. It is also an opportunity to challenge a computer projection that sees Texas as the better bet on paper, and those kinds of games tend to say as much about where a team really stands as they do about the scoreboard. Around the league, SP+ has plenty of other Week 8 calls lined up too, but this one stands out because it pits current form against a model that still favors the Longhorns. [Read more 🡒]