Kirk Herbstreit isn’t hiding where his attention is going Saturday night. Even with another marquee matchup on the board, the ESPN analyst said the Week 10 game he “cannot wait to watch” is No.
2 Georgia’s trip to No. 10 Ole Miss.
Herbstreit made the comment Friday on ESPN’s Get Up, saying he’ll be racing home from the afternoon game he’s calling to bounce between Georgia-Ole Miss and Miami-Notre Dame. “Ole Miss and Georgia, the way that game ended last year in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl, I cannot wait to watch that game,” he said.
That game has been sitting in Herbstreit’s mind for a while. He first backed Georgia on College GameDay on Oct. 31, just two weeks after the Bulldogs’ 27-24 home loss to Auburn knocked them out of the No. 1 spot.
“I said Georgia,” Herbstreit said. “And they were just coming off of a loss against Auburn.
Gunner Stockton had three turnovers. Didn’t look good.”
Stockton’s last mistake in that Auburn game, a fumble with 58 seconds left, set up the Tigers’ winning field goal. Georgia answered a week later with a 27-8 win over Florida, piling up 217 rushing yards and forcing four turnovers, and Herbstreit pointed to the Bulldogs’ play in the trenches as the reason they’ve steadied themselves.
“If you’ve watched Georgia, again, going back to the line of scrimmage on both sides, it reminds you of some of those Kirby Smart teams and what they can do at the line of scrimmage and control the flow and the tempo of the game,” he said.
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is one of the big reasons this matchup has Herbstreit’s full attention. He praised the Rebels passer for the way he processes the game and keeps defenses guessing.
“You have to deal with him and his accuracy, and he’s very decisive,” he said. “[He] does a great job of stepping up and making you have to respect his legs, and then always has his eyes downfield and makes plays.”
Chambliss, the former Ferris State star, leads the SEC with 2,189 passing yards and 18 touchdown passes, and he’s added seven rushing scores. He has also thrown eight interceptions through eight games, five more than he had all of last season. Ole Miss will also be without All-America running back Kewan Lacy, who dislocated his left shoulder against Texas.
“It’s a work in progress, but we’re not expecting to have him this week,” Ole Miss coach Pete Golding said Monday.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart has seen enough of Chambliss to respect the challenge. Smart said the 6-foot quarterback has “an anticipation of windows that’s probably unmatched.”
The backdrop only adds to the stakes. Ole Miss knocked Georgia out of the College Football Playoff 39-34 in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal on Jan. 1, when Chambliss connected with De’Zhaun Stribling for 40 yards on third down to set up Lucas Carneiro’s go-ahead 47-yard field goal with six seconds left.
Georgia enters at 7-1 and 5-1 in the SEC, ranked No. 2 in the first College Football Playoff rankings and sitting in position for a first-round bye. Ole Miss is 6-2 and 4-2 in the SEC, ranked No. 10 in a spot that stirred SEC favoritism talk. The Bulldogs are also likely the last ranked team left on the Rebels’ regular-season schedule.
The Rebels will put a 16-game home winning streak on the line, the longest active run among Power Four programs, when the teams meet in what Herbstreit called “a massive one in Oxford.”
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on ABC, in the same window as Miami-Notre Dame on NBC.
In Other News...
College GameDay Just Handed Kentucky Fans A Tennessee Debate
Week 10s College GameDay chatter has already spilled into the kind of conversation SEC fans love to have, with several commentators and the guest picker weighing in on a full slate that includes Ohio State, Minnesota, South Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, LSU, Utah and Notre Dame. The picks come with the usual mix of logic and gut feel, from defense and home-field edge to the impact of missing players, giving the segment the familiar feel of a Saturday morning debate rather than anything close to a settled forecast.
For Kentucky fans, though, the Tennessee pick is the one that tends to linger, because any national discussion involving the Vols has a way of circling back to the SEC race and the ripple effects around the league. The predictions are only opinions, of course, but they still add another layer to a weekend already loaded with pressure points, and they leave just enough room for fans to argue over which side of the Tennessee discussion deserves the benefit of the doubt. [Read more 🡒]
Lane Kiffin Has Ole Miss Fans Watching Alabama For One Reason
Alabamas trip to Baton Rouge has Ole Miss fans paying close attention, and not just because the Crimson Tide are sitting No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings. The matchup with No. 14 LSU carries the usual weight of a longstanding rivalry, but it also has a direct bearing on the playoff picture, which is enough to make this one matter well beyond the usual SEC weekend.
For Lane Kiffin, the game adds another layer. In his first year at LSU, he is trying to get his first win against Alabama as a head coach, and the Tigers enter with the same record as the Tide. For Ole Miss fans, the interest is obvious: any result in this one could ripple through the conference race and the playoff chase, and Kiffins latest shot at Alabama is part of the reason the whole league will be watching. [Read more 🡒]
LSU Faces A Playoff Swing Game That Could Change Everything
Several of the weekends biggest games carry more than rivalry weight, and the ripple effects could reach well beyond the teams on the field. BYUs meeting with Utah has Big 12 implications, Alabamas trip to LSU is the kind of matchup the College Football Playoff selection committee will study closely, and Ohio State against Oregon is another high-end test with bracket consequences attached.
For Ole Miss, the broader picture matters because the Rebels are watching the same crowded playoff race from the SEC side, where every result among the contenders can reshape the conversation. Kentucky-Tennessee and Miamis trip to Notre Dame without wide receiver Malachi Toney only add to a slate that could alter how the committee sorts out the top teams when the dust settles. [Read more 🡒]