Pete Golding already has one signature win over Georgia on his résumé, and now he gets another shot at the Bulldogs with even bigger stakes attached.
No. 10 Ole Miss welcomes No.
2 Georgia to Oxford on Saturday night in a heavyweight SEC matchup that could shape the Rebels’ postseason path. Golding’s connection to this matchup goes back to New Year’s Day, when he guided Ole Miss to a 39-34 Sugar Bowl win over Georgia and pushed the program into its first College Football Playoff semifinal.
The Rebels enter at 6-2 overall and 4-2 in the SEC after bouncing back from a seven-point loss at then-No. 19 Texas with a 45-15 win over Auburn.
That response kept Ole Miss from taking a damaging third loss, though another defeat here would still leave the Rebels alive in the playoff conversation. Even so, the path gets a lot tighter from here, and a win over a ranked opponent may not come around again.
Oxford has become a tough place to visit, and Ole Miss will lean hard on that edge. The Rebels have won 16 straight games at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, the longest active streak among Power Four programs.
“I think the atmosphere that’s created by our fans and by our students makes it extremely tough to play,” Golding said. “I think when offenses come in here, the crowd noise and all those things are a big piece. Our fans have done an unbelievable job, but it goes back to our players executing and playing really well at home, and they have.”
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss has been the engine of the offense all season. He leads the SEC with 2,189 passing yards and 18 touchdowns, and he is tied for sixth in rushing touchdowns with seven. With All-America running back Kewan Lacy likely out again because of a shoulder injury, Chambliss may need to keep carrying the load.
“We’re not expecting to have him this week,” Golding said of Lacy. “This isn’t something that’s just going to happen overnight. He’s working hard at it, and hopefully we’ll know sooner than later, but not expecting him this week.”
Georgia knows exactly how dangerous Chambliss can be. In two games against the Bulldogs last season, he threw three touchdown passes and ran for two more.
The Bulldogs arrive with their defense rolling after a dominant showing against Florida, a game in which they forced four turnovers in a 27-8 win. Georgia has given up only 14.9 points per game, the best scoring defense in the SEC, and Kirby Smart isn’t pretending there’s some magic formula for stopping Chambliss.
“There’s nothing we’re going to do that he hasn’t seen,” Smart said. “You’re not tricking the guy.
I think that’s what people get infatuated with is, ‘How can I trick him?’ You can’t do that.
You have to go play good sound football.”
One of the biggest reasons Georgia’s defense has been so effective lately is linebacker Chris Cole. He earned SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week honors after returning a fumble 66 yards for a touchdown against Florida, his third defensive score.
“This guy’s really intelligent,” Smart said of Cole. “He is very purpose-driven.
He’s uber talented because he’s been blessed with length and height and speed. He’s got all these attributes, but he’s smart.
He understands football.”
Georgia’s offense also has a quarterback who has been efficient all season. Gunner Stockton leads the SEC with a 71.8% completion rate, though he was held to a season-low 101 passing yards last week. He was productive in last year’s two meetings with Ole Miss, accounting for eight total touchdowns - five through the air and three on the ground.
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Georgia Heads To Ole Miss With Gunner Stockton Facing His Toughest Test
Georgias trip to Oxford brings a different kind of stress test for Gunner Stockton, one that goes beyond the usual road-game noise. Ole Miss has made it clear it wants to get hands on receivers early, shrink the easy throws and make the Georgia quarterback hold the ball long enough for pressure to arrive.
For a Bulldogs offense still settling around Stockton, that means the passing game has to answer a defense built to disrupt timing and force uncomfortable decisions. The Rebels approach is straightforward enough in theory, but it can change the rhythm of a game quickly if Georgia cannot win cleanly at the line and keep Stockton on schedule. [Read more 🡒]
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Ole Miss has been solid but not dominant in turnover luck this season, sitting at even in that department, while Georgia remains one of the nations best teams at taking care of the ball. That puts extra pressure on the Rebels to find other ways to create an edge, whether through aggressive fourth-down calls or a more balanced offense that can keep the Bulldogs from settling in. Against a team like Georgia, the margin for error is thin, and Ole Miss will need more than just a good plan to make the upset feel possible. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Must Disrupt One Georgia Strength To Flip This Rivalry
Ole Miss is seeing Georgia again, and this one carries a familiar edge after the Bulldogs took the first two meetings between the teams in the calendar year, including a College Football Playoff quarterfinal. The Rebels know the challenge by now: Georgia has been able to control the matchup, and the task this time is to make the Bulldogs play on Ole Misss terms instead of settling into their preferred rhythm.
Gunner Stockton is central to that plan, because Georgias offense has looked most comfortable when he can operate cleanly and keep the unit moving. For Ole Miss, the path to changing the result starts with disrupting that comfort, forcing pressure and making the Bulldogs work harder for every possession. If the Rebels can do that, they give themselves a real chance to turn a rivalry that has gone Georgias way into something far more competitive. [Read more 🡒]