Paul Finebaum isn’t handing out SEC praise lightly, but after Week 7 he made his pick clear: Ole Miss is the team he likes most in the league right now.
On The Matt Barrie Show, Barrie asked Finebaum whether the Rebels belonged among the SEC’s top two. Finebaum didn’t dance around it.
"Absolutely," said Feinbaum. "I know I've given way too many Polly Positive answers here for the quota.
But if you ask me, 'In the SEC who do you like the most right now?' It's Ole Miss."
That came on the heels of Ole Miss’ 31-3 win over Missouri, a result Finebaum pointed to as the kind of performance that leaves little room for doubt. He said, "There's no way, coming away from that, of being anything but bullish on Ole Miss."
Barrie noted the Rebels’ offense has been electric behind quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy, while also raising the issue of the defense. That side of the ball has now strung together two solid outings, but the questions haven’t disappeared.
They’re rooted in the kind of damage Ole Miss has already taken. Florida hung 52 points on the Rebels in a 52-28 loss, piling up 498 total yards and 302 rushing yards.
The defense also had a rough opening stretch against Louisville in Week 1, giving up 469 yards in a 41-38 shootout. Since then, though, Ole Miss has kept opponents under 400 yards and under 24 points in four of its next five games.
Even so, the Rebels still sit last in the SEC in yards allowed per game at 390.
Chambliss has delivered a steady season, with 1,676 passing yards, 14 touchdown throws and four interceptions. He’s also added 127 rushing yards and six scores on the ground, giving Ole Miss another layer to work with.
Lacy’s numbers have been more restrained, in part because he’s been underused and missed the Florida game entirely. He had his first 100-yard outing of the season in Week 6, going for 122 yards on 16 carries. Overall, he has 352 rushing yards and five touchdowns in six games, and his production has been trending in the right direction.
Ole Miss now heads into a critical three-game stretch against Texas, Auburn and Georgia. Only the Texas game is on the road.
ESPN’s FPI gives the Rebels a 44% chance to make the College Football Playoff, placing them in the middle of a five-team group rated between 39% and 49%. Finebaum, though, sees Ole Miss as the real deal and as the SEC’s top CFP threat alongside Georgia.
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Missouri's Loss Exposed An Ole Miss Problem Tigers Couldn't Contain
Ole Miss got what it needed against Missouri, but the win also highlighted a concern the Rebels will have to keep managing as the season goes on. Even with injuries limiting Edwin Joseph and Kewan Lacy, Joenel Aguero helped steady the defense, while Caleb Cunningham emerged as a reliable target and finished as the teams receiving leader with a touchdown. It was the kind of game that showed Ole Miss has enough playmakers to survive bumps, but also enough moving parts to make every week feel a little more precarious than the final score suggests.
Kewan Lacy still crossed the 120-yard mark on the ground despite missing part of the game, which only underscored how central he has become to the offense. Deuce Alexander did not have his best outing, but he remains an important piece for a unit that is leaning on depth more and more. For Ole Miss, the larger takeaway from Missouri was not just that the Rebels won, but that their margin for error may depend on how well those key contributors hold up. [Read more 🡒]
Kentucky Just Landed A National Spot Fans Will Want To See
After a wild Saturday that shook up the national picture, Danny Kanell reshuffled his top 12 college football rankings and did not hold back on the SEC fallout. Georgia slid all the way from No. 1 to No. 11 after its loss to Auburn, while Tennessee emerged as the highest-ranked SEC team at No. 6 in Kanells list, underscoring just how quickly the leagues hierarchy can change in a single weekend.
At the top, BYU claimed the No. 1 spot in Kanells latest rankings, a sign of how much chaos the upsets created across the country. For SEC fans watching the full board, the bigger takeaway is the reminder that there is still plenty of movement ahead, with the leagues heavyweights trying to steady themselves while the rest of the field keeps pressing for national respect. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Sent A Serious SEC Message Against Missouri
Ole Miss left little doubt at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, handling Missouri 21-3 and stringing together a second straight win in a way that should get the rest of the SECs attention. The Rebels controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, smothering Missouris ground game and holding the Tigers to just 38 rushing yards while leaning on a balanced offensive effort that looked increasingly hard to stop as the game wore on.
Kewan Lacy and Makhi Frazier helped power an Ole Miss rushing attack that piled up 223 yards, giving Trinidad Chambliss a strong platform to operate from. Chambliss made the most of it, throwing three touchdown passes and adding one more score himself, a performance that gave the Rebels a clear edge and left them with momentum heading into what comes next. [Read more 🡒]