Ole Miss will have to wait an extra day to get to Norman.
The Rebels’ trip to Oklahoma was pushed from Saturday to Sunday after Friday’s nationwide FAA shutdown threw college football’s travel plans into chaos. Brandon Marcello of CBS Sports reported that Ole Miss will now face the Sooners at 12:00 p.m. CT at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
It turns what was supposed to be a standard road game into something much stranger for Ole Miss, which is now set to play its second Sunday game of the season. The team had been scheduled to leave Oxford on Friday in advance of the original 3:15 p.m. CT kickoff, but a federal ground stop kept the Rebels from taking off.
The FAA’s decision came after a communications outage hit air traffic control centers across the country and left departing flights grounded for more than four hours. Even after the ground stop was lifted Friday evening, the travel damage had already been done for several teams.
Ole Miss was far from the only program caught in the mess. Tennessee, Texas, Baylor, Utah and Washington all had to adjust their plans ahead of their games, with some teams turning to long bus rides instead of waiting on flights.
That ripple effect reached the Saturday schedule, too. Auburn’s game against Mississippi State was moved from 11 a.m.
CT to 3:15 p.m. CT after the Tigers chose to bus to Starkville.
In the Big 12, Arizona State’s game at UCF was pushed back two hours because of the Sun Devils’ delayed arrival in Florida. Kansas and West Virginia also changed kickoff windows, while the American Athletic Conference shifted the starts of Tulane-Rice and Florida Atlantic-Tulsa.
Ole Miss wasn’t the only SEC team to scrap air travel. Alabama also went by bus to Nashville for its matchup with Vanderbilt.
For the Rebels, the timing makes the weekend even more delicate after last Saturday’s 42-7 loss to Georgia. Ole Miss enters at 6-3 and needs to win its remaining regular-season games to keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.
What should have been a routine Saturday trip has become an unusual Sunday assignment, with Ole Miss now trying to shake off the travel disruption and get back on track in Norman.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Suddenly Faces A Travel Mess Before Oklahoma
Ole Miss found itself dealing with an unexpected wrinkle before its trip to Norman on Friday night, when the team was unable to fly out because of an FAA airspace grounding tied to a telecommunication outage. What should have been a routine pregame travel day instead turned into a logistics headache, with the Rebels forced to reset their plans while trying to keep the focus on an important Week 11 matchup.
The team was scheduled to travel Saturday morning, but the disruption left the timing of the trip and the game itself in flux, with a possible move to Sunday still being considered. Ole Miss was hardly alone in the mess, as other college football programs around the country also had to navigate travel delays and scheduling uncertainty heading into the weekend. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Just Lost A Huge Piece Of Its Playoff Push
Ole Miss has been forced to move deeper into its backfield rotation after losing Kewan Lacy for the rest of the season because of a left shoulder injury. Lacy first hurt the shoulder against LSU, then aggravated it again later against Texas, and the setback has kept him out of the Rebels recent games as they try to stay on track in the playoff race.
His absence matters because Lacy had become a meaningful part of the offense during his college career, giving Ole Miss another runner it could lean on in key spots. Now the Rebels are turning to junior Makhi Frazier to help fill the gap, and how well that adjustment holds up could shape the rest of the push. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Faces A Major O-Line Test At Oklahoma
Ole Miss is heading into a familiar road environment with a new wrinkle up front, as Troy Everett is expected to step in at guard against Oklahoma after Patrick Kutas was injured. It will be Everetts first start of the season, and it comes at a time when the Rebels are already dealing with the kind of line shuffle that can change the feel of an offense before the opening snap.
The matchup also sends Ole Miss back to Oklahomas stadium for a second straight season, adding another layer of difficulty to a game that already figures to test communication and physicality in the trenches. For a Rebels team trying to keep its protection intact on the road, how Everett handles the assignment could become one of the quieter but more important storylines of the night. [Read more 🡒]