Following 4 warmup contests towards unimpressive competitors to open 2024, Ole Miss now will get set for the tough actuality of the Southeastern Convention.
Ranked No. 6 within the newest Related Press High 25 ballot, the Rebels will host Kentucky to start SEC play on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.
Regardless of having crushed visiting Georgia Southern 52-13 final week, its fourth straight rout by no less than 34 factors, Ole Miss (4-0) slipped one spot within the ballot. Tennessee — certainly one of 9 SEC colleges within the High 25 — climbed to No. 5 with a 25-15 street victory over the Oklahoma, which was ranked fifteenth heading into that contest.
Ole Miss’ Jaxson Dart tops FBS quarterbacks with a mean of 388.5 passing yards per recreation, and he’s tied for fourth in passing TDs with 12. The Rebels tempo the nation in whole yards (670.8 per recreation), passing yards (422.8 per recreation) and scoring (55 factors per recreation).
The Wildcats (2-2, 0-2 SEC) are 0-3 towards Ole Miss throughout Twelfth-year coach Mark Stoops’ tenure. Kentucky misplaced most lately 22-19 in Oxford two years in the past, and earlier than that, the Wildcats fell 42-41 in additional time in 2020 and 37-34 in 2017, each on their house discipline in Lexington.
Three losses by a mixed seven factors.
“(Kentucky) took Georgia all the way down to the wire and ran for over 200 yards (towards Ohio final week),” stated Rebels coach Lane Kiffin, who’s 2-0 towards the Wildcats. “They very a lot appear to be an NFL protection … from the dimensions standpoint and coverages and strategies.
“That is why lots of people wrestle towards them. (Their) video games appear to be NFL video games: exhausting to make yards, exhausting to run the ball.”
Kiffin in contrast his Rebels to a fishing tour, saying the group was an amazing boat with effective rods and the suitable bait for the trek via SEC waters.
“They’ve an opportunity to be actually elite and have an opportunity to be actually particular,” he added.
Ole Miss will encounter a workforce nonetheless working to seek out itself via 4 house video games. Kentucky has carried out inconsistently in its two SEC contests — struggling mightily within the first but standing tall and practically stunning the faculty soccer world within the second.
In between Week 1 and Week 4 blowouts over Southern Miss and Ohio, respectively, the Wildcats performed a sloppy SEC-opening recreation towards South Carolina. Kentucky turned the ball over twice (one a pick-six), dedicated 11 penalties and allowed 5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss in a messy 31-6 setback.
Nevertheless, as a three-touchdown house underdog, Kentucky misplaced 13-12 towards then-No. 1 Georgia, getting 4 discipline targets from Alex Raynor (two longer than 50 yards) however succumbing to the Bulldogs’ rally after holding a 9-6 fourth-quarter lead.
“We’re accepting the problem,” stated defensive again Maxwell Hairston, who had a pick-six within the Wildcats’ 41-6 rout of Ohio final week. “Ole Miss has bought a really explosive offense … We will watch movie, do what we’ve got to do.”
Stated Stoops: “I do know Ole Miss is healthier in lots of methods as properly, to credit score Lane. I imply, they’ve all the time been good, however I feel they’ve actually constructed a extremely particular workforce.”
Kentucky broad receiver Dane Key had a giant efficiency towards the Bobcats, snagging seven passes for 145 yards because the Wildcats put up 488 whole yards.
The Rebels lead 29-14-1 within the all-time sequence.
–Discipline Degree Media