OXFORD, Miss. — In Oxford, Miss., tenth-ranked Ole Miss puts a 16-game home winning streak on the line Saturday night when No. 2 Georgia comes to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium for a top-10 Southeastern Conference meeting with College Football Playoff stakes for both teams.
Kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Central. The Rebels come in at 6-2 overall and 4-2 in league play, while the Bulldogs are 7-1 and 5-1. Even with that long run of wins in Oxford, Ole Miss opens as a 3.5-point home underdog.
The series has been even lately, with each program taking two of the last four meetings dating to 2023. The most recent one was a Sugar Bowl played on New Year’s Day.
Ole Miss will be shorthanded. Running back Kewan Lacy, the team’s top rusher, is listed as out with a dislocated shoulder, and safety Edwin Joseph is out as well. Two defensive starters, lineman Kam Franklin and Keaton Thomas, the team’s leading tackler, carry questionable tags. On the plus side, linebacker Luke Ferrelli is set to return.
Georgia’s report is lighter. Linebacker Amaris Williams remains out after a torn ACL, while two players who had been out, safety Tyriq Green and tailback Chauncey Bowens, have moved up to questionable. Bowens has not played since the Bulldogs faced Vanderbilt.
Ole Miss has less room for error than Georgia in the 12-team playoff chase, so a home win over the second-ranked team would carry extra weight for the Rebels’ resume. A loss would push Ole Miss to three defeats with the November stretch still ahead, a hard spot for any team hoping to land one of the 12 playoff berths.
Both teams will look to limit mistakes in a matchup that has often turned on a handful of plays. The Southeastern Conference is set to post one more availability update about 90 minutes before kickoff, so the final status of the questionable players on both sides may not be known until shortly before the game.
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