OXFORD, Miss. — No. 12 Ole Miss comes back to Oxford on Saturday, Oct. 31, needing a bounce-back win over Auburn after the 34-27 loss at Texas on Oct. 24 left the Rebels at 5-2 overall and 3-2 in SEC play. Kickoff is set for 11:45 a.m.
Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss said after the Texas game that the Rebels now have to win the rest of their games, and five remain. After Auburn come Georgia at home on Nov. 7, then Wofford, Oklahoma and Mississippi State.
Auburn arrives at 4-3, and 2-3 in the league, under first-year coach Alex Golesh. The Tigers have swung hard in two weeks: a 27-24 upset of then-No. 1 Georgia on Oct. 17, followed by a 38-17 loss to LSU in which their line gave up seven sacks.
The player the Rebels have to account for is Auburn quarterback Byrum Brown, who has passed for 1,362 yards and eight scores and run for 480 yards and six more. That is a concern for an Ole Miss defense giving up 161.1 rushing yards a game.
On the other side, Auburn has allowed 396.9 yards per game, 250.7 of them through the air, which gives Chambliss room to throw if the Rebels can also keep the ground game going.
The stakes are familiar in Oxford. In 2024 the Rebels finished No. 13 in the final playoff rankings with three losses and missed the field; last season an 11-1 regular season put them in. A win Saturday keeps the simplest path, running the table, open.
The Rebels also hold a cushion that could matter later. A three-loss team that drops the Georgia game but wins its other four would still have a strong case, while a loss in the SEC title game on top of that would leave the Rebels closer to a coin flip. None of that matters if Auburn, a team that has already beaten one of the best in the country, leaves Oxford with a win.
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