Ole Miss has been waiting for a day like this for quite some time.
Ranked 11th in the nation by the Associated Press, the Rebels will risk their 4-0 start to the season against No. 1 Alabama in a nationally-televised Southeastern Conference football game at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford.
Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m. on CBS. Howeve, the festivities will begin much earlier in the day with ESPN’s College Gameday airing live from the Grove – it’s first-ever appearance in the state of Mississippi.
“We’re excited about coming into the week 4-0 and having the opportunity this week to play the No. 1 team in the country at home with College GameDay here,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “That’s going to provide a very festive atmosphere here in Oxford, and we’re excited to showcase our atmosphere in the Grove. Our team will hopefully play well against a superb Alabama team. We’re coming into the game with the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked defenses in the conference and No. 2 and No. 4 ranked total offenses in our conference, so something has to give at some point.
“At the end of the day, it’s about players playing their individual matchups and that’s something we’ll challenge our kids all week long to prepare themselves to do. It should be a great, great atmosphere, and we’re looking forward to the challenge.”
Ole Miss moved to 4-0 with a 24-3 home win over Memphis Saturday night. After giving nationally-ranked UCLA a scare earlier this season, Ole Miss knew it would have its hands full with Memphis.
However, the Ole Miss defense kept the issue on lockdown for most of the night.
The Rebels held the Tigers to 104 yards of total offense. Still the contest was in doubt until Ole Miss scored 17 points in the fourth quarter.
“Looking back to the Memphis game, I’m really proud of our defense and the way they played,” Freeze said. “They made very few mental mistakes. We tackled extremely well and got turnovers and sudden-change moments. We played really well, which is big. Special teams obviously missing two field goals and fumbling a punt is something that makes it very difficult to win moving forward with the schedule we have. Offensively, we did some good things and ran the ball as well as we have all year.
“We had some tough, tough breaks that didn’t go our way with turnovers and penalties that put us behind the chains and didn’t allow us to finish drives. We have to get that corrected, but we had a lot of positives, also.”
Meanwhile, Alabama will present a much different challenge. The Crimson Tide is also 4-0 and also 1-0 in conference play. Alabama also had a week off to prepare.
“In this room, we expect to compete Saturday,” Freeze said. “We expect to have a chance to win it. I know our kids feel that way, and our coaches feel that way. I don’t know that we will. I have no idea what the scoreboard will say at the end, but I expect our kids to go and compete and have fun and do a good job.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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