With hopes of a conference championship now gone, the Ole Miss football team has turned its thoughts to a final regular-season goal: defeating its archrival.
No. 18 Ole Miss will play No. 4 Mississippi State at 2:30 p.m. Saturday (WCBI) in the Battle for the Golden Egg in Oxford. The Rebels will be televised nationally by CBS for the third time this season, and the second-straight week.
Ole Miss (8-3, 4-3 Southeastern Conference) will try to derail MSU’s conference championship aspirations after dropping its third-straight league game, 30-0 to Arkansas on Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
“I told our staff yesterday and shared with our kids that the only thing I’ve ever known that can take the steam out of disappointment is thankfulness,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “I’ve found that if I can give thanks in everything regardless of my feelings, I usually can find some joy regardless of my circumstances. That’s something I’ve challenged our staff and our kids to do.
“The first thing we talked about was being thankful for the opportunity to represent this great university in the Egg Bowl and the importance of it to our fans, our football program, and this university. They have a clear understanding of how much this game means to so many. I expect us to have a great week of preparation in getting ready to play this in the Vaught come Saturday.”
MSU (10-1, 6-1) can clinch a share of the SEC Western Division title for the first time since 1998 with a win. It will qualify for the SEC Championship Game with a win against Ole Miss and an Auburn victory against Alabama.
Freeze has been impressed with MSU, which bounced back from a 25-20 loss at No. 2 Alabama to rout Vanderbilt 51-0 Saturday at home. With the win, MSU finished the home slate with a 7-0 record at Davis Wade Stadium for the first time.
“They’re a very good football team,” Freeze said. “Dak Prescott makes them better than very good. You take him away from that team and they’re still really good. Defensively, they’re one of the best in the nation in the rush. They just don’t give up much on the ground at all. Offensively, they have a sound running back. He’s hard to bring to the ground. Their receivers have improved. Coach (Dan) Mullen and his staff, in their six years, have built a good team there.
“They have quality depth everywhere. It shows. They’re a very solid football team. They’re ranked that high, and they’re deserving of it. It speaks to the depth in the SEC West, also. They’ve done a nice job building really good depth and developing the kids they have there to improve.”
Freeze said senior quarterback Bo Wallace is expected to give it a go for Ole Miss. Wallace injured his ankle against Arkansas and missed several series in the second half. When Wallace returned late in the game, he played with a limp. Ole Miss committed six turnovers.
“It is an ankle sprain,” Freeze said. “It would take a lot more than that to keep him out of this game. He’s hungry and wants to play in this game in a bad way. He’s going to try to go no matter what. He’s gotten better each day. Hopefully he’ll be close to 100 percent.”
Freeze will look for his second win in three tries in the series. His first game against MSU was a 41-24 win in Oxford. MSU won 17-10 in overtime last season in Starkville.
“When you play two good teams, the one with the fewest mistakes usually wins,” Freeze said. “You can’t look at last year’s film and say that the passion wasn’t there. The effort was there last Saturday, too. Our defense played their guts out. They had their backs against the wall the entire game and fought. No way in the world was it a lack of understanding in the game last year.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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