With two weeks remaining in the regular season, the No. 8 Ole Miss football team still has a lot of preseason goals within reach.

If Ole Miss wins its final two games and Auburn beats Alabama, it will clinch a share of the Southeastern Conference Western Division and advance to the Southeastern Conference championship game at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for the first time.

To realize that goal, Ole Miss must first take care of Arkansas at 2:30 p.m. Saturday (WCBI) at Razorback Stadium in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Ole Miss will enter the game fresh off its second open date of the season.

“We enjoyed our off week,” Ole Miss coach Hugh Freeze said. “It was much needed from our kids and staff. Everyone got to rejuvenate a little bit and got healthier as a team. We got to spend some time with our families, which is rare during the season, particularly the grind we’ve been through. With the exception of the guys that have injuries that will prevent them from participating the rest of the year, we’ll be full go on everyone else with the two very, very physical games we have left.”

Arkansas (5-5, 1-5 SEC) snapped a two-season, 17-game conference losing streak Saturday with a 17-0 win against LSU at home. The Razorbacks need to win one of their final two games to become bowl eligible.

“Watching them on tape, I’m extremely impressed with the job they do and knowing who they are and understanding how to play the way that their coaches ask them to play,” Freeze said. “I’ve said all year long I felt like all seven teams in the SEC West were quality top-25 teams. Because of the schedule we play, that won’t be reflected in all of the polls, but I assure you this team is one of the better teams in the country. They don’t give up many points. People don’t rush the football on them.

“They shorten the game with their physical run game and their play passes off of it are extremely difficult to defend. They have talent at every position. They believe now not only that they can play close, but that they can win. We have a tall task ahead of us going there and finding a way to compete to hopefully win a football game.”

Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2) won its first seven games and was ranked as high as No. 3 before back-to-back conference losses to Auburn and LSU. Ole Miss regrouped with a non-conference victory against Presbyterian College and finds itself still in the division race.

“We had a little different Sunday because of the open week,” Freeze said. “We did get an extra hour and 10 minute practice in. We’ve preached to them all along you play until the end and see what happens. There’s so much football left to be played. Regardless of what happens out there, the results kept us alive with some very important, lofty things that we could accomplish. Regardless of what happens with all of that, I want us to stay focused on the journey we’re on, which to be sitting here ranked in the top 10, for being in year three, I couldn’t be much more pleased.

“We lost two very close difficult games. They were quality opponents. Being competitive and relevant in the SEC West in year three is something that should motivate us, regardless of what happens with other teams. Our message will continue to be let’s focus on us and take care of us and see where it shakes out at the end.”

Against Arkansas, Ole Miss will face one of the nation’s top rushing attacks. Arkansas’ ball-control attack dominated LSU and gave it a chance in the fourth quarter to avenge narrow losses to Alabama and Mississippi State.

“It’s as good as any we’ve faced,” Freeze said of the Razorbacks’ ground game. “It’s a big challenge, very difficult to stop for the entire game. It shortens the game so you don’t get many possessions when you play them. They are willing to grind it out and shorten the game, and the offensive line is physical, and the running backs, they have a great committee of running backs.”

Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott

Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.