The Ole Miss football team’s players and coaches aren’t gearing up for a potential top-10 matchup against Alabama on Oct. 4.

Coach Hugh Freeze insists his team is focused on its next game against Memphis at 6:30 p.m. Saturday (Fox Sports South) at Vaught-Hemingway.

“I feel like all seven (teams in the Southeastern Conference Western Division) are quality, top-25 teams,” Freeze said. “I haven’t studied a lot of the East, but the West, from top to bottom, is arguably the best it’s been. We have to focus on this week and Memphis and then turn our attention (to the Western Division race). It’s going to be a great challenge.”

Ole Miss (3-0) opened the season with neutral-site victories against Boise State and Vanderbilt. It followed those wins up with a victory against Louisiana-Lafayette in its home opener. This past week’s open date only intensified the excitement about Ole Miss, which is No. 10 in The Associated Press poll and No. 11 in the USA Today Coaches poll. Ole Miss is one of six teams in the SEC’s Western Division that is ranked in the top 25 of both polls. Arkansas is also receiving votes in both polls.

“I’m glad to get back into game prep,” Freeze said. “I wasn’t crazy about our bye week being that early. I still feel that way. It is what it is, and we can’t control all of that, but we’ve made the most of it. We had some good recruiting. We did a lot of good self study. Now it’s time to get back into a very difficult stretch of games that we’re going to have over the next month-and-a-half to two months. We’re playing a very difficult opponent.

“I’m extremely impressed with the job (Memphis coach) Justin (Fuente) has done in a short amount of time. They’ve played with tremendous passion and physical football. It will be a good challenge. We need that at this point in the season.”

Memphis, a member of the American Athletic Conference, is 2-1 under Fuente, who is in his third season. The Tigers are averaging 44.7 points per game. Memphis has defeated Austin Peay (63-0) and Middle Tennessee (36-17). It lost to No. 11 UCLA 42-35 in Los Angeles in a game that was decided in the last minute.

Ole Miss quarterback Bo Wallace knows Memphis has improved.

“They play really hard,” Wallace said. “They’re physical. They do some things that can cause problems. The great thing is we had two weeks to prepare for them. Our team feels pretty prepared. These next couple of days we’ll have to fine tune and really hone in on the game plan.”

Freeze knows Memphis’ offense will be the best unit Ole Miss has faced this season. Sophomore quarterback Paxton Lynch makes the Tigers go. He has thrown for 766 yards and five touchdowns this season.

“The athleticism (of Memphis) really stands out,” Freeze said. “The quarterback is playing really well. Defensively, they’re very aggressive. They tackle extremely well. They get off the field on third down, which is a critical area you have to be really good at. They’ve gone toe to toe with one of the nation’s best at their place. If their quarterback keeps playing solid, their defense is good enough to keep them in every game. That’s what they’ve done.”

Ole Miss practiced Tuesday through Thursday last week before the players were given the weekend off. Most of the coaches spent the weekend recruiting throughout the region. Practice sessions focused on depth.

“We have to continue to develop depth,” Freeze said. “We got a lot of good reps for our twos and threes. We made an effort to continue rushing the football. We’re trying to come up with good stuff that our kids can be successful at doing. We got some kids healthy. Defensively, there are still some things we haven’t shown yet that we think will be beneficial to us later on. We will continue to work on those things. It was just about us getting more reps for our young kids.”

The Southeastern Conference confirmed Monday that WCBI will televise the Oct. 4 game against Alabama game in Oxford. Ole Miss also is considered a front-runner to host ESPN College Gameday on the morning of Oct. 4 in the Grove.

A victory against Memphis could secure that premium exposure.

The game will be Ole Miss’ first on CBS since 2012 against Georgia and the first one televised by CBS in Oxford since the 2009 LSU game. If Alabama and Ole Miss remain in the top 10 after this weekend, it will be the first meeting of two top-10 nationally ranked football teams in Oxford.

“It’s wild,” Wallace said when asked about the division race. “It’s really crazy just watching these games how much people have improved. Arkansas looks good. It’s wide open in the West. We have to take advantage of every day and keep trying to get better. At the end of the day, we’re trying to win an SEC West title.

“While that is our long-range goal, our short-range goal is Memphis. We need to come out and play our best.”

Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.

Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.