OXFORD — All offseason, Ole Miss’ goal was to narrow the gap between teams like Georgia. The way to do that, head coach Lane Kiffin said, was by improving the Rebels’ talent.
The moment of truth to see whether it all paid off is finally here.
No. 16 Ole Miss (7-2, 3-2 SEC) hosts No. 2 Georgia (7-1, 5-1) Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The matchup comes almost exactly a year after the teams’ matchup from 2023, a 52-17 win by the Bulldogs in Athens, Georgia. Saturday’s game kicks off at 2:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on ABC.
Last season, Ole Miss and Georgia — then the two-time defending national champions — met at Sanford Stadium for a primetime, premier matchup. The Rebels were ranked No. 10 in the AP Poll, and the Bulldogs were No. 1. Ole Miss threw the first punch in that game and tied the game at 14 early in the second quarter. Georgia outscored the Rebels 38-3 after that, however, and cruised to a 35-point victory behind a rushing attack that racked up 300 yards and five touchdowns.
After the game, Kiffin sat in front of reporters and was asked what the next step for the program was to be among college football’s best. His answer was simple — there was a reason elite programs like Georgia and Alabama had five-star talent across the board and kept winning games. The Rebels needed more of that talent, particularly in the trenches, in order to compete against the best of the best.
The Rebels did just that via the transfer portal, beefing up its roster with some of the best players available like defensive linemen Walter Nolen and Princely Umanmielen, wide receiver Antwane “Juice” Wells and linebacker Chris “Pooh” Paul Jr., among others.
With their College Football Playoff hopes still hanging in the balance, Saturday is a chance to see if the Rebels are in a better spot than they were the last time the teams played.
“I hope so. That game didn’t go very well a year ago,” Kiffin said. “But every game, season’s independent and different. Yeah, I think we’re in a better place, but these guys, again, get the best high school players every year, have more draft picks than anybody else because they do a great job recruiting and a great job developing the players once they’re there. … This is a great football team with great coaches and great personnel.”
Ole Miss is coming off a dominant 63-31 win at Arkansas, the Rebels’ first win in Fayetteville, Arkansas, since 2008. Senior wide receiver Jordan Watkins set program records with 254 receiving yards and five touchdown catches, and senior quarterback Jaxson Dart set new program records for single-game passing yards (515), total offense (562) and tied the record with touchdown passes (six). The Rebels’ defense did its part as well, sacking Arkansas quarterbacks eight times. Ole Miss’ defense has 18 sacks in the last two games and leads the nation with 41 sacks this year.
Georgia once again finds itself in the thick of the CFP race, its latest victory coming against archrival Florida. The Bulldogs aren’t quite as prolific offensively as they were a season ago, averaging a touchdown less in 2024, but are nearly just as stingy defensively at 17.2 points per game allowed.
“I don’t talk about playoffs normally and championships and all that because I think it really doesn’t matter. It’s about how you prepare and how you play,” Kiffin said. “But I told our players, because they hear it all the time, you still have that stuff alive and, in my opinion, anybody that’s going to win it is going to go through Georgia … at some point.”
Rebels earn handful of weekly honors
Following his record-setting performance at Arkansas, Dart was named the AP National Player of the Week and shared SEC Offensive Player of the Week honors with Watkins. Rebels sophomore linebacker TJ Dottery was named the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week, and senior edge rusher Princely Umanmielen was named SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.
Dart’s 515 passing yards and 562 yards of offense set single-game program records. Dart also became Ole Miss’ all-time leader in total offense, passing Bo Wallace for the record. Dart leads the nation in passing yards (3,210) and quarterback rating (192.4) and is tied for third in touchdown passes (21). Watkins’ 254 receiving yards and five receiving touchdowns set school records; he had three touchdown catches of at least 60 yards against the Razorbacks.
Dottery finished with six total tackles — 2.5 for loss — and two sacks while Umanmielen had two sacks and recovered a fumble in the end zone for a touchdown.
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