Ole Miss Football: Are Rebels on Upset Alert vs. LSU Tigers?

Ole Miss’ perfect season could be in danger when the team travels into Death Valley for a prime-time showdown with LSU on Saturday (7:15 p.m. ET on ESPN).

The No. 3-ranked team in the country, the Rebels have had a lot to be optimistic about this season on both sides of the ball. However, this weekend, the team will be facing a Tiger squad that is pining to regain some respect.

Given that the game will be played at Tiger Stadium—a venue LSU is 61-8 at under head coach Les Miles—it’s safe to say Ole Miss is on upset alert.

Gaining Form

John Raoux/Associated Press

After struggling to find their identity over the first six games of the season, the Tigers have looked a lot like the team we’ve come to know in the last two weeks.

More specifically, the rushing attack seems to finally be in a grove. After rushing for 195 yards against Florida on Oct. 11, LSU gashed Kentucky for 303 yards on the ground just last weekend.

Even the defense has been playing better, forcing three turnovers in those two games and limiting the Gators and Wildcats to a combined 523 yards. The unit also held the two to just 7-of-29 on third-down conversions.

This is a Tigers squad that seems to finally be regaining some swagger.

And as USA Today’s Glenn Guilbeau notes, this is a team that earns wins like this on an annual basis: 

Backed by a loud, boisterous home crowd on Saturday night, expect the confidence to only swell.

Revenge On the Mind

LSU went into Oxford last October with national title aspirations.

Instead, the team came away battered and bruised, its championship dreams shattered and nursing a defense that had just been embarrassed on the way to conceding 525 yards of total offense. Backed by a last-second field goal, the Rebels won that game 27-24.

It’s a game the Tigers defense hasn’t easily forgotten.

“I still have a bad taste in my mouth,” sophomore safety Rickey Jefferson told The Daily Reveille’s Michael Haarala. “Just because it’s another team in the SEC and it’s Ole Miss, a rivalry for us, so anytime we lose to a team like that in our division it’s a hard loss.”

When LSU has revenge on its mind, the team is usually difficult to stop. Since 2008, the Tigers are 6-0 against opponents not named Alabama that beat them the previous year.

Running Up a Storm

As mentioned above, LSU’s rushing attack is playing as well as it has all season long.

Every week, a different running back steps up to the plate.

Last weekend against Kentucky, senior Terrence Magee registered his first 100-yard game of the season, rushing for 127 yards and two scores on only nine carries. The week before that, it was freshman standout Leonard Fournette who assaulted Florida’s defense for 140 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 27 carries.

In all, the Tigers have four different running backs who have rushed for over 240 yards this season and five who have found the end zone three or more times.

Sure, the Rebels boast a formidable run defense, ranking No. 6 in the nation against the run (97.14 yards allowed per game) while only allowing three touchdowns on the ground. However, the unit has only faced two top-40 rushing attacks.

Those two attacks—Louisiana-Lafayette and Alabama—rushed for 193 and 168 yards, respectively.

That has got to be music to the ears of LSU and its No. 30-ranked rushing attack.

All stats, recruiting information and rankings used in this article are courtesy of cfbstats.com and 247Sports.

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