Ole Miss’ secondary looked better against Charlotte.
That’s true. It was cleaner, calmer and far less chaotic than the Louisville game. But Charlotte isn’t Louisville, and Louisville sure isn’t LSU.
That’s why the question this week is pretty simple: how badly does Ole Miss need Antonio Kite and Sharif Denson back?
The short answer is a lot.
The Rebels were always going to rotate in the secondary. That was the plan even before injuries hit. But Kite and Denson were fall‑camp starters, and their absence has forced Ole Miss to lean on players who are still figuring things out.
Anthony Robinson II played a ton against Louisville. Against Charlotte, veteran safety Nick Cull, sophomore corner Dante Core and true freshman corner Dorian Barney all saw meaningful snaps. Some of it went well. Some of it didn’t.
And none of it changes the reality that Ole Miss is missing two players it expected to rely on.
“Obviously, those were two starters throughout fall camp, but I’m not going to sit here and use that as an excuse because it can’t be,” coach Pete Golding said Saturday night after the 41-9 win against Charlotte. “That’s one reason we went out and got a lot of defensive backs, to create depth. You need rotational pieces.”
He made it clear that the standard doesn’t change just because the lineup does.
“It’s definitely not a scapegoat,” he said. “Does it make a difference? Yeah. Does it create a few more moving parts in the back end? Yeah.”
That’s the part Ole Miss is living with right now. More moving parts. More shuffling. More young players thrown into situations they weren’t supposed to be in this early.
And this week, that matters more than usual.
LSU is coming to Oxford. Lane Kiffin is coming back to Vaught‑Hemingway Stadium. Two former Rebels who still owe buyout money are coming with him. College GameDay is setting up shop.
Emotionally, this is the biggest home game Ole Miss has played in years. Big‑picture wise, it isn’t a make‑or‑break game for the season.
But emotionally, it absolutely is, and that’s why the health of two defensive backs suddenly feels like a storyline worthy of 400 words.
The good news for Ole Miss is that Golding sounded optimistic about one of them.
“I think Sharif for sure will play this week,” Golding said. “We went ahead and had an injection Wednesday to make sure he would be ready to go for next week.”
Kite is less certain.
“Kite’s situation is hopeful for this week,” Golding said. “I don’t think we’ll know until toward the end of the week.”
Barney and Core got valuable reps Saturday. They needed them. But LSU is not the team you want to face without your full secondary intact, especially when the last two weeks have shown how thin the margin for error is on the back end.
So how badly does Ole Miss need Kite and Denson back?
A lot. Maybe more than any other position group on the roster. Maybe more than anyone expected a month ago.
And with LSU rolling into town, the answer feels even bigger than that.
