Ole Miss heads to Oklahoma on Saturday looking to bounce back from its embarrassing loss to Georgia and keep its College Football Playoff hopes alive.
But the Rebels have been anything but consistent this season, and the Sooners have been just as unpredictable. Which version of each team will show up Saturday?
Most of the HottyToddy.com staff members believe Ole Miss will leave Norman with a win, but one thinks the Rebels are headed for their fourth loss of the season.
Here’s how our staff sees Saturday’s matchup playing out.
HottyToddy.com Staff Picks
Andy Hodges
Picking winners in college football these days has turned out to be a complete stab-in-the-dark every single week. Everything we used to think we knew about handicapping and having some scientific form of projecting things are gone. It’s been replaced by which team feels like playing that week. Now Ole Miss goes to play a bi-polar Oklahoma team that has beaten Texas and Florida and lost to Georgia, Kentucky and South Carolina. They fired the offensive coordinator and replaced him with former Dallas Cowboys tight end Jason Witten. The defense got all the hype and has been steady but the offense started off bad and became terrible. The Rebels have been bi-polar at times, too, and the defense has been exposed multiple times and the offense is plainly missing running back Kewan Lacy. In this one, though, even the Rebels’ shaky defense may be able to handle things and Trinidad Chambliss should be able to hit enough passes to win but it may still be very close because the Sooners’ offense is inconsistent enough to give the Rebels some big plays. Ole Miss 27, Oklahoma 24
Taylor Hodges
For the second-straight week, I’m the odd-man out on the staff. Georgia exposed Ole Miss in a way no other team has done this season. The Bulldogs’ overload blitzing was simple enough to see in real-time and the Rebels had no answer for it. Can every other defense copy it? Of course not. Only the good ones can. Oklahoma has a good defense. Yes, its 26 sacks this season is a little bit deceiving, but the talent is there to do what Georgia did. Plus, the Sooners are great against the pass. On the other side of the ball, unfortunately, I don’t believe Ole Miss can stop the run. Whatever happened against Missouri was the fluke. We’ve seen too many games where opposing offenses run at-will against the Rebels. Oklahoma hasn’t been great on offense, but the Sooners will try to run and I believe they’ll find success. Oklahoma 27, Ole Miss 17.
Hudson Miller
Ole Miss goes back on the road against Oklahoma after a devastating third loss against Georgia. Oklahoma started off the season very rough but after a win over Florida last week some could say their back. Ole Miss is facing a lot of injuries with Patrick Kutas being out, as well as Kewan Lacy being out for the season. Since the Rebels have struggled on the road, I think this will be a close matchup. Trinidad needs to do everything in his power to get his spark back, otherwise a fourth loss will be on the horizon. Ole Miss 27, Oklahoma 24
Nina Houndeshell
Who knows what kind of team on either side is going to show up Saturday. We have an Oklahoma team that’s pulled some surprising upsets against Florida and Texas this year, but also has some interesting losses (Michigan, South Carolina). The same can be said for Ole Miss. Last week, the Rebels were completely overwhelmed at home by Georgia, scoring one touchdown that came in the fourth quarter. This game comes down to who decides to show up and play, and who comes out fast. Despite all of the injuries Ole Miss is having to deal with on this final stretch of the season I still think they come out on top. Ole Miss 24, Oklahoma 14
