Mark Twain once wrote, “History doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes.” He could’ve easily been describing the circumstances around this weekend’s game between No. 7 Ole Miss and Florida.
The team Ole Miss fielded last season was largely considered to be one of its best teams ever.
Yet, that Rebels team lost to a sputtering Florida team late last season, ending its chances of making the College Football Playoff.
Now, Ole Miss is back on the cusp of a spot in the 12-team playoff and Florida has a chance to ruin those dreams again.
The only differences are that this year’s game will be played in Oxford and Florida fired its coach a month ago.
So, can Florida find a rhyme to go with last season’s win?
Taylor’s Prediction
Probably not.
If last season didn’t happen the way it did, I’d be more skeptical about the odds Ole Miss is getting from sportsbooks and SP+ Projections (an 86 percent chance of winning).
But the Rebels suffered a huge loss last year that nobody has forgotten about and they won’t make the same mistakes twice.
Florida has an impressive win against No. 10 Texas that had sent the Longhorns out of the top 25 polls. But it’s last win came against Mississippi State and required a defensive lineman interception to avoid the Bulldogs’ kicking a last-second field goal to win.
Since then, the Gators gave No. 5 Georgia all it could handle and got blown out on the road by Kentucky.
If Ole Miss can get out to an early lead and avoid any turnovers, then it’s not hard to see a scenario where the Gators (figuratively) give up and Ole Miss cruises to a win.
Turnovers are what could doom the Rebels, though. They have a negative turnover margin and Florida has 14 takeaways this season, including eight interceptions.
If the game is close early on because of Ole Miss turnovers, that’ll give Florida hope it can win. Then the only thing the Rebels will cruise to then is a meaningless bowl game.
But I don’t think that’s going to happen.
The ghosts of 2024 linger and that motivation should be enough for Ole Miss to come out victorious, setting up a very interesting Egg Bowl in two weeks.
