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While the LSU game was obviously the beginning of a brutal five game finish for them, at 3:30pm Saturday, #7 Ole Miss was undefeated, was up 14-3 and had a first down at LSU's 18 yard line and was absolutely unstoppable up to that point. I believe it is realistic to say NO ONE, not even the most myopic of LSU fans saw a 42-3 turnaround and complete Ole Miss collapse coming.

I feel like their near term future rides on these next four games, and the difference between their floor and ceiling is massive. They win out, and they are the new SEC West king. They lose out, and they are in the SEC West basement.

I do know, that at 3:30pm last Saturday, I thought I was looking at the odds on favorite to be SEC West champion. Its strange to see them as an afterthought on the following Monday. Yet, it is still only their first loss of the season and they are still a top 15 team who will undoubtedly be in CFP if they win out (LSU does not realistically win out).

Ive got them going 2-2 with a loss to Bama and being upset by Arkansas or State. A 9-3 finish and New Years bowl game would be a damn good season for the Rebels.

It's easy to forget that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year for Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss. In many ways, this team is still a box of parts, albeit pretty good parts, and I wasn't surprised to see Ole Miss struggle in its first true road test.

What we saw Saturday against LSU was much like what we saw the prior weekend against Auburn. Ole Miss was up on Auburn 21-0 and looked poised to slam the door shut; instead, the Rebels let Auburn back in the game. The same thing happened this week--Ole Miss was up 17-3 and had a chance to put LSU away with another stop and an offensive score. Instead, the defense gave way, LSU cut the margin to 17-10, the Tigers never looked back. LSU was a better team than Auburn, and Ole Miss was on the road instead of at home.

I'm just not a fan of this 3-2-6 defense. I'm not saying it can't work, but it seems to struggle against rushing attacks. If you've watched Ole Miss this season, you've seen its rushing vulnerabilities against Tulsa, Vanderbilt, and Auburn. They showed up again against a mobile QB at LSU.

To me, that means this defense is going to probably perform reasonably well against Jimbo's sad sack offense and Leach's Air Raid (although State is running the ball better than most Leach teams do). I think we're going to see the Rebels struggle against Alabama, and they'll be lucky to get out of Fayetteville with a win with the Hogs' rushing duo of Jefferson and Sanders.

9-3 might well be a pretty good guess, but that's a heck of a season for a team that lost so much from last year's 10-2 squad. For an Ole Miss "rebuilding" year, everything from here on out is gravy. Rebuilding years for us have often been brutal.

Next year we'll have to players, but the schedule won't be nearly as favorable. Wish we had next year's players with this year's schedule.

This post was edited on 10/24/22 at 1:43 pm