Ole Miss is 6-0 in Southeastern Conference play for the first time since 1962. A win versus LSU would send the Rebels to the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta for the first time in its history. It is Ole Miss icon Eli Manning’s last home game in Oxford, Miss.
LSU is No. 4 in the Bowl Championship Series rankings, and three wins to end the season might send the team to the national championship game at the Nokia Sugar Bowl in New Orleans. The Tigers must defeat Ole Miss to have a chance to return to Atlanta for the second time in three years.
The LSU-Ole Miss game will mean more than it has in thirty years.
All of that, plus many more, are story lines in Saturday’s nationally televised matchup between Ole Miss (8-2, 6-0 SEC) and LSU (9-1, 5-1 SEC) in Oxford at Vaught-Hemingway. The game will be on CBS at 2:30 p.m.
But both Ole Miss coach David Cutcliffe and LSU coach Nick Saban are trying to downplay the importance of the game to limit the anxiety and stress experienced by their players.
“Well, there are a lot of other people that are distracted with a lot of stories and other things,” Cutcliffe said. “Our team has to stay focused on their job, and all the things it takes to play well. I have already talked to them about that. I think we did a good job of doing that over the open date, and I expect them to continue to do the same this week.”
Saban said when success comes to a program, all that matters is which game is next.
“When you win every game that you play, the next game is always a big game,” Saban said.
Regardless of the coaches’ efforts to downplay the game, one thing is certain – it is a classic matchup of strength-on-strength – Ole Miss’ offense, led by the Heisman contender Manning, pitted against LSU’s top-ranked scoring defense, led by Bronko Nagurski Award finalist, defensive tackle Chad Lavalais.
“They’re the top scoring team in our league and one of the best offensive teams in the country,” Saban said of Ole Miss. “There’s no doubt that Eli Manning is one of the top quarterbacks in the country and no question, you know, one of the couple guys that deserves to be the highest consideration to win the Heisman trophy.”
Manning’s numbers back up that statement.
The New Orleans native is 218-for-337 passing on the year, with 2,881 yards to go along with 23 touchdown passes compared to just eight interceptions.
But unlike past years, Manning’s team actually has a running game to boast of, as the Rebels are averaging 159.7 rushing yards per game.
“I think the most underrated thing on their team is their offensive line,” Saban said. “Their offensive line is a good offensive line. And they block the plays well, and the runners run the plays well. They don’t really run different plays with different guys. They do what they do, and all those guys do a pretty good job of it.”
LSU defensive tackle Kyle Williams knows the Tigers’ defense must be cognizant of the Rebels’ revamped running game.
“They like to get in their goal formation and run with two backs,” Williams said. “A lot of teams try to stretch it out and find gaps, but these guys want to hit the hole north and south and hit it right behind the tackles and let the running backs work.”
The Rebels’ offense isn’t the only unit receiving recognition in this matchup.
LSU’s defense ranks second nationally against the run, allowing 60.8 yards per game on the ground, and leads the SEC in quarterback sacks with 30.
“From watching them on film, they are the best team defensively we’re going to face all season,” Manning said. “They’ve got a lot of talent and are really big up front. They have good linebackers and a good secondary. They make a lot of plays and do a lot of things defensively, like different blitzes. So you’ve got to be ready for them and prepared.”
The Tigers actually want to make Manning beat them by cutting off the running game and making Ole Miss purely a passing team.
“We just have to make the game one-dimensional,” said LSU linebacker Eric Alexander. “If we stop the running game then they have to depend on their pass. So that’s what we plan on doing.”
On the other side of the ball, LSU quarterback Matt Mauck and company hope to expose an apparent Ole Miss deficiency – pass defense.
The Rebels’ defense has given up an average of 300.2 yards per game through the air and gave up 661 yards of passing to B.J. Symons and Texas Tech’s high-flying attack in a Sept. 27 49-45 Rebels defeat.
“When you have a game like that, it takes more than a season to repair,” Saban said of the Texas Tech defensive debacle. “That’s why stats sometimes don’t speak toward consistency. If you have one bad game it can really affect the stats, and if you have one great game it can really affect them in another way. So, I think they’re playing a lot better in the secondary. They’re physical and aggressive.”