Missouri rolls into Oxford with a quarterback who spent two years wearing red and blue on the other sideline, and Ole Miss is the team that let him walk.
Bush’s Picks
MIZMISS
MIZMISS
OverUnder
Best BetOle Miss
Ole Miss brings back a Heisman-caliber quarterback off a CFP semifinal run, and that gap in proven production is hard to bet against even with a coaching transition in Oxford. Missouri's counter is a completely retooled offense around a first-year starter who's barely played, which is a lot of variance to trust on the road in the SEC.
Missouri
+Two proven transfer weapons in Lee, Goodie added
+Program stability under Drinkwitz, 29 wins last 3 years
+Oddsmakers still respect Tigers at 6.5 win total
−Replacing 12 starters, major roster turnover
−New starter Simmons has just 1,026 career passing yards
−Defense loses key pass rushers, linebackers, DBs from top-19-ppg unit
Ole Miss
+Chambliss returns off Sugar Bowl MOP, CFP semifinal run
+13-2 finish, proven ceiling under new staff already
+Golding won upset over Georgia as interim-turned-permanent coach
−First full season as a head coach for Golding
−Lost Kiffin and reportedly some assistants to LSU fallout
−Win total dropped to 7.5, market pricing in regression
Austin Simmons started the first two games of Ole Miss's playoff run last fall before an ankle injury opened the door for Trinidad Chambliss, who never gave the job back. Simmons hit the portal in January, landed in Columbia, and beat out Matt Zollers, Nick Evers and a true freshman to win Missouri's starting job. Now he gets Oxford, Vaught-Hemingway and the program that moved on without him, all in one Friday night trip.
Chambliss is the more proven commodity, and it isn't close. He threw for 3,937 yards with 22 touchdowns against just 3 interceptions last season, was named Sugar Bowl Most Outstanding Player for offense, and carries real Heisman buzz into his final year. Simmons, by contrast, has thrown just 1,026 career yards with 6 touchdowns and 5 interceptions across two injury-interrupted seasons at Ole Miss — he's a bet on upside, not a finished product.
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MIZ Missouri
MISS Ole Miss
Ole Miss also enters this one under new management. Lane Kiffin bolted for LSU after Ole Miss finished 11-1 in the regular season, and defensive coordinator Pete Golding was elevated to replace him on the fly — then promptly guided the Rebels past Tulane and Georgia to the CFP semifinals before falling to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Golding gets his first full offseason as a head coach now, and Missouri arrives as an early measuring-stick game for how well he's holding the program together without Kiffin's fingerprints on it.
Missouri Tigers
Oct 9?vs Texas A&M—
Oct 2?vs Florida—
Sep 25?@ Mississippi State—
Sep 19?vs Troy—
Sep 11?@ Kansas—
Sep 3?vs Arkansas-Pine Bluff—
Ole Miss Rebels
Oct 9?@ Vanderbilt—
Sep 25?@ Florida—
Sep 19?vs LSU—
Sep 12?vs Charlotte—
Sep 6?vs Louisville—
Recent form.
Missouri isn't just running back the same operation, either. Eli Drinkwitz overhauled his staff and skill groups, bringing in Chip Lindsey and Garrett Riley on offense along with transfer weapons Cayden Lee — Simmons' former Ole Miss teammate, with 100-plus career catches — and Caleb Goodie, who averaged 18 yards a catch over two seasons at Colorado State. The Tigers are also replacing 12 starters and reworking a defense that allowed under 19 points a game a year ago, which is the real swing factor for how far this roster can go.
Missouri Tigers
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Ole Miss Rebels
(0)
Fully healthy — no injuries on ESPN's report
Injury report — info via ESPN.
The gap on paper still favors Ole Miss. The Rebels return the more explosive, more experienced quarterback and a program that just played into the CFP semifinals, while Missouri is leaning on a new signal-caller who's thrown fewer than 200 college pass attempts and a defense that lost most of its playmakers. Missouri's counter is motivation and a genuinely retooled skill-position group — if Simmons plays clean and Lee and Goodie produce early, this stops being a mismatch fast.
Both fan bases will treat this as more than a normal October SEC game. For Ole Miss, it's a chance to show Golding's program hasn't skipped a beat post-Kiffin. For Missouri, it's Simmons getting to prove the team that shelved him for Chambliss made a mistake.
