Ole Miss Brings the Nation’s Most Perfect Red Zone Offense to Austin to Face a Texas Team That Needs This One

For the first time ever, Ole Miss and Texas will meet as SEC foes. No. 7 Ole Miss (5-1, 3-1 SEC) visits No. 19 Texas (4-2, 1-2 SEC) Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on ABC at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium. Chris Fowler, Kirk Herbstreit and Holly Rowe have the call.

The two teams are in very different places. The Rebels are the only team in the country with three wins over AP Top 25 opponents at the time of the game, and they’ve beaten Louisville, LSU and Missouri. Their one loss was a 52-28 road game at Florida. Texas has lost back-to-back games by the same 27-24 score, first to Oklahoma and then to Florida at home, after starting the season with a 24-23 comeback win over top-ranked Ohio State and a 20-17 road win at Tennessee. The Longhorns are 1-2 in conference play and have three ranked opponents left on the schedule. Ole Miss could really use a win here, and Texas needs one more.

Ole Miss comes in on offense with numbers that are hard to argue with. The Rebels average 37.5 points per game. They’re 24-for-24 in the red zone this season, one of only two teams in the nation with a 100 percent scoring rate down there. The offensive line has allowed just 0.83 sacks per game, which leads the SEC.

Trinidad Chambliss runs it. The Ferris State transfer has 110 career touchdowns, the most of any active FBS quarterback, and he’s thrown a touchdown pass in 19 straight games, one off Matt Corral’s mark and three shy of Chad Kelly’s program record of 22. This season he’s at 1,676 yards, 14 touchdowns and just four interceptions, and he’s added six rushing scores.

Kewan Lacy and Makhi Frazier made the ground game a real weapon against Missouri, when both ran for over 100 yards in a 257-yard rushing day. Lacy has 29 rushing touchdowns since the start of last season. That’s two away from tying Brandon Bolden for second in Ole Miss history. Both are Texas natives, by the way, and they’re two of ten Rebels who will be playing in their home state Saturday. Deuce Alexander leads the receiving corps with 523 yards and five touchdowns.

The big question for Ole Miss is whether the defense can hold up against a Texas team that doesn’t beat itself with big plays. The Rebels allow 390 yards a game, and Florida ran for 302 on them. But the group looked different against Missouri, holding the Tigers to 39 rushing yards and three points. Blake Purchase leads the team with 6.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks. Suntarine Perkins is closing in on the top three in program history in career tackles for loss, at 35.0. Will Echoles has been a problem in the middle all year.

Texas is the opposite on defense. The Longhorns allow just 17.8 points and 272.5 yards a game, and they’ve given up only 19 plays of 15 yards or more this season, the fewest in the FBS. Colin Simmons leads the nation with 9.5 sacks. Against Chambliss and an up-tempo Ole Miss offense that’s built on explosive plays, that’s the matchup to watch.

On the other side, Arch Manning has 1,295 yards, 11 touchdowns and five interceptions. He’s 11-1 as a starter in Austin and he’s the one who engineered the Ohio State comeback, throwing a touchdown and leading three straight scoring drives of 12 plays or more in the fourth quarter. Raleek Brown has five rushing touchdowns, Hollywood Smothers has 289 yards on the ground, and Cam Coleman (336 yards, six touchdowns) and Ryan Wingo (345 yards) lead the receivers. Texas has also won 22 of its last 24 at home. The Longhorns are one of the best home teams in the country, and a ranked opponent hasn’t had much luck in Austin lately.

Pete Golding is 5-2 against ranked opponents as Ole Miss head coach, tying a mark set by Barry Switzer in 1973, and Steve Sarkisian is 98-57 as a head coach. Neither has coached against the other.

The series history leans heavily Texas. The Longhorns lead 6-2 overall, though that’s 6-1 after the NCAA vacated Ole Miss’s 2013 win, the last time these two played, a 44-23 Rebel victory in Austin. That’s a long time ago. Saturday will be the first meeting in the SEC and the first between two ranked teams since 2013.

Ole Miss has the offense to score on Texas, but the Longhorns have the defense and the crowd to make it uncomfortable. If Chambliss and Lacy keep the Rebels on schedule and the defense holds up against Manning, Ole Miss has a real shot to leave Austin 6-1. If not, Texas gets a signature win and a lifeline in the SEC race.