Bo Wallace will need to have a big day for Ole Miss to beat Alabama. (Don McPeak-USA TODAY Sports)
The Alabama/Ole Miss game will match two Top 25 teams and that always means it is a game of interest.
But this game isn’t the biggest game in the Southeastern Conference this week. That honor belongs to No. 6 LSU vs. No. 9 Georgia. But this game is a little under-the-radar matchup that in year’s past would hardly have caused a ripple on the national scene — it is No. 21 Ole Miss visiting Tuscaloosa to take on No. 1 Alabama.
This game took on a lot of special interest two weeks ago when the Rebels went into Austin and decked the Texas Longhorns 44-23. Ole Miss is riding a five-game winning streak going back to last season and is attempting to become the first Rebel team to open a season 4-0 since 1970 when they were quarterbacked by Archie Manning.
The quarterback this time is a brash junior named Bo Wallace, who has thrown for 648 yards and four touchdowns and has not been intercepted. Wallace has also rushed for 120 yards and scored three touchdowns. Last week Wallace tweeted the he believed the Ole Miss receiving corps was better than that at Texas A&M.
“I think we can put points on them,” Wallace said of the Alabama defense. “I think we can put points on anybody. We’ve just go to show up and play. It’s the same thing every week — let’s stay on schedule, control the tempo and don’t have any turnovers.”
Wallace is not the only offensive threat that makes the Rebels dangerous. Ole Miss’ receiving corps of Donte Moncrief, Laquon Treadwell and Evan Engram have totaled 38 receptions for 502 yards.
And don’t forget the threat that tailback Jeff Scott brings to the table. A big-play specialist, Scott has rushed for 330 yards and averaged 9.4 yard per carry. He’s also rushed for two touchdowns and returned one punt for another score.
“We’re going to go our tempo any game we play, we have it ready,” said Freeze of how he plans to approach the Alabama game and what a win would mean for the Rebels.
“It would mean that we’re definitely ahead of schedule in our program, to go there and win or beat them here. What should motivate us, and I think will, is an opportunity to go stand in front of the measuring stick right now and prove that you deserve to be there,” he said. “That’s what we’ll focus on. If it does go our way, it would certainly be a huge boost to our program and move us a few steps forward quicker than anybody thought, including myself,” he said.
“We’re not going to stop them the whole night,” Freeze said.”Hopefully we can score enough points and stop them enough that we have a shot in the fourth quarter. If you’re in the game in the fourth quarter, our kids will play the entire 60 minutes, and we’ll see what happens.”
It won’t be easy for Ole Miss. Alabama owns a 33-1-1 record over the Rebels in games played inside the state of Alabama. The chances of Ole Miss sneaking up on the Crimson Tide went out the window when Ole Miss knocked off Texas and Alabama turned in a lackluster performance in beating Colorado State.
“They were making mistakes that Alabama normally doesn’t make,” Ole Miss safety Cody Prewitt said of Alabama’s 31-6 win over Colorado State. “They had players not playing that will be playing against us. We’re absolutely expecting the best Alabama team to be out there. And that’s what we want. We want to line up and play them.”
Alabama has had trouble gearing up its vaunted ground game, managing just 66 yards in 21 carries against Colorado State and 110 yards in 38 attempts against Virginia Tech.
“I mean, we’re a new team,” Tide quarterback AJ McCarron said. “I think people need to realize that. You’re not going to be the best at running every year. Some years you’re going to be better throwing the ball than you are running — and vice versa. I think people need to kind of realize that. We’re going to play to our strengths. If we’ve gotta throw the ball, we’ll throw it. If we’ve gotta run it, we’ve gotta run it; as long as we win.”
McCarron knows the Rebels are a confident team and that makes them dangerous.
“I mean, they’ve got ball players all the way around,” said McCarron. “They’re really good. Really good team. So it’s going to be a challenge for us, it really is. We’re going to have to step up, meet that challenge and get ready to play.” The Crystal Ball says Alabama will do just that.
Alabama 27, Ole Miss 21
Here are the picks for the rest of the games involving SEC teams:
LSU 38, Georgia 35
South Carolina 34, UCF 24
South Alabama 10, Tennessee 28
| Texas A&M 42, Arkansas 28 | ||||||
Florida 28, Kentucky 20
UAB 17, Vanderbilt 38
Arkansas State 24, Missouri 42
