SEC West Showdown: Auburn v. Ole Miss

The No. 18 Auburn Tigers are set to host the No. 10 Ole Miss Rebels on Saturday at 7 p.m. The winner will be the team with the best chance at dethroning the defending champion No. 3 Alabama for a spot in the SEC championship.  

Looking into the eye of the Tiger

The Tigers are currently 5-2 this season. Their only conference loss has been to No. 1 Georgia at the beginning of this month. But, the Tigers are fresh off a bye-week and well rested. The No.18 team hopes to take the momentum from their 38-23 road win at Arkansas and carry into Saturday’s game.

Relive all of the action from yesterday's 38-23 win over Arkansas!#WarEagle | #AuburnMade

— Auburn Football (@AuburnFootball) October 17, 2021

Head Coach Bryan Harsin is in his first season with Auburn and at this point in the season he’s happy with quarterback Bo Nix’s progress. 

The junior quarterback has eight touchdowns and a total of 1,488 passing yards this season. Nix has historically played his best when at home under the Jordan-Hare Stadium lights.

Rebels on the road

No. 10 Ole Miss is 6-1 in the season right now. The last time the Rebels traveled to Alabama was Oct.2 when they lost 42-21 to the Alabama Crimson Tide. This has been their only loss this season.

Although Ole Miss’s offense tends to get most of the praise, the defense has shown it’s talent this season as well. Head Coach Lane Kiffin has seen an improvement in the defense himself.

The defense is ranked No.12 nationally this year. They’ve recorded at least five sacks in back-to-back games. This is the first time that’s happened since 1999. A leader on the defensive end has been DE Sam Williams. He leads the SEC with 7.5 sacks.

https://twitter.com/OleMissFB/status/1452666410186985482

Series History

The Tigers and Rebels are no strangers. Their first meeting was back in 1928. Auburn currently leads the series 34-11 and are on a five-game win streak.

In their last match-up, Bo Nix threw a 58-yard touchdown pass to Seth Williams with 1:11 left in the game. This led the Tigers to a 35-28 win.