“The Week Ahead” is our weekly Monday piece, covering any relevant news from the weekend and taking a first look at all the games coming up this weekend.
News of Note
Ole Miss opens as 2-point favorites. Vegas nailed it on their “Alabama hangover” line for the LSU game last week, and now it looks they’re going for it again. Ole Miss has looked much better than Arkansas this season, but the Rebels are favored by less than a field goal following last week’s 30-24 home loss to Alabama.
No solid update on Jefferson’s status. Sam Pittman is “hopeful” that KJ Jefferson will be able to practice fully this week and start the Ole Miss game, but so far, there’s no clear update. As bad as he looked against Liberty, he was much better than Malik Hornsby against LSU, so the Hogs need him even if he’s not 100%. Hopefully a week off helps him out.
Games of Note
Austin Peay at Alabama, East Tennessee State at Mississippi State, UMass at Texas A&M, New Mexico State at Mizzou, UAB at LSU. It’s cupcake week in the SEC as teams prepare for season-ending rivalry games.
Western Kentucky at Auburn. This was supposed to be cupcake week, but WKU is 7-3 and Auburn has all kinds of issues, even if the Tigers did just beat Texas A&M. Could be interesting.
Florida at Vanderbilt. The Gators have been all over the place, upsetting Utah in the opener (luck played a role there), playing bad football for a while, and then recovering down the stretch. The Gators have improved about as much as any SEC team in-season and could reach 8-4.
Georgia at Kentucky. The Wildcats have fallen apart and now end their season with Georgia and a decent Louisville team. A 6-6 season would be a major disappointment for a team once in the top 10, but here we are.
Tennessee at South Carolina. The Gamecocks are in a similar situation to Kentucky, but at least their expectations were lower. Carolina faces likely losses to the Vols and Clemson to fall to 6-6.
Watch This One
Ole Miss at Arkansas (6:30 pm, SEC Network). CBS took the Georgia-Kentucky game, which allows the Hogs to have their first night game since 2020. This is a trap game for the Rebels, who are coming off an emotional game against Alabama and are looking ahead to the Egg Bowl next week. Given the wackiness of this rivalry over the years, I’d expect everyone to take it seriously.
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