LSU vs. Ole Miss point spread: Picking Tigers vs Rebels

One of the biggest college football games of this upcoming weekend is LSU traveling to Oxford to face Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss.

The Tigers are 2.5-point favorite entering the matchup, despite struggling last weekend against Arkansas and needing a last-second field goal to come away with a win.

LSU and Ole Miss both enter the contest 3-1, after the Rebels dropped their first game of the season to Alabama last Saturday.

On3’s Andy Staples and Ralph Russo of the AP recently made their picks against the spread for this weekend’s action. They disagreed on the Ole Miss-LSU game. Russo has the Tigers covering.

“I don’t know, man. I’m just not really seeing it from Ole Miss,” Russo said. “They haven’t gotten their running game going. I know [Quinshon] Judkins has been banged up a little but, but he’s averaging less than 4 yards a carry. Sometimes not right there with Ole Miss.”

Russo does expect Ole Miss to have some success through the air, behind quarterback Jaxson Dart. But he doesn’t think it will be enough.

“I will say this — LSU’s secondary is a problem. It is clearly going to be a problem, and I’m imagining Jaxson Dart and Lane [Kiffin] can do some things to continue that being a problem for LSU,” Russo said. “I think high-scoring game, maybe similar to last week’s LSU-Arkansas game. But if I’ve only got to cover 2.5 for LSU, I’ll take them. I’ll take them on the road and go a little more gut than what the math says.”

Staples has a different opinion on the game, and he believes the Ole Miss defense will play well enough to keep it close.

“Here’s where I’m a little nervous about this one… LSU averaged 6.5 yards a carry against Arkansas last week. And they were very explosive in the pass game. Can you guess what Alabama averaged per carry against Ole Miss? … 2.9 yards per carry,” Staples said. “They basically dared [Jalen] Milroe to beat them with his arm, which he did. He averaged 10.7 yards per throw. … [But] I think Ole Miss might be able to make LSU one-dimensional.”

The Tigers have an excellent passing attack with Jayden Daniels at quarterback and Malik Nabers and Brian Thomas Jr. at receiver. Still, Staples likes the Rebels to cover.

“That one dimension may be enough to score a bunch of points on Ole Miss. But the LSU secondary is also playing in this game, and we saw what Arkansas did to them,” Staples said.

“I am going to take Ole Miss. … Now I will say, I’ve gotten LSU wrong every week except Florida State. So I may be completely off here.”