Do Texas A&M's road woes give No. 10 Ole Miss another edge for home-field advantage?
Whenever Ole Miss takes on a Southeastern Conference Western Division foes the home-field advantage is rarely taken into account as anything can and usually happen to negate it.
Maybe Alabama and Auburn can arguably be excluded from this conversation but beyond that Saturdays in the fall usually bring some excitement in the SEC West.
This brings us to this weekend when the No. 10 Rebels (7-1, 4-1 SEC) welcome Texas A&M (5-3, 3-2) to Oxford on Saturday morning and possibly do have a legit home-field advantage inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Ole Miss has had strong showings from its fans in filling up VHS in historical fashion this season, especially in SEC play, but that is not what could give the home team the edge this weekend.
When looking at the pure black-and-white facts and stats over the last two-plus seasons the Aggies have been abysmal when playing in a true SEC road game.
Dating back to the 2021 season the Aggies are 0-7 in true road games against SEC opponents with their last win coming at Missouri on October 16 of that year. They are 0-8 overall in their last true road games if you include the Aggies loss at Miami in week two of this season.
A win over Arkansas at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on September 30 is excluded due to it technically being considered a neutral-site game.
Top 10
- 1Breaking
Agiye Hall commits
Former 5-star surprise commitment
- 2New
Urban Meyer
Declaring SEC dominance over
- 3Hot
AP Poll projection
Judgement Saturday brings change
- 4
Squirrel White
Former Vols WR ACC bound
- 5
Zachariah, Zion Branch
USC playmakers SEC bound
Get the On3 Top 10 to your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
“I don’t know. I hope it keeps going,” said Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin when asked about Texas A&M’s road struggles during Wednesday’s SEC Coaches Teleconference.
“Obviously they play dramatically different at home than they do on the road. I think that should be a credit to their fans. Because they play at home they play better because of the home-field advantage. (Kyle Field is) one of the loudest places in the country. Probably the loudest continual place for an entire game in the country. I would credit their fans for playing better at home.”
Since that road win at Missouri two years ago, Texas A&M is 5-3 in SEC home games.
Related: Kiffin’s Rebels ‘don’t even discuss’ their Top 10 CFP ranking
Another potential advantage for Ole Miss is this Saturday’s kickoff time.
The Rebels have not started a game earlier than 1 p.m. CT all season but this weekend will play at 11 a.m. CT on ESPN.
Morning is not a concern for Kiffin as he holds practices that start before 9 a.m. during camp and usually in-season practices are at least starting by then. By the time Saturday’s game should be over the Ole Miss players are a good couple hours removed from the practice field and on with the rest of their day.
“I hope that favors us,” Kiffin said on Wednesday. “We’re a morning format all week. So they go to classes in the afternoon. Our guys are up practicing. We’re already off the field now (after 12 p.m.). I’m done with practice. I would like to think our clocks are used to this a lot more than what most people do (with) the old fashioned way of afternoon format like (Texas A&M).”
