Ole Miss keeping all eyes on Tulsa with Kentucky showdown looming
The perfect storm of a Top-15 matchup with Kentucky next weekend is on the horizon but Ole Miss is putting the blinders on with Tulsa coming to town on Saturday.
The No. 16 Rebels (3-0) have made it through their non-conference slate unscathed – and mostly untested — but there is still one more challenger left before all that hay is in the barn.
In staying true to his form, Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin has already given the “rat poison” speech to the players.
“I mean, I’m not joking. We told them this morning you got to understand rat poison,” Kiffin said during his weekly Monday press conference. “It’s out there and it comes when you play really well. Especially when the outcome is it looks like when you score. Now, our running backs hearing how great they are and the defense and everything. So you still got to process some things.”
Ole Miss handled Georgia Tech with ease, beating them 42-0, in what considered to be the toughest challenge of the September portion of the schedule.
Related: Making the Grade: Ole Miss earns high marks in its blowout win at Georgia Tech
Instead it will be Tulsa and its potent offense that will be the final test for Ole Miss.
The schedule is what the schedule is but Ole Miss has not had the toughest of starts. Getting past Troy, Central Arkansas and the Yellow Jackets by a combined score of 129-13.
Early season success has also helped boost the Rebels up the rankings. They are No. 13 in the latest Coaches Poll and inside the top 20 of the Associated Press’ latest poll.
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Despite all of that Kiffin is trying to keep his team focused even if he cannot control where all the outside noise comes from.
“You got to remember our kids deal with that everywhere they go,” Kiffin said. “It’s not just what you guys write about. When they go to class everyone tells them how great they are. We got to be very careful of that, especially with so many new players.”
Getting the players to focus on the task at hand this weekend will not be too difficult.
Tulsa (2-1) is coming into Saturday with the nation’s top passing offense. The Golden Hurricanes are averaging 413 yards per game and four passing touchdowns a game.
This will be Ole Miss’ secondary’s first real test as the previous three offenses did really pose much of a threat in the passing game.
“Obviously we got a lot of work to do with better opponents coming up,” Kiffin said. “Starts with the No. 1 pass offense in the country, by far. Not even close. This is a totally different challenge than we’ve had and some people would say the best team that we’ve played. The most challenging team for sure.”
