No. 13 Ole Miss Heads to Rocky Top to Face Tennessee

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels travel up to Rocky Top to take on the Tennessee Volunteers on Saturday. The kickoff is set for 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network inside Neyland Stadium.

Ole Miss (4-1, 1-1 SEC) is coming off a thrilling 52-51 victory over the Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Rebels were led by quarterback Matt Corral who passed for 287 yards and two touchdowns. He also recorded 94 yards on the ground and picked up two scores with his legs.

This season, Corral has thrown for 12 touchdowns and rushed for eight on the season. In his career, the Ventura, Calif. native has thrown a touchdown pass in 17 straight games, the second-longest streak in school history.

The Rebels rank top 10 in the country in six separate categories: scoring offense (46.2), total offense (561.6), rushing offense (259.6), passing efficiency (175.6), turnovers lost (3) and passes had intercepted (0).

Ole Miss’ defense has forced at least one turnover in 14 of 15 games under head coach Lane Kiffin.

Tennessee (4-2, 2-1 SEC) is coming off back-to-back SEC victories over Missouri and South Carolina. The Volunteer offense has scored 30+ points in five of their first six games, including 107 points over the past two games.

Redshirt senior quarterback Hendon Hooker leads the offense, completing nearly 70 percent of his passes for 1,063 yards and 13 touchdowns to one interception. Out wide, his top two targets are Velus Jones Jr. and JaVonta Payton. Jones leads the team with 22 receptions for 342 yards, while Payton has found the end zone in each of his last four games. Running back Tiyon Evans is coming off back-to-back 100+ yard rushing games.

Defensively, Tennessee has forced nine turnovers in the last three games. Defensive back Theo Jackson leads Tennessee with 37 total tackles, including 6.5 for a loss, and Jaylen McCollough has tallied three picks in the secondary.

This will be the 66th all-time between the two programs. Tennessee leads the series 44-19-1 over the Rebels. The 2014 game that Ole Miss won was vacated due to the NCAA ruling. The Rebels are 5-25 all-time in games played in Knoxville.