No. 22 Ole Miss Welcomes Mercer into the Vaught

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

The No. 22 Ole Miss Rebels open the 2023 football season on Saturday, playing host to the Mercer Bears. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium and can be seen on SEC Network+.

Ole Miss (0-0) is coming off an 8-5 season last year, in which the Rebels started 7-0 and lost five out of the last six games.

Head coach Lane Kiffin is entering his fourth season at the helm of the program. During his time in Oxford, Kiffin has gone 23-13.

Ole Miss has sophomore running back Quinshon Judkins back. Last season, he carried the ball 274 times for 1,612 yards with 16 touchdowns. He broke multiple rushing records as he leads the conference and is ranked top-10 in rushing yards, rushing touchdowns (16) and total touchdowns (17) as a freshman.

Along with Judkins, Jaxson Dart is returning. Coming into the season, Ole Miss has had three quarterbacks take reps: Dart, Spencer Sanders and Walker Howard.

The defense has a new look as Pete Golding was brought over from Alabama as the new defensive coordinator. And the Ole Miss defense has a lot of new faces on that side of the ball.

Mercer rolls into Oxford 1-0 on the season after defeating North Alabama 17-7 last weekend.

The Bears were led by quarterback Carter Peevy over UNA by going 12 for 17 for 115 yards and a touchdown.

Mercer’s offense gained a total of 285 yards of total offense and 170 yards on the ground.

Last season, the Bears went 7-4 overall and 5-3 in the SoCon.

Saturday, will be the second all-time meeting between the two schools. The first meeting was more than a century ago, back in 1911, when Ole Miss won 34-0 in Macon, Georgia.