Ole Miss is one day away from kicking off what is sure to be a fascinating 2026 season. Here are five things I’ll be thinking about when the Rebels and Louisville kickoff on Sunday evening.
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1. Ole Miss running backs vs Louisville’s font seven
Last year, Kewan Lacy emerged as one of the best running backs in college football, and it wasn’t for a lack of opportunity. Lacy carried the football 306 times last season — the most of any running back in college football. I’ve mentioned this before and will re-emphasize now: it’s pretty remarkable Lacy did not miss a game last season with that workload. He never really got visibly injured at all until Ole Miss’ final game of the season against Miami.
Both Pete Golding and John David Baker have alluded to the fact that they don’t want Lacy shouldering that type of workload again this season. Ole Miss landed what I think is a very underrated addition in Michigan State transfer running back Makhi Frazier. They also added UTEP transfer Joshua Dye and return sophomore Shekai Mills-Knight. We haven’t heard much about the latter two in preseason camp, so I figure Lacy and Frazier will see the bulk of the carries. How does that carries split look in contrast to last season when it was essentially a one-man show in Lacy?
Louisville boasts a pretty fierce defensive front headlined by edge rusher Clev Lubin and linebacker T.J. Capers. The weak point of the Cardinals front is likely on the interior of the defensive line. How much success does Ole Miss have running the football in this game and how do they do it? I am far from an Xs and Os savant, but one thing I read and heard repeatedly during the Kiffin-Weis era is that the Ole Miss running game was great in large part because of its diversity — the variety of different ways the Rebels ran the football made the rushing attack a tough one to stop. Will the same thing prove to be true in Baker’s system?
I am very curious to see how much success Ole Miss has running the ball and how the Rebels divvy up the carries.
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2. Ole Miss’ defensive line vs a retooled Louisville offensive line
Louisville rebuilt its offensive line almost entirely through the portal. Four of its five starters, with the exception of center, are likely to be offseason transfer portal additions. Over the last few years, we’ve seen with Ole Miss how difficult (and expensive) it can be to rebuild an offensive through the portal. Given what Ole Miss returns and what it added, this should be the single biggest advantage the Rebels have in this game. There is a real opportunity for Ole Miss to change and control the game through its defensive line dominating Louisville’s offensive line. I am not saying that’s a guarantee to happen, but on paper, it is a big advantage for Ole Miss.
Golding has mentioned a few times throughout the offseason that the Rebels were not deep enough on the defensive line last season and that guys played too many snaps. He feels like they adequately fixed this lack-of-depth issue through portal additions and what returns up front.
I think this Ole Miss defense is going to be very good with a chance to be elite. That all starts with the defensive line. Can the Rebels get after new Louisville quarterback Lincoln Keinholz? The Ohio State transfer is much more of a dual threat quarterback than any of Jeff Brohm’s previous three quarterbacks he’s had in his three seasons at Louisville. Keinholz is also the least experienced of the three because he hasn’t hardly played in his three years in college. Can Ole Miss make him uncomfortable and force him into mistakes?
I think this match up is the single biggest advantage the Rebels have in this game.
3. Stopping Isaac Brown
This one also ties back to the defensive line, but also the defense as a whole. Isaac Brown is one of the most underrated running backs in the country. He averaged nearly nine yards per carry last season. He rushed for 884 yards on 104 carries in nine games. A hamstring injury sidelined him for three games.
Brown is a speedy, shifty running back with a smaller frame. He’s got home run speed.
“This kid is special. He is explosive on tape. Super impressed,” Golding said earlier this week.
The Louisville offense will likely run through Brown as he is the best player Louisville has on offense. The Cardinals also have an effective second running back in Keyjuan Brown, but Isaac Brown is the undisputed star of the offense. If Ole Miss can keep him in check, that puts a great deal of pressure on an inexperienced quarterback throwing to a bunch of new receivers behind a shaky and unproven offensive line.
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4. Chambliss vs Louisville’s Secondary
Louisville boasted the best pass defense in the ACC a season ago and returns a talented and veteran secondary this season headlined by Tayon Holloway, the Cardinals’ best and most established corner.
Trinidad Chambliss didn’t make many mistakes last season. He only three three interceptions (though that number could’ve likely doubled in the Miami game alone if the Hurricanes defenders had better hands). Chambliss did a fine job of protecting the football last season. But he’s now throwing to a mostly new pass-catching corps and faces a pretty tough test out of the gate in the Cardinals secondary. Chambliss threw to a lot of wide open receivers last season because of the brilliance of the Weis/Kiffin scheme. That could very well end up being the case in Baker’s scheme, too. But we haven’t seen it yet.
Ole Miss is a touchdown favorite in this game, the quickest way for this thing to go awry for the Rebels is to turn the football over a couple of times early in the game. I know that’s not really earth-shattering analysis, but it’s worth pointing out given that the strength of Louisville’s defense is its secondary and there is a lot of newness on the Ole Miss offense as it pertains to the passing game. I am very curious to see how easily (or not easily) Ole Miss is able to throw the football in game one of the John David Baker era.
5. Golding vs Brohm
This is a fascinating coaching match up given the contrast in expertise and where both men are at in their respective careers. Brohm is an offensive-minded head coach who is one of the best coaches in the country. At Purdue, he went 36-34 and 26-25 in Big Ten play. Since Brohm left, Purdue has gone 7-30 overall, 3-24 in Big Ten play and is currently riding an 18-game conference losing streak. Brohm has won nine or more games in each of the three season’s he’s been at Louisville. The man can coach.
He’s also really good as an underdog. Brohm has won six of his last nine games outright when his team is a touchdown underdog or more. Ole Miss is right around a touchdown favorite over the Cardinals on Sunday.
Golding, by contrast, is of course a defensive minded head coach with a career record of 2-1 as a head coach. Who wins the metaphorical chess match of Brohm’s offense versus Golding’s defense.
Golding’s been handed the keys to a program that’s clicking on all cylinders and returns the best offensive backfield in the sport. This is a massive spot for Golding and Ole Miss in the sense that the Rebels have expectations of making the College Football Playoff. There is almost no path to getting there if Ole Miss loses to Louisville on Sunday night. That might not be a fun sentence for Ole Miss fans to read, but it is simply reality.
That is not really the case for Louisville. Yes, a win over Ole Miss would go a long way to helping the Cardinals’ chances of earning an at-large berth to the playoff, but the ACC is not one of the stronger power four leagues and is not likely to get more than two teams in the playoff, if it even gets that. Louisville’s most clear-cut and realistic path to making the playoff is to win the ACC and get an automatic berth. Now, a win over Ole Miss would certainly help if, say, Louisville went 10-2, didn’t win the ACC, but boasted a non-conference win over the Rebels (assuming Ole Miss still had a good season after this hypothetical loss), but I have to figure that would still be an outside shot for Louisville given how the ACC is perceived as a conference.
Anyway, that was a hypothetical that none of you likely wanted to read or entertain. My point is this: this game is much more crucial for Ole Miss than it is Louisville, and the matchup of head coaches is fascinating to me for the reasons I outlined above.
Thanks for reading. Enjoy the game. We’ll have more coverage on Monday. I am sure there will be plenty to talk about.