Talk of Champions

Latest Episodes:

That's Suss! A proper send-off and Texas A&M as a sneaky-bad matchup Ole Miss should still win Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

Four years in Mississippi, then moving to Nashville.

Nick Suss is pretty much every girl who goes to Ole Miss from Georgia or Texas.

Jokes aside, we’ve got a proper send-off for the soon-to-be former Ole Miss beat writer for the Clarion-Ledger in this That’s Suss! edition of Talk of Champions.

Among the topics, naturally, is Nick’s final Ole Miss assignment — a 6:30 p.m. CT kickoff at Texas A&M on Saturday. He’s picking the Rebels to win, which would send them into a much-needed bye week at 8-1 (4-1 SEC) overall.

But Jimbo Fisher’s Aggies could be a sneaky bad matchup for Lane Kiffin and Co., specifically on defense, where they’re ranked In the Top 10 nationally in passing. The only team to throw for more than 200 against them is Mississippi State.

“If you look at the indicators, and you look at the results, I feel the indicators show they were playing worse when they were winning,” Suss said of the Aggies, who are 3-4 (1-3) on the year and have lost three straight.

“In their three-game losing streak, turnovers are up. They’re taking the ball away. Sacks are up. Tackles for loss are up. They’re doing the indicators of, ‘Oh, that’s a good defense,’ but they’re giving up 35 points a game. I can’t wrap my head around exactly what is the thing that’s going to make them successful.”

If Ole Miss doesn’t win this one, where does its next win come?

Such is the wide range of potential outcomes for the Rebels following their first loss of the season. They could finish anywhere from 7-5 to 11-1, and it all starts in College Station.

“Texas A&M has a really great running back, and they have a defense that, at times, can take away the run,” Suss said. “Texas A&M has done a really good job of defending the pass this year.

“There’s a chance this could be a bad matchup, and we saw last week how Ole Miss can be exposed in bad matchups, but it’s not the same kind of classic bad matchup that LSU was last week ‘cause Texas A&M doesn’t have a Jayden Daniels kind of talent playing quarterback.”

Our Sponsors:
* Check out MyBookie and use my code TOC for a great deal: https://www.mybookie.ag
* Check out Quince and use my code TOC for a great deal: https://www.quince.com
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hit That Line: Ole Miss is 3-0 ATS as a road favorite since 2021, and Texas A&M is next Oct 27, 2022

Show notes

In this edition of Hit That Line, Zach Berry and Co. recap Ole Miss' first loss of the season to LSU, as well as jump into the Texas A&M game and preview Week 9, including their 12 locks.

What happened in Baton Rouge? Well, for starters, the offense all but disappeared in the second half, so the guys try to identify the root cause, including, potentially, tempo. Lack of depth and/or fatigue could be in play, too, but the Rebels might have just gotten whipped by a Tiger team that's suddenly looking pretty salty.

The guys are much more positive about their outlook for Texas A&M, which could be a statement game for third-year Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin and his Rebels. But they'll need to get back to their bulldozing offensive ways and run the football effectively, and the offensive line has to get right, and quickly, to give quarterback Jaxson Dart enough time to keep former Ole Miss staffer DJ Durkin's defense honest.

Let's get after it.

Texas A&M is a “gotta-have-it” game for Ole Miss football. Back to Powe Corner! Oct 26, 2022

Show notes

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss weren’t the only Rebels who took their first loss of the season on Saturday.

All-time Rebel great Jerrell Powe had Ole Miss and the under. So, for the first time in the month-long history of Powe Corner, an Ole Miss podcast in association with Talk of Champions and the Ole Miss Spirit, he’s left licking his wounds.

Powe, like Ole Miss, will look to rebound this week against Texas A&M. The Rebels (7-1, 3-1 SEC) and the Aggies (3-4, 1-3) will kick off in College Station Saturday at 6:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

“In the words of the Reverend Houston Nutt, this is a gotta-have-it situation,” Powe said.

How can the Rebels rebound?

Tackle better, for starters.

“My expectation’s for us to get better,” Powe said. His early score prediction is a 38-31 Ole Miss win. “I want to see us play four quarters of football, guys play gap-assignment football and tackle, man. We can’t be missing tackles. The (LSU) tight end, I think in the third quarter, it was a simple little flat route, out route and we missed it. He took it 40 yards. We can’t let that happen.

“That kills a defense right then and there. We cannot let stuff like that happen.”

Powe believes the LSU loss could be Ole Miss’ 2008 Florida moment.

Powe and the Rebels went into the Swamp that year and upset Heisman winner Tim Tebow and the then-top-ranked No. 1 Florida. The Gators never lost again en route to a national championship.

That’s the rosiest of outlooks, to be sure, but Powe has confidence in their ability to dust themselves off. Ole Miss is a 3.5-point road favorite, while the point total for the game is 55.

He has Ole Miss and the over.

“Guys were in position (against LSU) but we weren’t getting pass rush,” he said. “Guys were getting knocked out of their gap. They weren’t keeping the rush lanes balanced.

“They need to play better, I’ll just leave it at that.”

Back to Powe Corner!

Ole Miss' commitment class has been pretty drama-free so far. But will they stay that way? Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss football added last week their 10th four-star prospect to a 2023 recruiting class currently ranked No. 21 in the country.

The Rebels, now with 13 commitments, have a blue-chip percentage of 77 percent, headlined by in-state linebacker Suntarine Perkins. Perkins, the nation’s No. 64 prospect, as calculated by the industry-generated On3 Consensus, is the No. 3 overall linebacker and the No. 1 player in Mississippi.

Remarkably, too, is the seemingly drama-free nature of the star-studded group, which Ole Miss Spirit recruiting analyst Zach Berry explained is by design.

“We talk about the thorough approach Ole Miss goes about its business recruiting high school players,” Berry said, in this recruiting-filled edition of Talk of Champions. "We know they’re going to hit the portal.

“The ones that they have in their class are guys they’ve had conversations with like, ‘Hey, you’re our guy at this position. We want you. We think you can come in and compete.’ So, there’s not a lot of, ‘All right, we’ll take your commitment right now and see what happens down the road.’

“There’s not a lot of that. Now, I don’t know that for certain, but I do think you can tell by who they get and how thorough the recruitment is and how they go about doing that. I think you can see across all the classes they’ve had since Kiffin’s been in Oxford. They have the flips late here and there. They have those shockers they pull out. But these are guys they’ve been working on for years. A lot of groundwork put in.

“I think the high school guys kind of know the deal. Once you’re in, your spot, you’re good. Outside of Perkins, (Braxton) Myers and (Marvin) Burks, I do think it will be somewhat drama-free come December or come February.”

Berry and Ben Garrett also discuss the recent edition of Burks, who Ole Miss pulled away from Missouri, as well as Marcel Reed’s impressive senior season and confidence percentages on Ole Miss’ chances of holding onto its current pledges.

Daytime Fireworks: Will Ole Miss bounce back against a reeling Texas A&M team? Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

In this edition of Daytime Fireworks, Zach Berry and David Brandt briefly recap the LSU game before turning their attention to College Station, where on Saturday the no-longer-undefeated Ole Miss Rebels will try to get back into the win column.

Plus, a deep-dive into Week 9 in the SEC and college football, including their picks for the weekend.

Rebel Yell Hotline: Kermit Davis + the road ahead for Ole Miss football Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

In this edition of the Rebel Yell Hotline, Chuck Rounsaville, Gary Darby and Gordon Ford are joined by Ole Miss men's basketball coach Kermit Davis and Harry Harrison of the Ole Miss Radio Network.

Franchise Player: Overreaction Monday! LSU is flushed. Ole Miss has to get Texas A&M. Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

Ole Miss completely controlled its own destiny just a week ago.

Thing is, the Rebels, no longer undefeated following a 45-20 loss at LSU, still have everything in front of them.

There's nothing lazier in college football analysis than the fallacy of the must-win game. The reality is every game is a must-win. That's kind of the whole point of the entire, absurd exercise.

But the one and only path for Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC) to the program's first-ever appearance in the SEC championship game runs first through College Station.

The Rebels are, realistically, where most everyone thought they'd be after nine weeks. But there's potential for so much more, even if they erased their margin for error in Baton Rouge.

Ben Garrett and David Johnson discuss in this Overreaction Monday! edition of Franchise Player, a site-crossover podcast of the Ole Miss Spirit (On3) and Inside the Rebels (247).

Undefeated No More: Ole Miss face-planted at LSU. Now what? Oct 23, 2022

Show notes

Undefeated no more.

Only one other time since the 60s — back in 2014 — had Ole Miss won each of its first seven games. Those Rebels lost in their eighth game, at LSU, and their season spiraled, with losses in four of their last six.

These 2022 Ole Miss Rebels have now suffered the same fate. Well, at least as far as their trip to Red Stick.

Whether Saturday is just a bump in the road for a championship contender or the turning point for a limp to the season's finish line depends on how Ole Miss responds from an ugly 45-20 loss.

The Rebels haven't won in Baton Rouge since 2008.

The schedule certainly doesn’t get any easier. They next travel to Texas A&M, followed by a much-needed bye and a three-game (Alabama, at Arkansas, Mississippi State) sprint to the finish .

Ben Garrett and David Johnson have a full breakdown in this postgame edition of Franchise Player, an Ole Miss podcast in association with the Ole Miss Spirit (On3) and Inside the Rebels (247). Plus, the guys hand out helmet stickers, play a big-picture round of Buy or Sell and make their raw-emotion picks for the rest of the season.

That's Suss! Ole Miss-LSU is a coin flip. Here’s three reasons to be cocky and three to be worried Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

LSU’s Jayden Daniels is, statistically, the most effective scrambling quarterback in the country.

The exact kind of quarterback Ole Miss has struggled with all season.

Actually, just last week, the Rebels had few answers for a similar, if lesser, quarterback. Robby Ashford combined for 210 yards of offense and four touchdowns in a closer-than-it-should-have-been 48-34 Ole Miss win.

He wasn’t the only one.

Braylon Braxton replaced injured Tulsa starter Davis Brin last month and posted 122 total yards, including 39 rushing, most of which came on improvised plays with his legs. Ole Miss won 35-27.

The Rebels (7-0, 3-0 SEC) have matched the 2014 team for the best start to a season since the 60s. Coincidentally, Ole Miss suffered their first loss in its eighth game at LSU.

How can these Rebels avoid a similar fate?

Nick Suss (Clarion-Ledger) has the breakdown in the latest edition of Talk of Champions, an Ole Miss podcast, in association with the Ole Miss Spirit. Plus, Nick and Troy’s trip to Wendy’s, the evenness of the matchup and three Ole Miss reasons to be cocky and three reasons to be worried about the trip to Red Stick.

“Cocky No. 1, I don’t know if they can slow down (Zach) Evans and (Quinshon) Judkins,” Suss said. "Cocky No. 2, LSU’s offensive line has been patchwork at times this year and Ole Miss should be able to play downhill. Cocky No. 3, LSU’s specials teams have been a disaster. Those self-inflicted errors can come back to help a team like Ole Miss in a close game.

“Scared No. 1, Jayden Daniels scored six touchdowns last week, three through the air (and) three on the ground. He seems to finally be playing like the five-star recruit we thought he was four years ago. Scared No. 2, LSU’s pass rush is incredible, and Jaxson Dart’s been pressured on a third of his drop-backs this year. I know he’s not sacked very much, but they’re going to take him out of rhythm, more than likely, on these pass plays.

“Scared No. 3, Tiger Stadium. They’re playing on the road at Tiger Stadium, which is something, historically, Ole Miss has not been very good at.”

Hit That Line: Ole Miss' biggest game of the year and picking week-eight winners Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

Zach Berry and Co. are back for another round of Hit That Line, and this week they're picking winners in week eight of college football, including their locks of the week and Ole Miss' biggest game of the year to date, at LSU.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected