Ole Miss and Auburn are quite familiar with one another as they head into Saturday’s game
OXFORD, Miss. — If it is true familiarity breeds contempt, mark Ole Miss and Auburn guilty as charged.
Auburn’s coach used to be the head coach at Ole Miss. There is a former Rebel on the Auburn roster. There are two former Tigers on the Ole Miss roster. An Ole Miss running back hails from about an hour from Auburn. The Tigers’ offensive line coach served in the same position in Oxford before heading to Auburn. There is even a former Ole Miss quarterback on the football administrative staff at Auburn.
Hugh Freeze took Ole Miss to a Sugar Bowl win, but later had to leave Oxford. After rehabilitating his image at Liberty, he has landed at Auburn.
Freeze has former Rebel Austin Keys on his roster, but he has been injured most of the season and won’t play against Ole Miss. Ladarius Tennison and J.J. Pegues are stalwarts on the Rebels’ defense after playing the beginning of their careers at Auburn.
Former Ole Miss quarterback Kent Austin is the special assistant to the head coach for the Auburn football program. Auburn’s current offensive line coach is Jake Thornton who held the same position with the Rebels in 2021 and 2022. One of the Auburn grad assistants for the offensive line is Peyton Cox, a former Ole Miss offensive lineman.
And don’t forget, Rebel running back Quinshon Judkins is from Pike Road, Ala., which is located about three counties over from Auburn.
Still, even with all that familiarity, there is not much contempt between Freeze and Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin, simply because they do not know each other well.
“I haven’t been around him that much,” Kiffin said at his press conference this week.
“A few times over the years. My brother (Chris), when he coached here, really appreciate how he treated my brother. I’ve had nothing but good interactions the few times I’ve seen him. SEC Media Days, and then obviously against Liberty when they played here (in 2021), so that’s about it.”
Coach Kiffin on his interactions with Hugh Freeze
Yes. Since he left, Freeze has played Ole Miss once as his Liberty team lost to the Rebels 27-14 two seasons ago. Freeze believes that trip to Oxford was cathartic for him and his family and will be beneficial Saturday when the Rebels head to Auburn.
I think it actually helps a lot,” Freeze said of having already faced his former team. “(His wife) Jill and I actually talked about that, because that removes the, ‘Hey, this your first time playing Ole Miss since your departure from there,’” he explained.
“I think it’s very helpful. That (game) was an emotional day originally. I was truthfully overwhelmed. I have a lot of friends there and a lot of people I think that appreciate the good things that we did and certainly wish some things were different at the ending, just like I do. I think time…what seven or eight years now removed from my seasons there…I think most people…I don’t know…I’ve got a lot of friends there, but the trip back there absolutely helps with the now this is not something that is new.”
Hugh Freeze on having played Ole Miss while he was at Liberty
Auburn offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery is also familiar with Ole Miss. Last season, Montgomery was the head coach at Tulsa and he brought the Golden Hurricane to Oxford last season and fell to Ole Miss, 35-27.
Auburn defensive coordinator Ron Roberts, too, knows a little something about a Lane Kiffin-coached Ole Miss team. Roberts was the defensive coordinator for Baylor when the Bears defeated the Rebels, 21-7, in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2022. That season, Baylor won the Big 12 title and the Sugar Bowl victory was the Bear’s first BCS/New Year’s Six bowl win in the modern era.
After the loss, Coach Kiffin heaped praise upon a Baylor defense that was stifling that day.
“Magnificent defensive performance by them,” Kiffin said. “Ten sacks, four turnovers. We’re into the analytics. And I bet you don’t ever win a game with that happening. So congratulations to them, well-deserved.”
Kiffin knows Roberts will have his defensive unit prepared for Ole Miss.
“I think that they coach really well,” Kiffin said Monday. “They don’t do a ton of things, but they do them really well. Their defensive coordinator was at Baylor when we played them, did a great job against us then. I think that it’s more to the simple effect of schemes, meaning not do as much but do it really well. Coach it really hard, play physical, and tackle really well. They have really good players, too, that were left there.”
Now as the Rebels and Tigers prepare to meet, Ole Miss is 5-1 and ranked No. 13 in the country in the AP Poll, 12th in the Coaches, coming off a bye week.
Auburn won its first three games, but has dropped its last three to come into the game at .500. The Tigers’ most-impressive showing was the last time they played at home.Two weeks ago, top-ranked Georgia escaped Auburn with a 27-20 win.
Kiffin talked Monday about what a challenging place Jordan-Hare is to play.
“Someone said if we win this game, it’s the first back-to-back wins against Auburn in 71 years, so that’s a pretty exciting thing to be able to do. I just think that place, having played there….just sometimes has kind of some magical things happen at it. Games are always sold out, the fans seem to be into all the games from the beginning on, and they seem to play better there, especially at night if you look at the stats over the years.”
Lane Kiffin on playing a road game at Auburn
So, all in all, these two teams should be fairly familiar with one another. Ole Miss also boasts eight players on its roster from Alabama, while four Mississippians play at Auburn.
Game info
Kickoff at Jordan-Hare Stadium is set for 6 p.m. and will be televised by ESPN.
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy)
Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
