Week 8 Staff Predictions: Ole Miss at Georgia

OXFORD, Miss. — Here we are in Week 8 of the college football season, and Ole Miss is gearing up for one of its toughest challenges in 2025 yet — a trip to Athens for another chapter in the Lane Kiffin vs. Kirby Smart battle.

The Georgia Bulldogs lead the all-time series 33-11-1 and have won the last six meetings at Sanford Stadium dating back to 1996. Kiffin will look to notch his first win in Athens and his second over Smart in a series that is tied 1-1 between the two. Smart is 1-2 against the Rebels in his coaching career for the Bulldogs, losing in Oxford during his first season at the helm in 2016.

As always, you can look at the analytics, compare the rosters and study the trends, but when these two programs line up between the hedges this Saturday, anything can happen. This isn’t the same Ole Miss program that got pummeled in Athens in 2023 — but Georgia is still Georgia.

With that being said here is The Rebel Walk staff giving their best shots at predicting this biggest game of the season thus far between Ole Miss and Georgia:

Adam Brown

Score prediction: Ole Miss 28, Georgia 27

X-factor player: Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy

Trinidad Chambliss leads the Rebels to victory by passing over 150 yards and having over a hundred yards on the ground. Kewan Lacy has a dominant game on the ground against Georgia with 125 yards and three touchdowns.

Bold prediction: Ole Miss’s defense makes it difficult for Georgia in the first half by getting to the quarterback.

Billy Kuhl

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 24, Georgia 32

X factor player: Kewan Lacy

While I am skeptical of Ole Miss pulling out the win, I still believe that Lacy will have a big game and rush for close to 100 yards and break the plane twice to make up for his large yardage game last week without a touchdown. I also expect there to be a good amount of carries going Lacy’s way trying to temper a loud crowd. 

Bold Prediction: Ole Miss defense actually wins the turnover battle

I think Ole Miss will play a pretty clean game offensively and the defense will come through with a turnover or two, but ultimately I’m not sure it will be enough especially if there are some early struggles as Georgia really turns it on as the game progresses.

Daylan Flowers

Score prediction: Ole Miss 31, Georgia 24

X factor: Kapena Gushiken

The Ole Miss defense has to come ready to play this weekend if the Rebels want any chance to come out of Athens with a win this Saturday. The secondary will be key, and Kapena Gushiken has shown to be an athletic freak this season, his biggest quality being tackling. His size may not stand out, but Gushiken doesn’t run away from action, and that’s the type of players you need to win a gauntlet match inside Sanford Stadium. Gushiken’s downhill speed will be critical to help stop the run and stop Gunner Stockton from being successful in the red zone. 

Bold prediction: Dae’Quan Wright finishes with two touchdowns.

Ole Miss will have to protect and perform offensively against Georgia, and scheming Dae’Quan Wright up properly will allow them to do so. Wright has been schemed all around this season, and whether it’s on the line of scrimmage, in the backfield, or as the x receiver he’s done it all. He’s been the most consistent pass catcher for Ole Miss this season, and Trinidad Chambliss and Charlie Wise Jr. have faith in the tight end. His size and catching abilities make him a threat in the open field and in small field scenarios. I think he will be key against Georgia

David Walker

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 27, Georgia 24

X-Factor Player: Trinidad Chambliss

I look for Trinidad to drop dimes in his first road start of his D1 career. Designed running plays for the quarterback and occasional QB scrambles will be pivotal. They’ll need to maintain their 15-yard-per-completion average in order to leave Athens with a win.

Bold Prediction: Ole Miss wins its first game in program history against a ranked Georgia team playing at home. 

The Rebels are previously 0-12 against a ranked Georgia team in Athens, but I look for that to change this Saturday. Washington State was a wake-up call for Lane Kiffin’s team, and I suspect they’ll respond to the challenge their coach has given them. They’ve been game-planning for this one for a while, and it will show.

Donna Sprabery

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 24, Georgia 21

Saturday’s top-10 showdown in Athens has all the makings of an SEC thriller — playoff stakes, coaching chess matches, and plenty of history. Georgia leads the all-time series 33-11-1, and Ole Miss hasn’t won in Athens since 1996. But Lane Kiffin’s Rebels arrive confident, balanced, and hungry to end that drought.

X-Factor Players: Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy

Ole Miss brings one of the nation’s most explosive offenses, averaging nearly 38 points per game, led by dual-threat quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, who’s filled in admirably for the injured Austin Simmons. Running back Kewan Lacy and a deep receiver group give the Rebels the firepower to challenge Georgia’s elite defense.

Bold Prediction: For the Bulldogs, quarterback Gunner Stockton remains steady, but a banged-up offensive line — with Juan Gaston, Monroe Freeling, and Earnest Greene all nursing injuries — could be a problem against Ole Miss’ quick front. Georgia’s defense will keep it tight, but explosive plays and tempo favor the Rebels.

The Rebels snap their long Athens losing streak and make a statement in the playoff race.

Evie Van Pelt

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 31, Georgia 30

X-Factor Player: Trinidad Chambliss

It may seem a little cliche to choose the QB as the X-factor player, but as Trinidad goes in Athens, so goes Ole Miss.

The former Division II signal-caller has been nothing short of electric since landing in Oxford. He leads the league in yards per attempt, yards per completion, and is No. 9 in the nation in ESPN’s Total QBR, the best metric of quarterback performance, in my opinion. He’s thrown for over 300 yards in three of his last four outings.

But the road ahead doesn’t get any easier. Saturday brings a heavyweight showdown against a Georgia defense that has become the gold standard under Kirby Smart — one that’s earned its place among college football’s all-time greats.

If Trinidad can keep his head about him in an incredibly loud Sanford Stadium and maintain his poise, Ole Miss can win this game.

Bold Prediction: Kewan Lacy rushes for over 125 yards and scores two touchdowns

Defensively, Georgia gives up just a paltry 91.7 rushing yards per game to its opponent. Ole Miss is averaging 204 yards per game on the ground. For the Rebels to be successful, they need to establish a ground game in what will be a raucous environment, and, fortunately, they’ve got Kewan Lacy on the roster. I look for Lacy and the o-line to take this as a challenge and notch over 175 yards on the ground against a very strong Georgia defense. If they can do that, they win the game.

Jacob Quaglino

Score prediction: Ole Miss 24, Georgia 34

X-Factor Player: Kewan Lacy and the offensive line

Narrowing it down to a single X-Factor Player was a mighty difficult task — it seems highly unlikely that the outcome of a game like this will be determined by a single or even a handful of players. But ultimately, how the Rebels fare in the biggest game of the year so far may well hinge on if Lane Kiffin’s offense can get a solid running game going — a Kiffin staple since his arrival in Oxford — against one of the nation’s toughest run defenses, one that gives up an average of fewer than 100 rushing yards per game.

Throw in the fact that Kiffin and company will be playing in one of the country’s most hostile environments, and Lacy and the Ole Miss offensive line (which has notably struggled this season) will have their best opportunity yet to show the world just how talented they are. In reality, though, it will be interesting to see how the entire offense performs in Athens, and whether last Saturday’s concerning performance against a far inferior Washington State team was simply because Kiffin’s squad was looking ahead to this weekend or if this team just isn’t what we thought it was.

Bold Prediction: Georgia surrenders more passing yards to Ole Miss than any other team this season

This is an Ole Miss team averaging 311 passing yards per game so far, good for eighth in the country, and because of Georgia’s stout rushing defense, the Rebels will look to advantage of a somewhat average Georgia passing defense, one that ranks in the middle of the pack nationwide in passing yards allowed per game.

Kam Wicker

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 23, Georgia 24

X-Factor Player: TJ Dottery, Jaden Yates and Tahj Chambers

The Rebels do have a better rushing attack than the Bulldogs as far as yards per game and total yards; and I expect Lacy to have his way with the Georgia defense at times. However, the Ole Miss run defense is the worst in the SEC out of the ranked teams and third worst overall — giving up 157.7 yards on the ground per game.

Georgia does not have a work horse back like Lacy, but they have a duo of Chauncey Bowens and Nate Frazier that have combined for 592 yards and six touchdowns on 120 carries this season. Pete Golding will be relying heavily on Dottery, Yates and Chambers to not allow the Bulldog running backs to get to the second level of the Ole Miss defense.

Give me that trio for the Landshark defense combining for five or more tackles for loss on a night they will need to be near perfect.

Bold Prediction: Ole Miss loses this game in the final minutes

As someone who’s watched Ole Miss every Saturday for more than a decade, making a bold prediction like this isn’t easy. But the reporter in me knows the pattern — those tight, one-score games, especially on the road, are often where the Rebels stumble.

I expect a back-and-forth battle in Athens, punch for punch, until the Bulldogs find the end zone in the final minute to take the lead. Falling by one score won’t derail the Rebels’ playoff hopes — it’s how they respond to a setback in Athens that will define their December.

Zach Moreth

Score Prediction: Ole Miss 31, Georgia 27

X-Factor Players: Dae’Quan Wright

Ole Miss will take on Georgia with ESPN’s College Gameday in attendance in Athens. Whether it will be Trinidad Chambliss or Austin Simmons leading the charge is still up for debate, but I do know that the Bulldogs will be fired up regardless.  For player predictions, I feel really good that Dae’Quan Wright will score a touchdown.

Bold Prediction: Kirby Smart has had this game circled on his calendar and if Georgia can rush the ball to their full potential, it will provide the Rebel defense with a variety of problems. I still see Ole Miss making it a game and covering the spread.

Up next:

The week 7 matchup between Ole Miss and Georgia kicks off Saturday, Oct. 18 at 2:30 p.m. CT on ABC. Stay tuned in with The Rebel Walk for all your game coverage.