Ole Miss vs. New Mexico State Prediction, Game Preview

Can New Mexico State (0-4) come up with any sort of a fight after a rough start? Arguably the worst team in college football, the Aggies now have to deal with an angry Ole Miss (4-1) team coming off a rough day at Florida. Check out the Ole Miss vs. New Mexico State prediction and game preview.

Ole Miss vs. New Mexico State Game Preview

Broadcast

Date: Saturday, Oct. 10
Game Time: 12:00 pm
Venue: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Oxford, MS
Network: SEC Network

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Why You Need To Care

It’s been a rough go for a New Mexico State team that’s supposed to start making strides under head coach Doug Martin. The loss to a bad Georgia State team was the real killer – allowing the Aggies to earn the Worst Team In College Football tag – but they’ve put up a nice fight over the last few weeks with an overtime loss to UTEP and an battle with New Mexico. The offense has been better, but the defense continues to have issues.

The Rebels can still live off their tremendous win over Alabama a few weeks ago, but a rocky performance against Vanderbilt and a horrible day in Gainesville have changed things up. Ole Miss ran into a buzzsaw against a Gator team that had everything working the right way, and now there’s a week off before dealing with a dangerous game at Memphis. It’s a little bit of a break, and then comes a nice stretch of three SEC home games in the next four.

Why New Mexico State Will Win

The Aggies aren’t killing themselves with huge mistakes. There might be major problems on both sides of the ball, but last week against New Mexico was the first time NMSU lost the turnover battle going -1. The defense has been great at taking the ball away when needed, coming up with eight takeaways and swarming around the ball. Now it needed to make all this happen with bigger stops.

Why Ole Miss Will Win

What’s been New Mexico State’s biggest problem? Everyone but New Mexico was able to throw the ball at will, with Florida, Georgia State, and UTEP combining to complete 77% of their passes with lots and lots of big things happening down the field. After a rocky performance against Florida, this is the game for Chad Kelly and Ole Miss to get red hot again. The Aggie secondary can be picked apart clean, and Kelly should be able to do that.

Player Who Matters

Can Larry Rose III do anything against the nasty Ole Miss run defense? After getting pushed around a bit too often against Florida, this is where the Rebels are going to look to rise up and be a brick wall. Rose was coming off a 186-yard day against UTEP to destroy New Mexico for 260 yards and three scores on 21 carries. Averaging over eight yards per carry, he’s a home run hitter, but he’ll need room to move.

What’s Going To Happen?

Ole Miss will take a week off mentally, and it won’t matter. The offense will end the game after the first quarter.