Week four of the college football season is here. And while it doesn’t necessarily have a huge slate of big games, there are a few that could easily have playoff implications down the road. One of those games is Ole Miss vs Tulane. For the Rebels, it’s a chance to pick up a quality non-conference win over a team that finds itself just outside the top 25. On the Tulane sideline, it’s a chance to pick up a ranked non-conference win, which would undoubtedly help their argument to receive the automatic bid from the Group of Five. They’re also looking to end a 13-game losing streak to the Rebels.<\/p>\n
Then, there’s also the fact that Ole Miss hosts LSU next weekend. Depending on this weekend’s action, that could end up being a top-10 matchup in Oxford next week. For Lane Kiffin and the Rebels, the key is to avoid looking ahead.<\/p>\n
For the Green Wave, pulling off the upset is going to have to start on offense. More specifically, with quarterback Jake Retzlaff<\/a>. After transferring in from BYU late in the summer, there were questions as to whether he’d win the starting job. Ultimately, he did get the nod, and to this point, he’s made the most of it. Through three games, he’s thrown for a modest 522 yards, with two touchdowns. However, he’s also added 288 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. Last week against the Ole Miss defense, Arkansas dual-threat quarterback Taylen Green<\/a> had plenty of success. If Retzlaff and Tulane can follow that blueprint, there’s going to be plenty of chances for them to have success against a sometimes shaky Rebel defense.<\/p>\n On defense, they’re going to have to come in with a bend but don’t break mentality. Over the past two weeks, the Green Wave has given up 31 to South Alabama and 27 to Duke. Against a well-balanced, but still explosive Ole Miss offense, there’s a good chance they’re going to give up plenty of yards. The key is going to be to force a few turnovers and force the Rebels into field goals instead of touchdowns.<\/p>\n If they can do those things, expect Tulane to be able to hang around and have a chance to win this one late.<\/p>\n Similarly, the key for Ole Miss to avoid the upset starts with the offense, as well. While they’ve been more run-heavy this season, led by Kewan Lacy<\/a>, they’ve still managed to be explosive. There is the quarterback question, however<\/a>. Earlier this week, Kiffin said he thought Austin Simmons<\/a> would be available against Tulane. That has apparently now changed, as it looks like Trinidad Chambliss<\/a> is going to get his second straight start, due to Simmons’ ankle injury.<\/p>\n Last week in his first start, Chambliss looked good, throwing for 353 yards and a touchdown. He also added 62 yards and two touchdowns rushing. If Chambliss can put together another good start, the Rebel offense should be able to put up points on the Tulane defense.<\/p>\n On the defensive side, there are more concerns. Against Arkansas, they let Green throw for 305 yards and run for another 115. With another dual-threat quarterback coming to town, adjustments are going to have to be made. If the Rebel defense can keep Ratzlaff in the pocket, they’ll be fine. If they can’t contain him, the Green Wave will be able to turn this into a high-scoring contest.<\/p>\n If the Rebels can avoid looking ahead to next week’s clash with LSU, they should win this one relatively handily. Despite Tulane being a really good Group of Five program, Ole Miss simply has more talent. That being said, the Green Wave has an offense that will likely be able to put up some points. For that reason, expect Tulane to hang around early on.<\/p>\n In the end, the Rebels get the win, but it doesn’t come without a scare, in a relatively high-scoring affair.<\/p>\n Main Image: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Week four of the college football season is here. And while it doesn’t necessarily have a huge slate of big games, there are a few that could easily have playoff implications down the road. One of those games is Ole Miss vs Tulane. For the Rebels, it’s a chance to pick up a quality non-conference […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4571,"featured_media":80129,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9,2,17,35582],"tags":[495,5505],"class_list":["post-79980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sec","category-americanathletic","category-featured","category-news","category-ole-miss-rebels","tag-lane-kiffin","tag-tulane-football"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79980","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79980"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79980\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80130,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79980\/revisions\/80130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Keys For Ole Miss to Stay on Track<\/h3>\n
Ole Miss vs Tulane: Predictions<\/h3>\n
Ole Miss 45, Tulane 27<\/h3>\n