Ole Miss vs Auburn point spread: Picking Rebels vs Tigers

The college football action continues in Week 8 of the season. There are programs across the country jockeying for position to have a crack at their conference championship. And in the SEC, Ole Miss will try and keep their SEC championship hopes alive. At the same time, the Auburn Tigers will be hunting for their earth wind of the season and 1st in conference play when the two schools collide and a Saturday night matchup at Jordan-Hare stadium

This week on the Andy Staple On3 podcasts, the college football expert brought in Sports Illustrated Richard Johnson to discuss the lines of some of the top matchups and week 8. One of the games the two broke down was Ole Miss versus Auburn, where the Rebels are favored by 6.5 points on the road. And Staples and Johnson don’t see any reason why you shouldn’t take the Rebels and the points in this SEC West matchup.

“Yeah, I believe Ole Miss is coming off of a bye; I’ll take it,” said Johnson. “There is nothing that Auburn can do on offense, in my opinion, to keep up. And I think that Ole Miss is better up front on defense than they have been under Lane Kiffin. And I will take those factors combined, and I’m going to take Ole Miss.”

The Ole Miss Rebels offense headlines the program’s success this season, as head coach Lane Kiffin’s offensive genius has been put on full display. This season, the Rebels have one of the country’s top passing and rushing offenses and are the nation’s eighth-ranked program in points per game with 41.7 points per contest. Unfortunately, on the other hand, the Ole Miss defense has had its fair share of struggles, especially when it comes to defending the pass. Fortunately for them, Auburn is anything but an elite passing team, as Staples explains.

“Ole Miss’s defense is not built to stop a good passing team. They had to hang on by the skin of their teeth to beat LSU. But they can handle a good running team who can’t throw wow. In a styles make fights situation, that’s where it is,” said Staples.

One area Auburn could have the upper hand on Saturday is in the momentum department. Not only is his a home game, but it will be Tigers head coach Hugh Freeze’s first time hosting his former program. But Staples believes that has much to do with nothing.

The Huge Freeze miss factor doesn’t really matter. Hugh Freeze coached against old miss when he was at liberty, so we’ve already seen that. We don’t have to revisit all that. He’s going to have to retool the roster completely. And the retooling he did in that first offseason just didn’t work. But yeah, I’ll take Ole Miss to cover.

Although both college football experts have little faith in Auburn defending their home field on Saturday against Ole Miss, this is still a rivalry game. And that means just about anything can happen. For what it’s worth, the Tigers were within reach of upsetting the top team in the nation, Georgia, at home in Week 6. Plus, Auburn has put up an impressive average of 41.7 points per game in Jordan-Hare in 2023.