Game Preview: Ole Miss

Fall practices are in full swing for Louisville football, which means the season opener is right around the corner. In fact, kickoff against Ole Miss is just 15 days away. The Cards take on Ole Miss in Nashville on Sunday, September 6, at 7:30 PM ET in the most intriguing game of the opening weekend. Both teams are built similarly, will likely be between two top-25 teams, and both have a good case for why they could take home the win. 

Louisville’s Case: 

While Louisville comes into the game as 6.5-point underdogs, I think the game will play much closer than that. Louisville’s case is largely built around coaching staff experience and the lack thereof for Ole Miss. Card fans know very well that Jeff Brohm has a knack for winning at least one big game per year. In 2025, it was at #2 Miami; in 2024, they took down #10 Clemson on the road, and in 2023, Louisville knocked off #16 Notre Dame. Ole Miss would be an opportunity to continue this promising trend. Couple that with the fact that Ole Miss’s staff is fairly inexperienced, as they will be playing under Pete Golding in his first game as full-time head coach. While Golding did take over head-coaching duties during the playoffs after Lane Kiffin’s departure, this is the first time he’s had to completely run the ship. A full offseason as the head coach is much different than three weeks. Additionally, Ole Miss lost a highly experienced offensive coordinator in Charlie Weis Jr. (8 years as an offensive coordinator) to LSU, and replaced him with John David Baker, who has only been an offensive coordinator for one season at East Carolina. On the defensive side, Ole Miss promoted internally and appointed Bryan Brown the co-DC position. That name should be familiar to Cards fans, as he was Scott Satterfield’s defensive coordinator from 2019-2022. I am not saying that Ole Miss has a “bad” staff, but I do think that they are inexperienced, which could cause trouble for them at the beginning of the season.

Additionally, Ole Miss lost numerous key contributors last season following the departure of Lane Kiffin. Princewill Umanmielen, T.J. Dottery, Devin Harper, Cayden Lee, and Chris Graves Jr are just a few of the names that entered the transfer portal. On top of that, Harrison Wallace III, De’zhaun Stribling, Jayden Williams, Diego Pounds, Dae’Quan Wright, and Zxavian Harris all left for the NFL. Ole Miss returns about 56% of their overall production from last season, which is pretty good compared to many teams in college football. While they did replace their departures with a good portal class, it will be interesting to see if the new coaching staff is able to mesh the additions as well as “Portal King” Lane Kiffin could. 

Ole Miss’s Case:

The case for Ole Miss is simple. They are far more talented, and probably better, than Louisville. They return arguably the best quarterback in college football, Trinidad Chambliss, along with star running back Kewan Lacy, 3 key offensive line returners, a solid core of returners on defense, and the #13-ranked portal class. The Rebels should be one of the best teams in college football next season. If the game is played on paper, Ole Miss would win comfortably.

Looking at Louisville, the Cards retained a large part of their core from last season. Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown head one of the best running back rooms in the country, while Clev Lubin, Stanquan Clark, AJ Green, TJ Capers, Tayon Holloway, and Antonio Watts hold down the defense. However, the Cards face uncertainty at QB, as Lincoln Kienholz (a transfer from Ohio State) will be a first-time starter. The offensive line is also facing heavy turnover, as 4 of 5 projected starters are transfers. The WR room will feature 2 transfers at the WR1 & WR2. Overall, the cards have a lot of new faces on offense. On top of that, almost the entire secondary is made up of transfers, though this is one of the more talented positions. While Brohm has notoriously used the transfer portal more than other coaches, it is unknown if this group will blend as well as previous teams. 

My Prediction: Louisville 28-24 Ole Miss

This game is hard to get a read on because it's the first game of the season, and both teams had a lot of turnover in their rosters and coaching staffs. However, I am optimistic about this matchup and think at the very least it will be a very close game. Louisville’s experienced coaching staff will be more prepared to get their guys ready for a big matchup early in the season. I think that the Cards' experienced and very talented defense will be able to limit the 1-2 punch of Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy, while Isaac Brown and Keyjuan Brown do just enough to help Lincoln Kienholz guide The Ville to a win in their season opener.