OXFORD, Miss. — It’s only Week 7, but Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will have a playoff-like feel to it when Missouri comes into town to play Ole Miss in what will be a top-15 matchup.
Alongside the high stakes of Saturday’s game are also the obvious storylines surrounding both squads.
This week is already homecoming on the Ole Miss campus, but it’s fitting that three former starting Rebels will return to Oxford this weekend as Missouri Tigers. The group of familiar foes is headlined by senior quarterback Austin Simmons, followed by wide receiver Cayden Lee and cornerback Chris Graves Jr.
Simmons was long thought to be Ole Miss’ next multi-year starter under center after sitting behind Jaxson Dart through his first two seasons of college football. He then entered the 2025 season as the Rebels’ unquestioned starter, before enduring an ankle injury that would help change the trajectory of Trinidad Chambliss’ life.
Familiar Foes
“Scary to know how good he is and how talented he is. Love Austin. Did an unbelievable job while he was here. He’s got elite arm talent, always has, he’s more athletic than you think,” Pete Golding said of Simmons. “It’s fun watching him develop as the season goes. Obviously he had two games under his belt here and then got hurt. You see him get better week in and week out. Relating it back to when he’s here, there’s certain things you gotta go back on from a scrimmage standpoint and all those things. What affected him, what didn’t?
You know a little bit about the personality and the mentality and all that. Different offense now, different scheme, different design and all those type of things. But I think it helps more than it hurts when you know guys’ demeanors and how they think. I know he’s super competitive, got elite leadership ability and you could see that in his play.”
However, the reunion aspect of the game is far from what actually matters come Saturday.
The 13th-ranked Tigers will roll in with a 5-1 (2-1 SEC) record, while the ninth-ranked Rebels have a 4-1 (2-1 SEC) mark. What matters is that the margin of error for the loser gets exponentially smaller, with running the table as likely the only viable route to securing a College Football Playoff berth.
Through six games Simmons has proved to be one of the better quarterbacks in the conference, throwing for 1,434 yards (fifth in SEC) and 14 touchdowns (second in SEC) while accounting for just one turnover.
Golding has seen growth from the quarterback that his defense’s would line up frequently against during practices at the Manning Center.
“His comfortability in the scheme has improved week in and week out,” Golding mentioned Monday. “I think the decision making process — he’s only turned the football over one time. I think that comes with maturity and understanding the system, but he’s playing within the scheme. Think he’s doing a really good job of taking what the defenses is giving him. He’s playing as an experienced quarterback in a really good system.”
How can Ole Miss slow down Missouri’s southpaw?
“I think the big deal in every week is how do you make the same things look different and different things look the same? Like you want to make quarterbacks play after they get the ball in their hand,” Golding added. “You want them to think ‘Hey, this is what I think it is. This is what coaches told me all week and this is where I’m supposed to go with the ball’. Then there’s the indecision component of it. Week in and week out you show them certain things on tape — this is what they’re expecting. That’s the battle you play every week, that’s the chess match that I love…I think that’s every week, that’s not specific to Austin Simmons.”
Simmons’ favorite target is, unsurprisingly, Lee who is Missouri’s leading receiver. The former standout Ole Miss receiver is on track for another career-year, as Lee is up to 616 receiving yards and five touchdowns on 42 receptions (14.7 YPC)
"Obviously the offense, especially in the pass game, goes through Cayden. We know what type of player he is,” Golding said. “He's very elusive and an elite route runner. He really understands what they're trying to do conceptually, and he has really good football intelligence about what we're doing defensively. He's aware of vacated zones, option routes and all those things. He's definitely a guy we're going to have to know where he is on every snap he's in the game."
Their departure from Ole Miss didn’t leave a bad taste in anyone’s mouth, and both are expected to be welcomed back into the stadium with open arms.
But, of course, a win remains on top of the priority list for both sides.
“Both them boys know that I love them. They were unbelievable throughout the process. Even from the Austin situation, completely understand he plays quarterback and we play one of them. Here’s an appeal process going on and couldn’t take that risk,” Golding explained. “Cayden was a very similar situation. Loved his time at Ole Miss, had a lot of different meetings with him.
Wasn’t comfortable yet knowing whether the appeal was going to go through or not and didn't really want to risk this season based on that and was scared to go through the spring to find out. I understood it, I got it. We would have loved to still have him, I think he’s a really good player, but was very professional about it. Really good meetings and I think he’d probably say the same thing. Excited to compete against them.”
The trio of former Rebels all arrived in Oxford ahead of the 2023 season.
“Obviously you’re talking about three guys that have started here for us on a playoff football team and so we all know they’re good players. A lot of our guys obviously have really good relationships with those guys and had been around them a long time — they were multi-year guys that were here,” Golding told reporters. “I think there’s a natural respect for them and a friendship from a locker room standpoint.
Obviously I recruited Chris (Graves), coached Chris. Chris has a lot of ability (and) could be a really good football player. I wish them a lot of luck other than this week. We’re playing against them, so we’re trying to whoop Chris’ ass this week. I think they’ll come ready to play. All three of them are really good competitors, they’re good players. They’re coming back and probably got a little chip on their shoulder too. It’ll be fun to see them.”
For Missouri, its program will also see a familiar face in Kewan Lacy. The Rebels’ record-breaking back played sparingly for the Tigers as a true freshman, before bursting onto the scene for Ole Miss as a sophomore in 2025.
Golding hasn’t seen any extra motivation for the star running back thus far.
“I forgot about that to be honest with you. Now, it’s every week. We go to Florida, we got Florida players. Got LSU guys when we play LSU, so I think that’s just the day and age now,” Golding said. “I probably don’t give it as much credit as it deserves. I always try to meet with them when we go back to that place. Like ‘Hey, man, we got any ghosts, skeletons or anything we need to worry about emotionally?’. But I haven’t felt that.
A lot of them aren’t there very long. A lot of the guys that recruited them aren’t there anymore. I haven’t met with Kewan specifically about that, but I’m sure there’s a piece to that. He knows those guys and knows a lot of those coaches, so you’re going to want to play well against them and go compete.”
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