8:00 PM EST. If you watched the pregame show prognostications on Saturday, you would have seen a discussion on the absence of Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin, who has tested positive for COVID and will miss this game. Do you think anybody on the panel gave a shit? Hell, they even stuck a camera in Kiffin's face while he was recovering at home. Dude looked like he had his head in the toilet all night, while coughing up a lung or two.
Back to Ole Miss, who sported the worst defense in the SEC last season while registering a puny 16 total sacks. This unit gave up 519 yards per game and 38.3 points. Kiffen was quoted, “I think we're going to be better on defense. It feels like that." You know what we think about dudes with "thoughts'' and "feelings," you can flush 'em with whatever Kiffin is coughing up. Defenses do not improve with "thinks" and "feels.” The reality is, Kiffin is going to be relying way too much on a group of returning defenders that couldn’t sniff out the quarterback if he took a steaming shit right in front of them.
The hopes of the Rebels' season will fall squarely on quarterback Matt Corral, a Heisman candidate and for what it's worth (not much) Lee Corso's pick to win the award this season. Thanks for the kiss of death, coach. Corral had his 2020 campaign for that honor torched after he threw six picks against the Razorbacks and five more against the Tigers of LSU. While this is Corral's second year under the Kiffin regime, it will be telling how he plays with his head coach at home on the couch.
Next up is Louisville, who returns starting pivot Malik Cunningham after back to back seasons with at least 20 touchdowns. Unlike the Rebels, expectations have been tempered for the Cardinals, as they've been pegged as the sixth-best team in the seven school ACC Atlantic Division. That roll suited Louisville well back in 2019, when it was also expected to flounder. The Cardinals would finish the year 8-5 and in second place. In addition to its QB, Louisville will also return seven starters on a defense that ranked fourth in the ACC in total yards allowed. To shore up the holes from last season, head coach Scott Satterfield made a point to focus on the fundamentals, with an emphasis on field position battles, pre-snap penalties and the kicking game. If the Cardinals can stick to the game plan and limit their errors, we trust that they have little trouble landing inside this bloated number.
Note: When we wrote this game up, the price had dropped down to +8½ but it is slowly coming back. We'll update this just before game time as to the official price we get it out but we must get at least +9 or more to make it an official play, as we do not recoomend playing a bad number, meaning it was +9½ yesterday so +8½ is a "bad" number.
As of right now, no bets but that could change.