Kirby Smart Has Never Won a Football Game in Oxford
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 2, 2026
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, November 2, 2026
Ole Miss has won sixteen straight at home, and the desk's own numbers make Saturday night a coin flip.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
Kirby Smart has won two national championships, two straight SEC titles and most everything else a man can win in this league, and he has never won a football game in Oxford, Mississippi. He is 0-2 there as Georgia's head coach. The last visit, on November 9 of 2024, ended 28 to 10 the wrong way, and the Dawgs left town looking like a fellow who got talked into a card game by a stranger at the bus station. DawgNation reported Sunday that Ole Miss has now won sixteen straight at home, the longest active streak of any power-conference team, and has outscored visitors 149 to 51 at Vaught-Hemingway this fall. That is not a stadium. That is a toll booth.
Here is the peculiar thing. Ole Miss is 5-0 at home and 1-2 on the road, and both losses came away from Oxford, at Florida and at Texas. Georgia is 2-0 on the road, with wins at Arkansas and at Alabama, and its one loss came at home to Auburn. The Rebels are a different outfit in their own kitchen, and Georgia has been a better guest than host this year, which may say something about human nature. The desk's opponent-adjusted rating makes Georgia a point and a half better on a neutral field and Ole Miss about a point better once you spot them the crowd. That is a coin flip, and we will not dress it up.
That is not a stadium. That is a toll booth.
The people with money disagree, mildly. DraftKings opened Georgia a 3-point favorite with the total at 56 and a half, FanDuel went three and a half, and 247Sports reported that 59 percent of the early bets took Georgia to cover. ESPN's computer gives the Dawgs a 55 and a half percent chance, and the Kalshi market has them at 59. Notice what none of them say. Nobody has Georgia by a touchdown. Nobody in Las Vegas or Athens or Oxford is pretending this is the Florida game, where the defense took the ball away four times and Gunner Stockton threw for 101 yards and nobody much minded.
The injury that matters most wears an Ole Miss jersey. Kewan Lacy, the Rebels' leading rusher, dislocated his left shoulder at Texas, the same shoulder he had surgery on in the offseason, and HottyToddy reported Pete Golding saying the medical staff is still running MRIs with the surgeon in Dallas, with no timetable. Ole Miss ran for 224 on Auburn without him, 71 of those from a 235-pound sophomore named Shekai Mills-Knight who arrived with four career carries. For Georgia, Ellis Robinson's knee tightened up against Florida. Smart told reporters after the game Saturday, "There wasn't anything structurally wrong." Both coaches meet the press today. We'll believe the SEC availability report Wednesday.
The rest of the country spent the weekend rearranging the furniture. Unranked Southern Cal beat No. 2 Ohio State 30 to 18 at the Coliseum, with the Buckeyes starting a freshman quarterback and going 57 minutes without a touchdown. Top-ranked Miami gave up 35 points and more than 400 yards at North Carolina and survived, 38 to 35, and defending champion Indiana needed a 60-yard field goal and overtime to beat Minnesota. All of that lifted Georgia to No. 2 in the AP poll behind Miami, with Ole Miss at No. 12. A No. 2 ranking is a fine thing to own on a Monday. It is a heavy thing to carry into a stadium that has not lost in sixteen games.
There is also the small matter of the Sugar Bowl, where Ole Miss ended Georgia's season 39 to 34 on New Year's Day with Golding filling in as interim coach. We will mention it once and move along, because revenge is a cheap motivator and Smart does not deal in it. Asked Saturday whether beating Florida meant more after the Auburn loss, he said, "They're all important." The forecast for Oxford is clear, 54 to 56 degrees and hardly any wind, so there will be no excuses available from the sky. Kickoff is 7:30 Eastern Saturday on ABC. Five days.
The Notebook
- COUNTDOWN: Five days. Georgia at Ole Miss, Saturday 7:30 p.m. Eastern on ABC, from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Georgia minus 3, total 56 and a half, and the desk calls it a coin flip.
- THE OTHER BIG ONE: Miami visits Notre Dame at 7:30 Eastern Saturday, Irish minus 5 and a half. Oregon goes to Ohio State at 3:30, Buckeyes minus 7, one week after losing to USC.
- ORANGE PEEL: Syracuse beat No. 19 SMU 30 to 27 on Halloween when Steve Angeli hit Noah Meyers with 17 seconds left. It was the Orange's first win over a ranked team since November 2024.
Written in the tradition of Lewis Grizzard, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1946–1994.
Hear the desk read tonights report on Radio Free Albany, WPFQ 96.7.
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