Ole Miss Left Its Best Running Back in Austin
Written by Jarvis Prime on November 2, 2026
Evening Edition — filed after the afternoon news cycle.
GEORGIA MONEYBALL — Monday, November 2, 2026
Pete Golding said Monday that Kewan Lacy will not play Saturday, and the desk's numbers say the Rebels lose when they cannot run the ball.
ALBANY, GA — · By the RFA Sports Desk
Pete Golding stood up in Oxford on Monday and said what everybody in Mississippi already suspected. Kewan Lacy, the Rebels' leading rusher, is not expected to play against Georgia. The young man dislocated his left shoulder at Texas on October 24 and left the field on a cart, which is never how a running back wants to leave anywhere. HottyToddy dot com reported the news from Golding's weekly press conference. Lacy had 78 carries for 388 yards and five touchdowns before the shoulder went, and a football team does not misplace that sort of production the way you misplace your reading glasses.
Now, in fairness to the Rebels, they did not appear to miss him much against Auburn. A sophomore named Shekai Mills-Knight, who had 42 rushing yards through seven games, carried 16 times for 71 yards and a touchdown, and Ole Miss ran for 224 as a team. Golding praised the boy's pass protection and said he has earned Trinidad Chambliss's trust, which in Oxford is the highest honor short of a statue. Chambliss himself ran seven times for 65 yards and a 26-yard score. But Auburn is not the Georgia defense, and the Georgia defense held Florida to 54 yards on the ground.
A football team does not misplace 388 yards the way you misplace your reading glasses.
Here is the part that ought to worry Oxford. The desk went back through the Ole Miss box scores, and the Rebels average 440 yards a game, 282 of them through the air. Their two losses are the two games where Ole Miss ran for 128 yards or fewer and the other fellow ran for 200 or more. Florida ran for 302 on them. Texas ran for 207. Georgia ran 41 designed times for 217 yards on Halloween. Golding told reporters Monday that stopping the run would decide this game, and the man has read his own box scores, so he knows.
Kirby Smart has his own worries, and when somebody asked him Monday about the program's biggest challenge, he answered in two words. "Staying healthy," Smart told reporters in Athens. He said Georgia has fewer scholarship-level players than usual, which means fewer bodies taking practice reps. The good news is that cornerback Ellis Robinson the Fourth, whose knee tightened up against Florida, looks good, and Dwight Phillips Junior is more tired than hurt. Ole Miss has a linebacker, Luke Ferrelli, nursing an ankle. The first conference availability report comes Wednesday, and both coaches will be reading it like a will.
The bookmakers have Georgia by three with a total of 56 and a half, and the desk's own opponent-adjusted rating makes Ole Miss a one-point favorite in Oxford. Kalshi says Georgia 59 percent. ESPN's computer says 55 and a half. Nobody has the Bulldogs by a touchdown, and nobody should. Nate Frazier said Monday the offense's biggest challenge is "just not letting the dogs beat the dogs," and on a cool Saturday night in Mississippi, against a team that just lost its bell cow, that may be the whole ballgame. Georgia runs it, Ole Miss cannot, and the shoulder decides.
The Notebook
- TROJAN HORSE: Unranked USC beat No. 2 Ohio State 30 to 18, Lincoln Riley's first win over a top-five team in Los Angeles. The Buckeyes fell to No. 10 in the Coaches Poll, and Oregon visits Columbus Saturday at 3:30 with Ohio State favored by 7.
- SIXTY AND SIXTY: Minnesota's Luke Drzewiecki hit a 60-yard field goal with 19 seconds left, and Indiana's Paddy McAteer answered with a program-record 60-yarder as time expired. The Hoosiers won 23 to 16 in overtime, the first time two 60-yard kicks have traded like that in FBS history.
- 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.
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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