Podcast: What Ole Miss’ Week 6 win Showed and Means for the Rebels

Ole Miss still has all of its season goals in reach heading into Week 7.

Oct 10, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Ole Miss Rebels head coach Pete Golding paces the sideline against the Vanderbilt Commodores during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

No. 9 Ole Miss went through two long weeks having to sit in its losing feeling from Gainesville, waiting for the next opportunity to bounce back into the win column.

However, the Rebels didn’t just want to squeak by Vanderbilt. They wanted to show that both sides of the ball could be advantageous against a weaker, but worthy, Vanderbilt team on the road. Ole Miss did just that, handling the Commodores 52-17 while putting together its cleanest performance in all three phases of the game.   

With the comfortable win, Ole Miss improved to 4-1 (2-1 SEC) on the season. Ole Miss’ defense has been under the microscope all season and came up with its best outing, forcing four turnovers, three sacks and scoring a touchdown while just surrendering one to Vanderbilt’s starting unit.  

Ole Miss On SI’s Tyler Komis reacts to the Rebels’ latest win, breaks down takeaways from Week 6 and looks ahead to a top-15 matchup against Missouri in Episode 103 of The Rebel Rundown.

What Golding Said 

Oct 10, 2026; Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Vanderbilt Commodores head coach Clark Lea congratulates Ole Miss Rebels head coach Pete Golding on the win during the second half at FirstBank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

“Obviously it’s been two weeks since we had an opportunity to play. I think our guys over the last two weeks have been working extremely hard and put a lot of energy and effort into a lot of things. We put a lot of things on tape that we had to correct and clean up,” Golding said Saturday. “I thought it wasn’t perfect. I told them coming into it, it’s not going to be perfect. Doesn’t need to be perfect. But I thought there was an emphasis on the effort. 

I thought there was an emphasis on the defensive side of the ball, of leveraging the football, being a little more violent on contact. Still had some missed tackles, still had some lost leverages. But that's week in and week out. To come on the road versus a good football team that takes everybody down to the wire, that’s really well coached. A lot of respect for Clark and how his group plays. I think that’s their first loss here since (2024).”

Really (Lacy') first contact was in pregame and so we don’t BS the injury piece of it, right. And we got him through practice this week. And, and it was going to be a game time decision based on how he felt coming out of pregame. And he came out and said, ‘Coach, I’m good, like I’m ready to go.' When he’s back there from a defensive standpoint, that’s a different concern."

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