Gentle reader, permit me a moment. I am seated on a bench on the Square in Oxford, Mississippi, in a seersucker suit that is frankly too light for late October, with a cup of coffee, a well-thumbed paperback from Square Books, and the warm, contented glow of a man whose football team just held a ranked opponent to three points. The courthouse clock is chiming. The leaves are turning. And somewhere, I like to imagine, the ghost of Mr. Faulkner is reading the box score and nodding.
I am Langston Fairbanks. My takes, I'm told, run long. I prefer to think of them as novels with a kickoff. So settle in, refill your cup, and let us begin, as all great Southern stories do, with a triumph and a journey west.
Part 1: The Missouri Chapter
Ole Miss 31, Missouri 3, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, before 67,510 of the faithful.
The story opened, as tragedies sometimes do, with a small misfortune: Missouri kicked a 27-yard field goal in the first quarter, and for about two and a half minutes we trailed 3-0. Then Trinidad Chambliss turned the page. He hit Caleb Odom for a 10-yard touchdown, then Horatio Fields for 21 yards in the second quarter, then Caleb Cunningham for 17 more before halftime. It was 21-3 at the break, and the AP observed that Missouri never seriously threatened again.
Chambliss finished 20 of 36 for 241 yards and three touchdowns, with no interceptions, and he ran in a fourth from five yards out in the fourth quarter. Lucas Carneiro added a 38-yard field goal. But the true protagonists of this chapter were the running backs. Kewan Lacy ran 16 times for 122 yards, and Makhi Frazier ran 15 times for 101. Ole Miss gained 498 yards, 257 of them on the ground.
And then there was the defense, which deserves its own epilogue. Missouri came in with Jamal Roberts, who had run for more than 200 yards in each of his previous two games. He finished with 39 yards on 20 carries. Missouri as a team ran 26 times for 39 yards. Will Echoles had a sack, two pass breakups and a quarterback hurry. Sharif Denson led us with nine tackles. Landon Barnes intercepted a pass. And when Missouri had a first-and-goal at our 2 in the second quarter, it lost yardage twice, threw an incomplete pass and missed a 23-yard field goal. Gentle reader, that is what literary critics call a reversal of fortune.
The Grove Novel, Abridged
The AP noted that Ole Miss is 25-1 at home since 2023. Our record this year: wins over Louisville, Charlotte, LSU, Vanderbilt and Missouri, and a single blemish, a 52-28 loss at Florida in September that I have chosen to regard as an experimental chapter. Every great author has a chapter he'd rather revise. Ours is set in Gainesville.
Part 2: The Journey West
Saturday night, 7:30 Eastern, on ABC, No. 7 Ole Miss visits No. 19 Texas. The AP says it's the first meeting between these two as SEC members and the Rebels' first trip to Austin since 2013. Texas leads the series 6-2.
Allow me to be gracious, as a Southern gentleman must. Texas's defense is excellent. It allows 272.5 yards a game, 12th in FBS, and 166.2 passing yards, also 12th. Rasheem Biles leads the Longhorns with 48 tackles and two interceptions. And earlier this season, Texas beat Ohio State 24-23. That is a fine paragraph in anyone's book.
But let us read on.
Texas has lost two straight games, each by three points. Oklahoma beat the Longhorns 27-24 at the Cotton Bowl, and then Florida beat them 27-24 in Austin, with a quarterback making his first career start. A first career start, gentle reader. The Gators held the ball for 38 minutes and 11 seconds, and Texas went 2 for 10 on third down. Florida sacked Arch Manning five times. That is not a plot twist. That is a recurring theme.
The Texas offense averages 361.3 yards a game, 93rd in FBS. It runs for 134.5 yards a game, 103rd. Its leading rusher, Daylan Smothers, has 289 yards. Our Lacy has 352, and he and Frazier combined for 223 against Missouri alone. I footnote this without comment. All right, with a little comment.
Who to Watch
Trinidad Chambliss, our quarterback: 1,676 yards, 14 touchdowns, four interceptions and a 67.6 completion rate. He plays with the confidence of a man who has already read the last page.
Deuce Alexander, receiver: 35 catches for 523 yards and five touchdowns, our leader.
Kewan Lacy, running back: 352 yards and five touchdowns on 62 carries, 122 of them last week.
The red zone: The AP preview says Ole Miss has scored on 100% of its red-zone trips this season, first in the nation. Texas's red-zone defense ranks 57th, allowing scores on 81.3% of trips. Gentle reader, once we cross the 20, we write "The End."
The honest footnote: I am a man of letters, and letters must be truthful. Our defense allows 390 yards a game, 108th in FBS, and opponents convert 44% of their third downs, 118th. We also hold the ball just 26:59 a game, 131st. But a novelist would tell you that a short chapter, written well, is the most powerful kind. We score fast. We'd simply like to give our defense a slightly longer intermission.
A Brief History Seminar
Ole Miss's football heritage needs no introduction, but I shall provide one anyway, as is my custom. The campus speed limit is 18 miles per hour in honor of Archie Manning, who wore No. 18 for the Rebels. Every car in Oxford slows down to honor the great man. Saturday, his grandson will be playing for the other side. We wish young Arch well, sincerely, and we will be honoring the family the only way a gracious host can: by reminding everyone that No. 18 is ours.
Grove Report: A Tale of Two Towns
Oxford. The Grove is about 10 acres of shaded oaks in the heart of campus, and on game day it fills with tents, lace, fine china, sterling silver and, yes, chandeliers. The Columbia Missourian once called it "the mecca of tailgating in American sports," and I've never heard a Missouri fan say anything nicer about anything of ours. William Faulkner bought Rowan Oak in 1930 and lived there until his death in 1962. You can still visit. Square Books anchors the Square, the courthouse watches over everything, and Vaught-Hemingway, which seats 64,038, is the largest stadium in Mississippi. And before every home game, our team walks through the Grove under the Walk of Champions arch, built in 1998. Oxford is small, gentle reader. So is a sonnet.
Austin. Now. Austin is a large and energetic city, and I mean that in the most complimentary way available to a man of my upbringing. The 2020 census counted 961,855 people there. Its unofficial motto, printed on bumper stickers and T-shirts all over town, is "Keep Austin Weird." Gentle reader, in Oxford, we do not need to print an instruction to be interesting on a T-shirt. We simply are.
Austin is also the home of about 1.5 million Mexican free-tailed bats, which live under the Congress Avenue Bridge and fly out every evening at dusk. Texas Parks and Wildlife calls it the largest urban bat colony in the world. That is a magnificent natural spectacle. It is also, by my count, the only stadium crowd in Austin that reliably shows up before kickoff and leaves in an orderly fashion.
And Wikipedia describes something called "Old Austin," a time when the city was smaller, more bohemian and, I quote, "better known for its lack of traffic." So even Austin misses the version of Austin that had less traffic. In Oxford, our traffic is governed by an 18-mile-per-hour speed limit and a deep personal respect for a quarterback. Austin's is governed by Interstate 35 and, I gather, a great deal of patience.
Their mascot, Bevo, is a live longhorn steer, and their Tower glows burnt orange after victories. Both are lovely. We would be delighted to see the Tower stay its regular color on Saturday night. It's a handsome building. It looks distinguished in white.
Epilogue
Here, then, is the shape of my novel. Ole Miss arrives with an offense that scores 37.5 points a game, a quarterback who hasn't thrown an interception in two weeks, a red zone that converts every time, and a defense that just held a ranked team to three points. Texas arrives with a fine defense and two consecutive three-point losses, the second at home to a quarterback making his first start. The bats will fly at dusk. The Rebels will follow.
Hotty Toddy, and pass the footnotes.
My call: Texas Longhorns 29, Ole Miss Rebels 25.