Before Ole Miss and Auburn take the stage in a Top 20 showdown on Saturday, The Plainsman reached out to Ruby Draayer, the assistant sports editor of The Daily Mississipian, to talk about the upcoming matchup. Here's the Q&A session between the two student papers.
Caleb Jones: Can you talk a little bit about Matt Corral?
Draayer: I could talk about this all day. It's so easy to talk about a quarterback who can physically dominate you on the ground. I'm interested to see what he does against Auburn. Against Tennessee, he ran the ball a lot. He got a little bit banged up after that. I think that he's going to run the ball a little bit, but I don't think it's gonna be too crazy. He was amazing last year but this year it's taken to a completely different level.
Draayer: What is your thought process going into a big game at home? How is [Bo Nix] going to look?
Jones: Since being benched against Georgia State, Auburn fans have seen a different side of Bo Nix. He has looked really good, in my opinion. He did really well against Arkansas. In the air, he threw some deep passes and they were on the money. He used his legs really well. I think it's going to be really interesting to see how he matches up against another quarterback, like Matt Corral. Matt Corral is like the guy who makes A's on the test. Bo Nix is the guy who maybe makes an A occasionally, but is consistently making low B's or C-plus's.
Jones: What's different about this year's Ole Miss team when compared to last year's?
Draayer: I really think the biggest switch this year has been the defense. The offense has still been phenomenal, but there's been games, Arkansas, Tennessee, where the defense had to win the game. I don't know if it's the second year in D.J. Durkin's defense; I don't know if they're tired of everyone saying that they're the worst, which was warranted, they were terrible; I don't know if it's transfers, but whatever the combination is, it's working and it's been a lot of fun. I'm a little bit worried for Auburn. Auburn is the only team left in the schedule that Ole Miss isn't favored. Beating Auburn in Auburn will be monumental for this program.
Draayer: What do you think the impact will be of Auburn coming off the bye week?
Jones: I think the bye week has been fantastic for the team. Colby Wooden was saying that it was great to have that week off. Auburn had play seven straight weeks, Auburn's been on the road every other week since traveling to Penn State in Week 3. To get a bye week and get everybody healthy, especially ahead of such a big game. This is arguably Auburn's biggest game of the season, just based off of the current SEC standings. To have that bye week right before this game has been huge.
Jones: What's the biggest weakness of the Ole Miss defense?
Draayer: The run game. Without question. If Auburn beats Ole Miss, it's honestly going to be because they ran for over 300 yards. In the air, I think Ole Miss's DB's are probably one of the strongest position groups. I think that they can cover pretty well. Ole Miss is really good at playing man-to-man and I know Auburn likes to do that. I think the biggest problem will be if they run the ball on [Ole Miss].
Draayer: Is it better to make Bo Nix scramble, or is it worse to make Bo Nix scramble for Ole Miss?
Jones: If you say Ole Miss can be easily beat in the run game, then I'm gonna say that if Bo Nix starts to scramble, Ole Miss is in trouble. If Bo Nix can use his legs effectively, that's when the Auburn offense becomes most dangerous. When Bo Nix uses his legs, [the offense] isn't as one-dimensional, it really opens up a ton of things.
Draayer: What do you think Auburn is going to do as far as tempo?
Jones: I think you could see a mix of [hurry up], depending on how the game flow is going. If Auburn jumps out to a lead, it may slow the game down a little bit. You have Auburn at home and so the momentum can change very quickly. If Ole Miss quiets the crowd and it does become kinda late, you may have to speed things up offensively.
Jones: What's the vibe been like on campus around Ole Miss football?
Draayer: I think there's so much to take away from this game. It's still early on in the season, but this really will be such a decision-making matchup for both of these teams. With so much left to play, the trojectiction of each of these programs will change. When Ole Miss is doing this well, this matchup, we're about to see what this Ole Miss team is really made of. It's really awesome if you beat Arkansas by one point, and you go into Knoxville and you win for the first time since 1983, but now you're in Auburn. I think people are really excited for this game and really hopeful and a little cautious because it is Auburn and they're still a good team.
Jones: Score prediction?
Draayer: I'm gonna go 35-28 Ole Miss. That's a low scoring game in SEC terms. I think Auburn shuts down Ole Miss, so I don't think Ole Miss scores as much as they'd like to, but I do think that they still handle business. Defensively, Ole Miss gets a few big stops. Auburn has a chance to close it out in the end, but the Ole Miss defense comes up big again.
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Originally from Helena, Ala., Caleb Jones is a senior studying journalism at Auburn University. He has been on staff with The Plainsman since 2019.
You can follow him here on Twitter: @calebjsports
