Greg McElroy’s Week 3 working assignment will have him in Tuscaloosa on Saturday, but like the rest of the college football world, he’ll be closely watching what’s going on in Oxford.
One of the most anticipated games of the 2026 college football season is almost here as No. 7 LSU and No. 8 Ole Miss meet on Saturday night in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Earlier this week, McElroy featured the game on his weekly Always College Football preview show.
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McElroy is taking LSU to win 31-24. He made the prediction before LSU labeled quarterback Sam Leavitt as doubtful on Wednesday’s official injury report, but McElroy raised some concerns about Ole Miss in his preview.
“I thought for sure it was going to be (Ole Miss’s) year,” McElroy said. “The takeaways or the lack thereof, that’s something that’s concerning. They have to be able to take the ball away.
“And if LSU’s handing out possessions, then boom, Ole Miss should be in a really good spot. I think Ole Miss has the firepower to be able to score. I do think they could score.”
It’s far from a given, however, that Ole Miss will find any offensive success. McElroy is high on an LSU defense that has impressed 2 games into the 2026 campaign.
“But the best group I’ve seen so far between the Ole Miss offense, the Ole Miss defense, the LSU offense, the LSU defense, the best group I’ve seen in the game is LSU’s defense,” McElroy said. “And they’ve allowed nine first downs a game. In this Ole Miss run game, they’re going to have to take some of the pressure off.”
We’ll see how McElroy’s prediction fares on Saturday, but no one should hold him to it if Leavitt proves to be impacted by his reported sore throwing shoulder.
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Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaign of Fred Taylor.
