This time last year, Ole Miss was at the beginning of a horrendous 3-game losing skid to close out the season. The Rebels were 8-1 heading into the month of November, but finished this season 8-5 after losing their bowl game to Texas Tech.

Ole Miss is already enjoying this year’s November much more than last year’s.

It was a narrow win over Texas A&M, but a win nonetheless for the Rebels on Saturday. The win made it 3-straight for Lane Kiffin over Jimbo Fisher, something that Rebels’ head coach is sure to take pride in.

Now Ole Miss heads into a season-defining game against Georgia on the road next week.

Player of the Week: Jaxson Dart

Jaxson Dart stood next to Kiffin on the sideline during Texas A&M’s final drive with a great deal of anxiety. The quarterback was worried that his previous drive to put Ole Miss on top with less than 2 minutes to go wouldn’t be enough.

After Ole Miss’ defense got a hand on Texas A&M’s potential game-tying field goal and forced a miss, Dart could take a sigh of relief knowing his outstanding game wasn’t in vain.

Dart had a signature performance against the Aggies with 387 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He was efficient, completing 24 of his 33 passes. Dart led Ole Miss on what would be the game winning drive late in the 4th quarter, getting the Rebels into the redzone before Quinshon Judkins punched it in.

Newcomer of the Week: Tre Harris

Ole Miss got a gem in the transfer portal over the offseason in Tre Harris. The senior wide receiver has been outstanding for the Rebels this season, and he had one of his best games of the season against Texas A&M on Saturday.

The Louisiana Tech transfer recorded 213 yards and a touchdown, averaging 19.3 yards per reception on his monster day. He was the sole receiver on Ole Miss’ final offensive drive of the game, helping the Rebels get in position to take the lead on Judkins’ touchdown.

Saturday’s performance marks his 4th game with more than 100 receiving yards, and he’s proved to be one of the best offensive pieces for Ole Miss.

Biggest surprise: Blocking the kick

Texas A&M seemed to have an easy field goal attempt to send the game to overtime. Aggies’ kicker Randy Bond has hit several from 50+ yards this season, and a 49-yarder should have been routine.

Deantre Prince had other plans, getting a hand on the kick and forcing a miss and sealing the win for Ole Miss.

Had Bond made the kick, Ole Miss easily could have dropped the game in overtime with A&M’s offense heating up on the final drive, but Prince was the hero on the final play on Saturday.

Biggest Concern: Secondary struggles

Before Saturday’s game, Max Johnson had not recorded more than 300 passing yards this season. He had 305 passing yards against Ole Miss on Saturday, carving up the Rebels’ secondary all game.

Ole Miss has not had much success defending through the air this season, but many expected the Rebels to at least contain a quarterback who hasn’t thrown the ball all that well this year.

Ole Miss’ secondary has show little improvement as the season has gone on, and it very likely could be the reason the Rebels lose to Georgia next week.

Developing trend: Quinshon Judkins hitting stride

Make it 3-straight games for Quinshon Judkins picking up over 100 yards on the ground.

Judkins had a slow start to the season with just 100+ yard game heading into October. Now, it seems like Judkins is hitting his stride. He had 102 yards and 3 touchdowns on Saturday, including a go-ahead score with less than 2 minutes to go in the game.

If Ole Miss wants a shot at knocking off Georgia next week, the Rebels will need their star running back to shine against the Bulldogs’ dominant run defense.

Key stat: 4-0f-11 on 3rd down

Ole Miss was abysmal on 3rd down on Saturday but still managed to get the win over the Aggies. The Rebels will need to be better on 3rd down next week in a game that has a chance to change the course of their season.

First impression about Georgia: Season-defining game

Ole Miss is not in the playoff conversation heading into Week 11, but a win over Georgia could change that.

If the Rebels can take down the Bulldogs and have a few other games go their way next week, they could very likely be a team to watch for in the CFP rankings. They will need a lot to happen, probably including Alabama dropping a game, which is unlikely, but regardless, knocking off the top dog would be huge for their Playoff chances.

Georgia proved that it is human last week as Missouri took the Bulldogs down to the wire, and Ole Miss will need to bring its best in the road contest to knock off the team that hasn’t lost in almost 2 years.