No. 13 Ole Miss (4-1, 1-1) at Tennessee (4-2, 2-1)
6:30 p.m. CDT Saturday (SEC Network)
Neyland Stadium in Knoxville, Tennessee
0 Ole Miss passes have been intercepted this season. Ole Miss and Baylor are the only teams in the nation that have not thrown an interception in the 2021 campaign. Tennessee has intercepted seven passes this season.
1 Season was spent by Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin as Tennessee’s coach. Kiffin guided the Volunteers to a 7-6 record in 2009 before leaving to take over the Southern Cal program.
1 Team in the nation has a higher average of yards per game than the Ole Miss offense this season. Ohio State has averaged 562.7 yards per game, and Ole Miss has averaged 561.6. Tennessee’s defense is yielding an average of 344.2 yards per game in 2021.
2 Consecutive Tennessee games have featured 28 points in the first quarter for the Volunteers. Tennessee scored 28 points in the first quarter last week in its 45-20 victory over South Carolina after scoring 28 in the opening period of its 62-24 victory over Missouri on Oct. 2. Before its past two games, the Volunteers had not scored 28 points in the first quarter of a game since they rang up 35 in the opening period of a 63-20 victory over Arkansas on Nov. 11, 2000.
2.89 Plays per minute for the Ole Miss offense and 2.87 plays per minute for the Tennessee offense. The only offense in the nation with a faster average tempo is Utah State at 2.93 plays per minute.
4 Victories and two losses for Ole Miss against Tennessee when the Rebels are ranked in the AP Poll and the Volunteers are not, as is the case for Saturday’s game. Of the previous matchups in that circumstance, Ole Miss won the games in 1961, 1962, 1963 and 2014 and Tennessee won in 1958 and 1986.
5 Of Josh Heupel’s six games as Tennessee’s coach have featured at least 30 points for the Volunteers. Only in its 38-14 loss to Florida on Sept. 25 did Tennessee fail to pass 30 points this season. While the Vols also had five 30-plus-point games in Phillip Fulmer’s first six games as Tennessee’s coach, Heupel is the only coach in school history to have three 40-point games in his first six.
12 TD passes and eight TD runs for Ole Miss QB Matt Corral this season. He’s the only player in the nation with at least that many in both categories in 2021.
13 TDs for Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker in his past 108 passes. Last season, Hooker had nine TDs in 150 passes at Virginia Tech. Hooker has been the Volunteers’ starting QB for the past four games after throwing two TD passes off the bench in a 41-34 loss to Pitt on Sept. 11.
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17 Consecutive games with a TD pass for Ole Miss QB Matt Corral. The most recent game for Corral without a TD pass came on Nov. 9, 2019, when he threw two passes in relief of John Rhys Plumlee during a 41-3 victory over New Mexico State. He’s thrown 43 TD passes in the 17 games since.
18 Fourth-down conversions on 24 attempts for Ole Miss in 2021. The Rebels lead the nation in both categories. Opponents have gone for it on fourth down 13 times and succeeded six times against Tennessee this season.
18 Consecutive Ole Miss games have featured at least 20 points for the Rebels, tied for the longest such streak in school history. Ole Miss also scored at least 20 points in the 18 games between a 38-10 loss to Florida on Oct. 3, 2015, and a 38-17 loss to Vanderbilt on Nov. 19, 2016. The Rebels most recently failed to score at least 20 points in a game on Nov. 2, 2019, in a 20-14 loss to Auburn.
38 Years since Ole Miss won in Knoxville. Since the Rebels’ 13-10 victory at Neyland Stadium on Nov. 12, 1983, Ole Miss has lost all seven of its games on Tennessee’s home field. The Volunteers have won 25 of their 30 games against Ole Miss in Knoxville.
39 Consecutive games have been started by Ole Miss G Ben Brown, every game of his career.
40 Victories and 40 losses for Ole Miss against SEC East teams since the conference split into divisions in 1992. Tennessee has a 38-41-1 record against the SEC West.
44 Victories for Tennessee, 20 victories for Ole Miss and one tie in the Volunteers-Rebels series.
390 Passing yards for Tennessee coach Josh Heupel against Ole Miss in the Independence Bowl on Dec. 31, 1999. Heupel was Oklahoma’s quarterback at the time. Although he set a bowl record with his passing yardage, Heupel and the Sooners lost to the Rebels 27-25.
2,645 Career kickoff return yards for Tennessee WR Velus Jones Jr., the most of any active player in the nation.
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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.
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