Since their last meeting, Auburn and Ole Miss have gone in opposite directions

Auburn's 31-20 win over Ole Miss last season was its last victory over a ranked team. Bryan Harsin has gone 3-8 since then. Lane Kiffin's Rebels, though...

RB Tank Bigsby (Todd Van Emst/Auburn Athletics)

Let’s go back to October 30, 2021. Auburn was ranked No. 18 in the country and hosting No. 10 Ole Miss. Bryan Harsin’s Tigers were fresh off a 38-23 road win at Arkansas, while Lane Kiffin’s Rebels had won three straight to reach 6-1 on the season.

Auburn won that game, 31-20. Ole Miss only scored two touchdowns — both in the second quarter — and failed on fourth down three different times. Auburn quarterback Bo Nix completed 71% of his passes for an average of 8.9 per attempt. Tank Bigsby ran for 140 yards, marking his best game in over a month.

“I felt like last year, we played a good game against them,” Harsin said Monday. “I thought that we did some really good things in the game. We were balanced. We had the run and pass and all of that stuff in that one game working for us.”

The win was Auburn’s sixth straight over Ole Miss. It moved the Tigers to 6-2 on the season and 3-1 in the SEC. They still were mathematically in the race for the SEC West title heading into the month of November. The Rebels were not.

But since that game, Auburn and Ole Miss have been heading in completely opposite directions.

Heading into the second SEC meeting between Harsin and Kiffin, Ole Miss is back in the top 10 and sporting an undefeated record.

After beating Ole Miss on the night before Halloween last year, Auburn lost its final five games of the 2021 season. In 2022, it’s 3-3 with two blowout losses to Penn State and Georgia, plus a 17-point blown lead in a home defeat to unranked LSU. Harsin is currently on the hottest seat in all of college football.

For Auburn, a trip to Ole Miss on Saturday — one in which the Rebels are double-digit favorites over the Tigers for only the second time since 2000 — represents what could be considered a last stand for Harsin. Auburn has an open date next weekend. If Harsin is going to be fired at any point this season, that would be the most logical time for it to happen.