When the final whistle sounded in Saturday’s game between Ole Miss and Florida, the Rebels thought that their College Football Playoff hopes were gone.

It still may be a longshot to reach the CFP, but after a chaotic Saturday where so many upsets took place, the Rebels are going into this week with the hope that they can backdoor their way into the tournament. First, however, they have to face the Mississippi State Bulldogs in the annual Egg Bowl.

Defensive back Trey Washington was made available to the media on Monday where he discussed the team’s mindset immediately following the loss to Florida and how that mindset has changed in the days since.

“It changed a good bit after the games that happened after ours,” Washington said. “I wasn’t really plugged into the rest of the SEC, but John [Saunders] kind of texted the DB group chat saying we’re still alive, keep your heads up and keep going. That helped. But, obviously, after the game, we were demoralized a little bit.”

Ole Miss can’t know for sure whether or not it could be a three-loss team in the playoff entering this week of play, but if it loses to Mississippi State on Friday, the hope of reaching the CFP is zero. That gives the Rebels a desire to go out and make Friday night a win and hope for the best, in terms of postseason placement.

“It’s motivation to get better. That’s all it should be,” Washington said. “We have to do a better job of playing a complete game on defense. I feel like we came out a little flat. We have to do a good job of playing a good four quarters of football, and that’s what we’re focused on this week.”

Mississippi State is entering this game with an overall record of 2-9 and a winless mark in SEC play under first-year head coach Jeff Lebby. While it hasn’t been a banner year for the Bulldogs, Egg Bowl history seems to indicate that anything can happen in this rivalry series, so Ole Miss has to be prepared for State’s best shot.

“The record doesn’t really matter for this game, and the coaches have done a great job of emphasizing that it doesn’t matter,” Washington said. “This game has been chaotic throughout the years, so we have to keep our heads on and go in there and face a faceless opponent at the end of the day and execute.”

Friday will also mark senior night for the Rebels, a group that Washington will be a part of during the festivities at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. A native of Trussville, Ala., Washington didn’t grow up around the Egg Bowl, but his four years in Oxford have taught him how important this game is to Mississippians.

He is focused on winning the game one final time in his Rebel career.

“It’s something that’s crazy to think about,” Washington said. “I haven’t had a chance to reminisce on it yet, but there will times during practice where I’ll picture myself as a freshman in the same spot that I am now. It’s crazy to think about. It’s a blessing, and that’s why I want to continue playing for the university this Friday.”

Kickoff on Friday between Ole Miss and Mississippi State is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. CT, and the game will be televised on ABC.

The No. 1 Oregon football team will look to cap a perfect regular season at home this week against rival Washington at Autzen Stadium Saturday night.

The game is set to kick off at 4:30 p.m.

Here are some highlights from Oregon coach Dan Lanning’s weekly press conference Monday night.

Oregon football’s Dan Lanning talks Washington QBs Will Rogers and Demond Williams Jr.

Washington has played two quarterbacks — fifth-year senior Will Rogers and true freshman Demond Williams Jr. — all season, but will keep who it plans to start against the Ducks secret until game time Saturday.

No matter who starts for the Huskies, the Ducks are going to prepare for both.

“This is a team that’s played multiple quarterbacks throughout the season so we’ve seen a little bit of both guys and they’ve had times where they’ve had both guys out on the field at the same time,” Lanning said. “I don’t know that it presents a huge challenge, either way we were going to prepare for both because they’ve utilized both throughout the year.”

Mississippi State transfer Rogers has started every game this season for the Huskies but has struggled in recent weeks. The senior has completed over 70% of his passes but with just 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. The freshman Williams took over for Rogers in the second half of Washington’s recent 31-19 win over UCLA and impressed. He has 369 passing yards, 217 rushing yards and four total touchdowns.

“He’s a guy that can operate, he has great athleticism but he can make great throws as well,” Lanning said of Williams. “I don’t see a huge change in their system. They’re both guys that can operate the system. I think he just becomes a threat from a run game standpoint with what he can do with his legs. They do a good job of matching their scheme to those guys’ traits and skillset.”

Dan Lanning speaks on rivalry with Washington and what it means to him

Lanning, who has yet to beat the Huskies in his two seasons at the helm in Eugene and most recently lost to Washington in the Pac-12 Championship last season, downplayed what kind of motivation recent history would give the Ducks.

Lanning said that rivalries is what makes college football special, but also said that Saturday’s game was another opportunity to get better.

“Ultimately, it is another game, it’s the next game,” Lanning said. “You don’t get out there playing with emotion, it’s about execution over emotion. These games are going to have emotion, that’s the way these games are played, but that’s not what’s going to lead to success on the field.”

When asked whether he thinks his players would be more motivated due to Washington’s recent three-game win streak against the Ducks, Lanning once again said that “motivation is overrated.”

“It’s always about performance,” Lanning said. “It’s always about what we’re able to do on the field. Motivation is overrated. Our guys have to want to go out there and execute at a really high level. Since the beginning of the season we’ve talked about playing our best football at the end of November. We’re there. This is our opportunity to go play our best football against a good team.”

Lanning and Oregon’s players last season aren’t the only ones with potentially extra desire to beat this specific team. Oregon cornerback Jabbar Muhammad, a former Husky, will face his former team for the first time on Saturday as a rival.

“I’m sure it means a ton,” Lanning said of Muhammad. “In fact, I know it means a ton. He knows that it’s more about going out there and executing than anything else.”

Dan Lanning on UW coach Jedd Fisch: ‘They adapt to the personnel that they have’

Though the Ducks and Huskies have had tight battles in each of the last three meetings, UW’s team in 2024 is strikingly different from the team that suited up in purple in 2022 and 2023.

Washington returned just 40 players from its national title runner-up team a year ago, along with most of its coaching staff, which is led by former Arizona coach Jedd Fisch.

Lanning was complimentary of Fisch, who he had played against before while he was at Arizona, and the job he’s done in Seattle this season.

“What they’ve always done a good job of is adapting to the personnel that they have and taking advantage of it,” Lanning said. “You see things that cause stress on both sides of the ball. It’s obviously a different defense now that they’re running at Washington but they still cause stress. They make it tough for you to game plan because they have answers in their scheme and again they make an impact out there on the field.”

Alec Dietz covers University of Oregon football, volleyball, women’s basketball and baseball for The Register-Guard. You may reach him at adietz@registerguard.com and you can follow him on X @AlecDietz.

The Washington Nationals are heading into the winter with the potential to make some big splashes to improve their team. 

It was another tough season for the Nationals in 2024 with just 71 wins. However, the team featured a lot of talented young players and the lengthy rebuild could come to an end soon. 

Due to Washington having a big difference between their payroll now and their payroll last season, the team could be spending a lot of money on free agents this winter.  In fact, one estimate noted the Nationals could field a team with a payroll of $35 million if they made no offseason acquisitions.

It’s just one reason why many experts are bullish on the Nats adding some veterans around the young core, which makes a lot of sense to help improve the roster. The Nationals have a few positions where adding those players makes a lot of sense. 

One of the positions that is arguably the biggest need is at first base. There are a lot of potential players to pursue in free agency that could make sense. One player who could be the top option is Pete Alonso. 

The slugging first baseman is arguably the best player at the position, and should have plenty of suitors. However, Alonso is not a perfect player and Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report highlighted why he could have bust potential. 

“How big of a deal is it that Alonso is coming off his worst season?,” he wrote. “It was his worst according to his .788 OPS, anyway, and there are real issues underneath that number. A career-high rate of ground balls is one. He also didn’t pull as many fly balls as he usually does. More generally, the aging curve for right-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing first basemen is rough. Even Albert Pujols didn’t last long as a star after turning 30, and Alonso will arrive at that point on December 7.”

Since coming up to the Majors, the 29-year-old has been one of the best power hitters in baseball, with only Aaron Judge having more home runs during that span. 

Even though he has been an excellent power hitter, 2024 was a down season for a player going into a contract year, at least by his standards. Alonso saw a drop in home runs and OPS in 2024, which could be concerning for a player about to turn 30. 

The Nationals have had some bad misses recently on big contracts with Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg. Washington hasn’t made any big moves recently, as they have been waiting for their young core to develop, along with the costs of those contracts to come off the books.

With a lot of young, talented players, the time to strike in free agency and make a splash seems like it should be now for the Nationals. However, if they target Alonso, they have to be mindful that he could be a bust with a drop in power numbers.