Ole Miss didn’t give away its game last Saturday night. Not the way I see it anyway, because what I think I saw was the Auburn Tigers beating the Rebels in the line for most of the game.

Ole Miss could have won, despite a lapse on defense at key times. The Rebels even played the Tigers of former Ole Miss coach Tommy Tuberville hard-nosed nearly half of the game, which was, after all was said and done, a good one.

A little trickery on the part of Tuberville, although expected, certainly played a big part in Auburn’s 35-27 victory, but nevertheless coach David Cutcliffe’s Rebs could very well have scored at least once more and perhaps changed the direction of the game.

But Tuberville couldn’t get 1999 off his mind, evidently. His Tigers were overtime victims of the Rebels then. They were also victims of some Ole Miss strategy.

Deuce McAllister, Ole Miss’ All-American and Heisman Trophy candidate — who is for a fact plenty good — had a good game but not good enough. It was tough enough getting beat in the trenches, but when Ole Miss quarterback Romaro Miller hit a lull now and then – especially in the second half – it was Katie-bar-the-door for the Rebs.

Not to mention defense that somehow disappeared at the wrong time (right times for Auburn). The Tigers were simply too good to be handed favors.

All in all, though, I look for both Ole Miss and Auburn to fare well the remainder of 2000. The Tigers take on the Tigers of LSU this Saturday, and my guess is that Auburn’s ‘Cats will likely prevail. Yep, the game’s at Auburn. And it ought to be a thriller. If there’s a question mark, it’s LSU at this point. Both the LSU Tigers and Rebels have a way to go to dent the Top 25 polls.

Mississippi State will shade Brigham Young tonight, I believe, but with South Carolina turning on Georgia the way it did last Saturday, I have to wonder what the Bulldogs will do Sept. 23 against SC. Saturday, I’m also taking Ole Miss over Vandy.

Southeastern Conference football meanwhile continues to be regarded by most football buffs as the nation’s strongest college conference, end to end. And high-ranked Alabama might be the member most thoroughly tested this weekend when unranked USM calls on the Tide. Stand ready, football fans, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Bobby Marks and I talked championship football while pretty Christy Lipscomb sang pretty at last Saturday’s Jim Bowie Festival in Vidalia (We paid attention, Christy; you were magnificent).

Marks is &uot;Coach&uot; to most of us around the Miss-Lou. And it’s no wonder – he set state high school football standards at Huntington, Cathedral and ACCS during his coaching career.

Marks, who is president of the Natchez chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame, knows his way around gridiron circles. And if you didn’t know, but assumed it, he played high school football at Ferriday High part of the time coach Johnny &uot;Red&uot; Robertson held sway as the Bulldogs’ all-time most successful coach.

Marks took 13-1 Huntington to a conference championship in 1972. In ’77 he took Natchez Cathedral to the school’s only unbeaten season ever. We was especially proud of his really fine assistant coach Ken Beesley, now Green Wave head coach.

At ACCS, which was in the state’s top class, he was 12-0 and state champion in 1982.

Glenvall Estes is a long-time sports columnist for the Natchez Democrat.