The Rebels might’ve got their revenge over Lane Kiffin with their 32-24 win over the LSU Tigers this past weekend. Once the post-game celebration wore down, the Rebels had a much bigger concern on their minds as star running back Kewan Lacy was forced out of the game with a painful shoulder injury.

For a team that relies so much on their explosive back on the 1st and 2nd down, the sight of Lacy heading to the locker room was enough to put everyone on edge. Thankfully, the head coach Pete Golding and the rest of the coaching staff got some much-needed good news from the medical team on Sunday night.

According to a report from ESPN senior writer Pete Thamel, an MRI confirmed that Lacy completely avoided a long-term, season-ending injury. The star tailback is definitely going to be banged up for a little bit, but the imaging showed no catastrophic structural damage to his shoulder.

The medical staff plans to closely monitor him all week to see how fast he recovers, though his status for this coming Saturday’s game is still up in the air.

The injury happened midway through the third quarter against LSU with exactly 7:09 remaining on the clock. Ole Miss was driving on offense when Lacy took a handoff and met a wall of defenders. He was brought down on a hard hit by LSU linebacker TJ Dottery, landing directly and forcefully onto the turf on his left shoulder.

He was in immediate pain, and ESPN sideline reporter Laura Rutledge noted that his left arm was hanging completely loose as he limped into the medical tent. He eventually walked back to the locker room for X-rays and did not return to the game. The extra scare factor here is that Lacy actually had offseason surgery on that exact same left shoulder at the end of the 2025 season.

The good news is that the initial X-rays at the stadium came back negative. The training staff even slapped some extra padding on him to try and let him fight through it, but head coach Pete Golding decided to play it safe and keep him benched for the final frame. Lacy finished the night with 43 yards and a touchdown on just nine carries.

Even though Pete Golding coaches the defense, you can bet he is celebrating this update just as much as the offensive staff. Lacy is the undisputed engine of this entire Rebels team, and losing him for the year would have drastically changed how Ole Miss plays football.

As a first-team All-SEC powerhouse who pounded in a wild 24 rushing touchdowns last season, Lacy is the player who carried the Rebels at times. This season, through three games, the 6’1 RB has already racked up 191 rushing yards and 4 touchdowns on 39 carries, which means he accounts for a massive 56% of the team’s entire ground attack.

Lacy enters the week as a top-10 rusher in the SEC, making his health a major talking point across college football. Losing a star back of his caliber creates a massive ripple effect, similar to how other SEC contenders have struggled to retool their offense on the fly after losing key playmakers.

While the diagnosis is a massive relief, it does highlight a bit of a frustrating trend for Lacy early on in this 2026 season. The elite back has had a really tough time staying completely healthy through the first month of football. Back in the season opener against Louisville, he had to leave the game early after taking a painful thigh bruise. Now, just a couple of weeks later, he is dealing with this shoulder injury, meaning the staff will have to be smart about his workload moving forward.

The timing isn’t great either, because the schedule is starting to heat up. Ole Miss has to pack its bags this weekend and head into a hostile road environment to take on the No. 21-ranked Florida Gators.

Florida always plays tough at home, and the Rebels’ offense will need to be firing on all cylinders to secure another big SEC victory. The Gators boast one of the stingiest run defenses in the conference, meaning Ole Miss cannot rely purely on passing. With early SEC wins crucial for a spot in the SEC Championship and College Football Playoff, going into Gainesville without Lacy significantly raises the risk of a season-derailing road upset.

Luckily, the Rebels have built up some solid depth in the backfield to help bridge the gap if their star player needs a week to rest up. The coaching staff will spend the next 72 hours seeing how much strength Lacy can get back in that shoulder before they make a final decision on whether he plays. For now, the entire campus is just glad that their dynamic offensive weapon will be back on the gridiron sooner rather than later.