Ole Miss hosts its second consecutive Southeastern Conference series, as Georgia is at Swayze Field for the three games starting at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. The series continues at 1:30 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.

The Rebels are 21-20 overall and 3-15 in the SEC, while the Bulldogs, coming off a sweep of Arkansas, are 23-18 overall and 7-11 in the SEC. It’s Georgia’s first visit to Oxford since 2018, and Ole Miss was won four straight series against the Bulldogs.

It’s also Double Decker weekend in Oxford.

Hunter Elliott is doing the right thing.

The Ole Miss sophomore won’t pitch this weekend and will see another doctor next week, as his left elbow is still giving him issues. Elliott had a sprained UCL in late February and took eight weeks off. He threw 49 pitches on Saturday against LSU and struggled with fastball consistency and command.

“Hunter still felt discomfort after his start on Saturday to the point where we feel it is in his best interest for him to revisit with a physician early next week," Mike Bianco said to RebelGrove.com in a statement on Thursday.

I didn’t think Elliott looked comfortable on the mound Saturday, and he was clearly frustrated with his performance after the game. It had been two months since live action, but from my less-than-expert eyes, it seemed like more than that.

[Related: Elliott won’t pitch this weekend]

I was talking to a scout this week who said the command struggles and lack of spin on Elliott’s breaking ball were “telltale signs” of an issue.

Elliott’s health is the most important thing regardless of record, but with Ole Miss currently last in the SEC, it takes pressure off trying to give the team something that just isn’t there right now.

I’m not jumping ahead with speculation about what’s next for Elliott, as his doctor’s visit hasn’t occurred, but I was told yesterday it’s likely he won’t miss next season if he needs surgery and has it soon. We’ll tackle that prognosis in more detail when we know an exact diagnosis and plan.

If that’s the case, there was no harm in trying to rehab the injury and then pitch with it. He will be healthy, either way, for the MLB Draft next summer, and he should give the Rebels innings next season. Elliott saw multiple doctors who came to a consensus to attempt to heal him without surgery.

It didn’t work, and now it’s time to shut him down. Elliott’s legacy and grit are unquestioned. He’s a national champion. He needs a healthy elbow and to mentally trust that he’s well.

Ole Miss, barring 10 wins in its final 12 conference games, is going to post its worst SEC record under Bianco.

The 2011 team went 13-17 in the league, and that’s the only time in Bianco’s 21 completed SEC seasons he hasn’t won at least 14 conference games. One of his main hallmarks is regular season consistency.

It’s not completely uncommon, however, for successful programs to put up a dog of a season. The question is how do teams bounce back. I’ve said for a couple weeks that the Rebels need to learn from this season. There are obvious things to improve on, and this site will go over those as the season concludes.

Let’s now, though, take a look at some other SEC programs and how they recovered from relatively bad seasons in recent years.

Arkansas went 7-23 in 2016, six games worse than any other Dave Van Horn season. Unlike the Rebels, who were under .500 in SEC play a season ago, Arkansas was 17-12 in 2015 and made 2016 a one-year blip. The Razorbacks have won at least 18 games in all five conference seasons since then and made the College World Series three times.

LSU hasn’t had this type of season, but the Tigers were 13-17 in 2011 after a 14-win 2010 season. LSU won at least 19 conference games in the five of the next six seasons, with the other year being a 17-11-1 record.

Auburn sandwiched two College World Series appearances in 2019 and 2022 around a 10-20 SEC record in 2021.

South Carolina went 8-22 in 2019 but won 17 games in 2018 and 16 in 2021. The Gamecocks, struggling with pitching injuries a season ago were 13-17. South Carolina leads the SEC East, currently at 13-4.

There was a coaching change, so this needs as asterisk, but Jim Schlossnagle took Texas A&M to the SEC West title and the College World Series a year ago after a 9-21 season the year before he was hired. The Aggies did an excellent job in the portal and with roster management.

Mississippi State went 8-22 in 2015 and 21-9 in 2016, earning the No. 6 national seed.

There are two points to this exercise. One season doesn’t mean the program is cratered or on the downswing. It does mean, however, there are issues. The answer isn’t just pitcher injuries for Ole Miss, though that absolutely turned the season from below expectations to this current state.

The Rebels have work to do to get things back. Other programs have done it. Outside of some remarkable run, it’ll be Bianco’s first time in this situation.

Georgia started the SEC season 1-8 but has gone 6-3 since then with the sweep of the Razorbacks most recently.

The Bulldogs were swept by South Carolina and Vanderbilt two of the first three league weekends with a series loss to Auburn in the middle of that. Georgia has also beaten Kentucky two of three and took one of three from Florida. That one win included a Connor Tate grand slam and three Charlie Condon home runs.

Condon, a redshirt freshman, is hitting .416 with 18 home runs and a ridiculous 1.362 OPS — helped by 33 walks and hit by pitches to only 30 strikeouts. Tate is also having a great season with a .364 average and 13 home runs.

No other Bulldog is hitting higher than .284, and Parks Harber has 14 home runs. It makes for an odd combination of power and small ball.

Led by that trio, Georgia is top five in the SEC in slugging (fifth), hits (fourth), doubles (third), home runs (fourth) and total bases (fifth). The Bulldogs, however, are 12th in on-base percentage and 13th in walks. They also have the fifth-most sacrifice bunts in the league.

Condon has kept up his stats in SEC play, hitting .338 with a 1.221 OPS in league games. Tate, in SEC play, is down to .243 but has six SEC home runs.

Georgia has struggled on the mound in SEC games, with the 11th worst ERA (7.37), the 12th-worst opposing batting average (.285), the most doubles allowed and the most hit batters.

Friday starter Kolten Smith hasn’t gone more than four innings all season with mostly bullpen appearances. He allowed two runs in four innings against Arkansas, a week after two shutout innings versus Florida.

Saturday starter Charlie Goldstein has pitched at least five innings in three straight starts and hasn’t allowed more than two earned runs since March 19 — a span of five appearances.

He’s given up three earned runs in a span of 20.2 innings against Vanderbilt, Kentucky, Florida and Arkansas.

Sunday starter Liam Sullivan leads Georgia in innings pitched and is second in ERA. He’s been a rotation regular but has walked 15 over his last 19.1 innings. His best outing is a seven-inning shutout of Kentucky. He’s gone only 3.1 and three innings in two of his four starts.

Ole Miss is in danger of losing its place in a random but notable statistic.

The Rebels have won 30 or more games in 24 straight seasons and are the only SEC team to accomplish that.

Mike Bianco has done it in all of his years outside of the COVID-shortened 2020 when the Rebels had lost just once, and Pat Harrison won 30 or more games in his final three seasons.

Ole Miss last fell below the mark in 1997, when the Rebels went 22-31 and 6-24 in Harrison’s first season. Bianco has only flirted with falling below the 30 once — 30-25 in 2011.

LSU won 29 games in 2007 but has won at least 35 games in every season since 1984 outside of that. That was Skip Bertman’s first season.

Ole Miss needs to go 9-5 the rest of the way to accomplish the 30 wins in the regular season. Any hypothetical wins in the SEC Tournament would also count toward the total.

The Rebels have series remaining with Georgia, Missouri, Auburn and Alabama, as well as midweek games with Austin Peay and Little Rock.

Ole Miss is down a regular season game after the Southern Miss game in Pearl was declared a no-contest due to turf issues.

SEC WEST

LSU 12-5

Arkansas 12-7

Alabama 9-9

Texas A&M 9-10

Auburn 7-11

Mississippi State 6-13

Ole Miss 3-15

SEC EAST

South Carolina 13-4

Vanderbilt 13-5

Florida 11-7

Kentucky 11-7

Tennessee 9-10

Georgia 7-11

Missouri 5-13

WEEKEND SCHEDULE

Mississippi State at Tennessee - UT 8, MSU 7

Texas A&M at Arkansas - ARK 7, TAMU 5

Alabama at LSU

Kentucky at Vanderbilt

Missouri at Florida

Auburn at South Carolina

Georgia at Ole Miss