Inside the day's key match-ups.

No offensive player in America -- not C.J. Spiller, not Toby Gerhart, not even Mark Ingram -- is quite as searing hot over the last month as Ole Miss tailback, Wildcat back, receiver, occasional return man, chef, art critic, stunt pilot and all-purpose bon vivant Dexter McCluster, who Rebel coaches finally set free to explode for 260 total yards against Arkansas, 203 against Auburn and record-breaking, 324-yard, four-touchdown display last week against Tennessee. Now a permanent fixture in the backfield for the first time as his inconsistent stay in Oxford winds down, it's hard not to imagine what might have been if McCluster had averaged 28 touches per game over his entire career, as he has in his last three outings -- tripling his average opportunities with the ball over the previous 27 games since 2007, with obvious results.

No defense yet has stopped McCluster as the Rebels' primary ballcarrier and chief offensive weapon, but note also that LSU's rebuilt defense hasn't been prone to being gashed under new coordinator John Chavis -- since October, the Tigers have held Florida to its lowest point total (13) of the four-year Tebow era; held Georgia to just 13 points; held Auburn's vastly improved attack to just 10 points on 193 total yards, most of it in garbage time; shut out Tulane; and held Alabama in check until well into the fourth quarter, leading 15-13 with 11 minutes to play, despite ultimately allowing more than 400 total yards for only the second time this year.

And though Auburn and Tennessee aren't exactly chopped liver on defense, the only other D Ole Miss has faced that rivals LSU's athletically, man for man, is the dominant outfit from Alabama, which quickly put the home crowd on ice in Oxford by holding the Rebels to a lonely field goal with a total contribution of 37 yards from McCluster. As generous as Ole Miss quarterback Jevan Snead has been with the ball -- 12 interceptions in his last five games against SEC defenses, to six touchdowns -- the Tigers can probably allow McCluster two or even three times that number today and be fine; Auburn, after all, came out fine even when allowing D-Mac slightly over 200 yards, holding the rest of the Rebel offense in check and picking Snead twice, once for a touchdown, in a 33-20 win on the Plains.

That may be the only uneasy aspect of McCluster's emergence: Ole Miss has really needed him to get a disappointing attack untracked, and had accomplished next to nothing against respectable defenses before McCluster essentially became the offense. LSU may give up a big play or two, but if No. 22 has to individually account for 250 yards again to get the Rebels over the top, it's going to be a long afternoon against one of the more aggressive, turnover-hungry defenses they've had to face.