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FACTS & STATS: Site: Vaught-Hemingway Stadium (60,580) -- Oxford, Mississippi. Television: ESPN. Home Record: BYU 0-0, Ole Miss 0-0. Away Record: BYU 0-0, Ole Miss 0-0. Neutral Record: BYU 0-0, Ole Miss 0-0. Conference Record: BYU 0-0, Ole Miss 0-0. Series Record: First-ever meeting.

GAME NOTES: No longer a darling of the Mountain West Conference, the BYU Cougars begin life without any league ties as they clash for the first time ever with the Ole Miss Rebels at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford on Saturday afternoon.

BYU, which joins Army, Navy and Notre Dame as football programs without a conference affiliation, does so after putting up a record of 7-6 a year ago, the team blowing the doors off UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl, 52-24. The Cougars, who posted a 5-3 league mark after opening the 2010 campaign a mere 1-4, set several team records in that postseason romp, which means head coach Bronco Mendenhall has something to live up to entering 2011.

As for the Rebels, they came out of the gate last season and promptly dropped a 49-48 double-overtime decision to Jacksonville State, a program from the Ohio Valley Conference that went on to record eight straight wins to open the campaign. Head coach Houston Nutt did manage to get his team into the win column in three of the next four games, but after that Ole Miss won just once in seven opportunities, finishing 4-8 overall and just 1-7 versus the rest of the SEC. Needless to say, even though Nutt has been in the coaching business for three decades, he has to come back in a big way this year in order to erase the awful memories of 2010.

Even though these two teams have no prior history between them, the Cougars are 2-2 all-time against teams from the state of Mississippi and 1-3 against SEC teams, earning their only win in 2001 at Mississippi State.

The Cougars entered last season with Riley Nelson pegged as the starter at quarterback and he did so for the first three games before suffering a shoulder injury. In stepped Jake Heaps and the team never looked back as he became the first BYU freshman to start a bowl game and added New Mexico Bowl Offensive MVP honors to his resume' for good measure. Heaps had some struggles a year ago, but he grew from those missteps and became one of the more reliable passers in the MWC. This year, Heaps should be more comfortable knowing he has his top two wide receivers back in Cody Hoffman and McKay Jacobson. The former caught 42 passes for 527 yards and seven touchdowns, while the latter collected 37 balls for 410 yards and a score. More importantly, the Cougars have running back JJ Di Luigi ready to go again after he posted a team-best 45 receptions for 443 yards and also gained another 917 yards and tallied eight TDs on the ground. It also doesn't hurt that the Cougars have added Ben Cahoon to their coaching staff to guide the wide receivers, this after winning the CFL's Grey Cup in back-to-back years with the Montreal Alouettes and leaving the league after 13 seasons as the all-time leader in receptions with 1,017 catches.

There are a few significant changes on the defensive side of the ball for the Cougars this season, most notably the additions of Mike Muehlmann and Mike Hague who previously spent time blocking for BYU ball carriers. Muehlmann, who played tight end a year ago, will be stationing himself at defensive end most of the time, while Hague goes from running back to defensive back in order to bolster a secondary that was pretty strong in 2010 as it ranked 23rd in the country with 192.23 ypg allowed. Senior linebacker Jameson Frazier will be the primary focus of the unit, the former walk-on being named to the Lott Trophy Watch List. Frazier missed three games due to injury last year, yet still stepped up to produce 4.5 tackles for loss, one sack and a pair of interceptions. The Cougars also look forward to the returns of Jordan Pendleton, Jordan Richardson and Romney Fuga, all of whom missed significant time because of injury a year ago as well.

Last season, the Rebels experimented with quarterback Jeremiah Masoli and experienced varying degrees of success, but more often the offense failed to follow his lead and fell flat. In 2010, the Ole Miss pass attack was eighth in the SEC and 82nd in the nation with just 192.3 ypg, a number that will hopefully be old news when Barry Brunetti takes over as the starting signal- caller. Brunetti, who wasn't named the starter until this past weekend, transferred in from West Virginia where he saw action in four games as a true freshman last season but completed just 4-of-9 passes for a mere six yards. Brunetti still has a lot to prove with his new team, but at least coach Nutt has a better understanding of where the Rebels are starting from this time around. If nothing else, the Rebels can be confident in the abilities of senior running back Brandon Bolden who led the team in rushing a year ago as the entire squad ranked third in the SEC and 18th nationally with 207.6 ypg on the ground.

The Rebels have a lot of work in front of them in order to improve their pass defense from a year ago, the group ranking 11th in the SEC and 103rd in the country with 246.3 ypg allowed. Were it not for the third game of 2010 against Vanderbilt in which the Commodores posted a feeble 73 yards through the air, the numbers would be even more skewed in the wrong direction for the Rebels. Coach Nutt will be expecting a lot from senior Damien Jackson who will again play the safety position after leading the program in solo tackles with 44, even though he sat out one game and came off the bench in three others. A transfer from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Jackson has a nose for the ball and will certainly lead by example. Trying to make up for the loss of linebacker Jonathan Cornell, after he led the program in overall tackles and tackles for loss last season with 80 and 14, respectively, will be no easy task.

BYU might be on the road for this one, but you can be sure the Cougars will be on the attack as they begin a new chapter in their football history, and the Rebels continue to move in the wrong direction under coach Nutt.

Sports Network Predicted Outcome: BYU 28, Ole Miss 23