Week 4 brings the biggest test of the season so far for the Tulane Green Wave. 

The team will travel up to Oxford, Miss., to take on the No. 13 Ole Miss Rebels. It's a game of opportunity for the Green Wave's resume: a road game against a top-tier SEC opponent that will be nationally broadcast on ESPN.

A loss shouldn't hurt Tulane too badly in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee, as long as it is a close game. A win over the Rebels will do wonders for the program come mid-November. 

Ole Miss is a tough program that has consistently performed well under head coach Lane Kiffin. Since 2021, Kiffin has led his team to a pair of 10-win seasons and an 11-win season -- with the team recording just eight wins in a "down year." The Rebels won the Peach Bowl following the 2023 season and dominated Duke in the Gator Bowl following a 2024 season in which the program had CFP hopes.

Winning in Oxford won't be easy, but Tulane has shown that it has the talent to pull off a massive upset. Here are three keys to victory as the Green Wave prepares for the upcoming road trip.

Tulane quarterback Jake Retzlaff is flying a bit under the radar through the first three games of the season. His passing stats are a bit more average -- a 59% completion percentage for 522 yards and a pair of touchdowns -- but he's one of the top rushing quarterbacks in the league with six touchdowns and 288 yards under his belt already. Retzlaff is hard to predict and shows no fear when he's suited up for the Green Wave.

The Ole Miss defense was a force to be reckoned with last year, but they're currently the SEC's 13th-best defense -- granted, some of that can be attributed to the fact that they've already played two conference games. They struggled somewhat in the team's most recent win against another dual-threat quarterback in Arkansas' Taylen Green, giving up 35 points and nearly blowing the game if not for forcing a late fumble by the Razorbacks. 

Green averaged 8.2 yards per carry against Ole Miss; nobody could stop him. While Green has been the better passer so far this season, Retzlaff is arguably the bigger run-threat. Tulane must use that to the team's advantage and try to gain momentum through explosive plays on the ground.

On Monday, Kiffin announced that quarterback Austin Simmons is expected to start against Tulane for the Rebels, despite missing the majority of the Arkansas game with an injury. Backup Trinidad Chambliss earned the starting nod against the Razorbacks and had an impressive outing, going 21-for-29 passing for 353 yards and a touchdown while adding 15 carries for 62 yards and two scores on the ground. In all honesty, Chambliss seemed to outperform Simmons.

Kiffin is known to keep a few tricks up his sleeve, so who knows if he'll change his mind about his starting quarterback situation right before kickoff. 

Simmons is young, and he's struggled a bit with accuracy and decision-making to start the year. He threw one pass against Arkansas that resulted in a four-yard touchdown. Up until that point, he threw three touchdowns and four interceptions in his first two games against Georgia State and Kentucky. 

Tulane's defense will easily be the toughest Simmons has faced so far; the Green Wave need to come out early and make him a liability for the Rebels. Whether that's by forcing him to take inaccurate, hurried throws downfield or overpowering Ole Miss' lackluster offensive line to create chaos in the backfield, Tulane must use his inexperience against him. 

Based on what we've seen so far this year, Chambliss is far less nervous, more aggressive on the ground and a more consistent passer. If he plays at any point, the Green Wave will face a tougher challenge all around. The secondary will have little room for error, and the d-line will have a harder time containing him. However, it's nothing Tulane can't handle. 

Tulane needs to block out the noise: both literally and figuratively.

This is the most hostile environment the Green Wave will play in all year. Sure, it's a bit cliché to harp on the fact that SEC stadium environments are unmatched... but it's true. A stadium of more than 64,000 rambunctious fans is deafening to those on the field. Tulane can't afford to get rattled early and have miscues simply because of the challenging environment. Penalties have proven to be a problem for the team over the last few weeks, and the last thing anyone needs is a false start because a lineman misheard the snap count.

At the same time, the Green Wave need to approach the game as if its just any other game -- because really, it is. It's great to acknowledge that a win over Ole Miss would be massive for the program, but it doesn't need to consume anyone's thoughts and lead to distractions both on and off the field. 

That's difficult to do -- this game is already receiving plenty of attention, and it's still days away. How many times have we seen a team lose because "the lights were too bright?" That can't be the case for Tulane this week.