Since the regular season ended, Ole Miss dominated the college football news cycle with its off-field buzz regarding the Lane Kiffin saga.
Under new head coach Pete Golding, the No. 6 Rebels are thriving with an “us against the world” mentality.
Ole Miss earned the biggest win in school history on Thursday, as Lucas Carneiro drilled a tiebreaking 47-yard field goal with six seconds left, propelling the Rebels to a 39-34 victory over No. 3 Georgia in a College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.
Golding, unlike Kiffin, wasn’t a household name until recently, but now the former defensive coordinator has Ole Miss two wins away from a national championship.
“I think you’ve got to have the right guys,” Golding said of his team. “I think they’ve got to be tough, they’ve got to be competitive. I think they’ve got to love football. I think you’ve got a lot of guys on other teams that don’t love football. If there’s one thing about this group, it’s that they love football.”
Trinidad Chambliss threw a 40-yard pass to De’Zhaun Stribling on third-and-5 with 26 seconds left, leading to Carneiro’s third field goal of the game.
A backwards pass on Georgia’s ensuing kickoff return struck the end-zone pylon, resulting in a safety with one second left.
Chambliss threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns and Kewan Lacy rushed for 98 yards and two scores for Ole Miss (13-1), which will face No. 10 Miami in a semifinal game at the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8 in Glendale, Ariz.
The Rebels’ remarkable postseason run hasn’t come without its fair share of obstacles, but Chambliss and company aren’t thinking big-picture quite yet.
“We’re not really focused on destiny or anything like that,” said Chambliss, who was selected as the Sugar Bowl’s offensive MVP. “We just want to play ball and have fun. A lot of people did doubt us before the season, and they still doubted us when our coach left. We just want to play ball and have fun, and I think that’s showing right now.”
Ole Miss’ Harrison Wallace III made nine receptions for 156 yards and a touchdown, and Stribling hauled in seven catches for 122 yards.
Gunner Stockton threw for 203 yards and a touchdown for Georgia (12-2), which saw its second straight season end in the quarterfinals in New Orleans. A disappointing finish for the Bulldogs also marks their third consecutive campaign without a semifinal appearance.
Ole Miss outgained Georgia 473-343 and held coach Kirby Smart’s team to a 3-for-13 mark on third downs.
“(The Rebels) made more plays than we did, and I’ve got to be honest, that’s part of football,” Smart said. “They outexecuted us, outcoached us, but I enjoyed that game and the atmosphere. I’m proud of our team. I’m sick that we lost.”
After Georgia held a nine-point halftime lead, Bulldogs kicker Peyton Woodring had a 55-yard field-goal attempt come up short with 8:33 left in the third. From there, Lacy’s 7-yard touchdown rush cut the Rebels’ deficit to 21-19.
Facing a fourth-and-5 from its own 30-yard line, Georgia had Landon Roldan connect with Lawson Luckie for 16 yards on a fake punt. Woodring’s 37-yarder then put the Bulldogs ahead by five.
Ole Miss took its first lead of the second half as Lacy’s 5-yard touchdown rush was followed with Chambliss’ two-point conversion pass to Wallace, giving the Rebels a 27-24 edge with 11:29 left in the fourth.
Georgia took another gamble on its next drive, going for it on fourth-and-2 from its own 33-yard line. Stockton was sacked, leading to Chambliss’ 13-yard touchdown pass to Wallace, pushing Ole Miss’ lead to 34-24 with 9:02 remaining.
The Bulldogs pulled within three as Stockton’s 18-yard touchdown pass to Zachariah Branch stamped a 75-yard scoring drive that lasted just 1:59.
After forcing a punt, Georgia faced a fourth-and-9 on its 48, and Stockton connected with Branch for 16 yards. A pair of Ole Miss pass-interference penalties set Georgia up with a first-and-goal from the 8-yard line, but the Rebels held the Bulldogs to a game-tying 24-yard field goal from Woodring with 56 seconds left.
Carneiro made field goals from 55 and 56 yards in the first quarter, both setting the Sugar Bowl record. The first-year transfer from Western Kentucky is 5-for-5 on field goals in Ole Miss’ two postseason wins, and Golding understands how important the redshirt junior is to the Rebels’ present and future.
“A lot of people think Lucas is the best kicker in the country, so a lot of people want Lucas. So I’ve been meeting with Lucas a lot lately,” Golding said of retaining Carneiro. “We felt he was the best kicker in the country coming out of Western Kentucky last year, and he’s done an unbelievable job. …
“We’ve got all the confidence in the world in him.”
–Field Level Media
