Ole Miss Moves on From Lane Kiffin and Closer to National Title in CFP Shocker

The Rebels erased years of doubt and the shadow of their former coach in a Sugar Bowl classic comeback win over Georgia.

Ole Miss players celebrate their Sugar Bowl win over Georgia to advance to the College Football Playoff semifinals. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

NEW ORLEANS — The celebration would not stop as throngs of powder blue fans inched closer and closer to the railings that encircled the Caesars Superdome field.

A late safety, one unneeded second left on the clock and a dozen desperation laterals that meant Mississippi fans could revel three times in the clock striking zero on the school’s greatest modern victory, a stunning 39–34 second-half comeback against SEC rival Georgia in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl. 

The result would defy belief if this postseason tournament had continually proved that not to be the case. No lead is safe, no upset is too far-fetched and no obstacle so large it cannot be overcome.

The Rebels are the poster boy for rising above such adversity, drawing doubts on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Line despite suffering just one loss in the regular season to those Bulldogs between the hedges in mid-October. Much has changed since that initial meeting to this marquee New Year’s Day bowl, summed up as the giant elephant which has soaked up all of the outside oxygen surrounding the program in recent weeks. 

FREE. SI College Football Newsletter. Get SI's College Football Newsletter. dark

That would be one Lane Kiffin, the former head coach who is acknowledged firmly in the past tense nowadays no matter what underlying feelings players may have for the person who brought them to Oxford, Miss., or put them in this awkward situation. 

Eighty miles northwest from the team he painstakingly built from a SEC homecoming opponent to a regular double-digit winner, he was strutting around and being feted in his new home of Baton Rouge on Thursday evening. Kiffin was cast off into a local attraction at the LSU women’s basketball game, holding hands with hoops coach Kim Mulkey instead of donning a headset in the playoff. 

His old school drew the national attention he craves for gutting out a victory few could see coming outside of the Rebels faithful that made up the slight majority of the 68,371 on hand. Instead, Kiffin watched the Tigers suffer their first loss of the women’s basketball season—a two-point defeat to Kentucky.

Kiffin left for greener pastures with claims of an easier path to win the national championships he so desperately needs for validation in his chosen profession. But it’s the Rebels who have moved to within one win of doing just that. 

“A lot of credit goes to Ole Miss, the defensive improvements they made,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said. “They played much better and tougher and more physical on defense, created some problems for us. And their quarterback is just incredible. I mean, he does an unbelievable job of not giving up sacks and making plays with his legs. They made more plays than we did; and I’ve got to be honest, that’s part of football. They made more, and outexecuted us, outcoached us, outplayed us.”

To out anything with the Bulldogs is notable given they had the best FBS record since 2021, a now 65–7 mark that includes a pair of national titles and three conference crowns. They also won an impressive 53 consecutive games when leading at halftime, a mark which was broken in their second consecutive defeat in the playoff as a one-and-done in New Orleans.

Much of the credit must now go to Kiffin’s chosen—and permanent—successor Pete Golding, who has gone from drawing parallels with Steve Fisher’s run on the hard court nearly four decades ago to fully living it with this charmed playoff run. While one can quibble with his timeout usage or the way he failed to properly allow for another field goal attempt to end the first half, there’s little argument with the end results at the moment. 

Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding lifts the Sugar Bowl trophy after beating Georgia. / Ayrton Breckenridge/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

“I think you’ve got a lot of guys on other teams that don’t love football. There’s one thing about this group, they love football. They love competing, they like practicing, they like preparing, and they like playing,” said Golding, having shed most of his coaching accoutrement for gym shorts and a T-shirt. “I think at this point in the year, you better have a group of guys that still wants to play, because every time you go out there and you spot the ball, you’re playing for another opportunity to play.”

Golding, on the job barely a month at this point, now has more CFP wins than Lincoln Riley, Brian Kelly and Urban Meyer. He’s equaled Jim Harbaugh, Kalen DeBoer and James Franklin in the win column and can surpass them with a win over Miami in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal next Thursday.

Not bad for someone who security could confuse for a Rebels fan were it not for the swarm of school officials who stop him every five feet to celebrate their newfound leader. 

“It’s his presence,” veteran linebacker TJ Dottery says. “I feel like he’s able to take more of a leadership role with the entire team versus just being the leader of the defense.”

“We’ve kept everything the same. We haven’t wanted to mess with anything,” adds kicker Lucas Carneiro, game ball in hand after booting all three of his field goals from 55, 56 and a final go-ahead effort from 47 yards. “We just go out there and stick with 1–0 every single week.”

It helps to have a quarterback who you can simply tell to go play and rest easy with whatever he can do in former Division II star Trinidad Chambliss. Much like the first meeting with Georgia when he led five consecutive touchdown drives, the signal-caller was equal parts magical and electric on Thursday in flinging pinpoint passes (30 of 46, 362 yards and two touchdowns) all over the field against a defense which had rounded into form as one of the nation’s best. 

Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss scrambles with the ball under pressure from Bulldogs defensive back Daylen Everette. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Chambliss, though, looked like Johnny Manziel incarnate early in the fourth quarter, spinning out of multiple defenders converging on him and scooting away from pressure to buy time to launch it down field to any manner of targets from Trey Wallace (156 yards, one score), De’Zhaun Stribling (122 yards) or tailback Kewan Lacy (110 all-purpose yards). The group combined for an eight-play, 75-yard drive that very well could have gone down in school lore forever were it not for later heroics, especially after Wallace hauled in the two-point conversion that made it 27–24 with 11:29 to play. 

Yet Chambliss saved the best for last, taking over with 56 seconds on the clock in a tie game when he lofted a perfect spiral 40 yards downfield into Stribling’s waiting arms that eventually set up the final go-ahead kick.

“We’re not really focused on destiny or anything like that. We just want to play ball and have fun,” the quarterback said, beaming with his Sugar Bowl MVP trophy in hand. “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.”

Shining through even, for all to see, to finally put their former head coach out of sight and finally out of mind. The Rebels are one win away from playing for it all now, and all Kiffin can do is tweet through it from afar. 

“Pete’s the guy. He’s the guy for the short term and he’s the guy for the long term. They play hard for him and they love him,” a jubilant athletic director Keith Carter says. “We say it all the time at Ole Miss, we’re not afraid to talk about winning championships. If you don’t talk about it, you don’t believe it, you’re not going to achieve it. Our team, one win away from playing for a natty in football.”

Hotty Toddy indeed.

---

More College Football from Sports Illustrated

Listen to SI’s college sports podcast, Others Receiving Votes, below or on Apple and Spotify. Watch the show on SI’s YouTube channel.

feed