The Most Surprising Thing About Ole Miss' Performance vs. Louisville

Looking into the most unexpected factor in Ole Miss' victory over the Louisville Cardinals Sunday night.

Mississippi Rebels wide receiver Deuce Alexander scores a touchdown against the Louisville Cardinals during the third quarter at Nissan Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Sunday night, the Ole Miss Rebels picked up a 41-38 victory against the Louisville Cardinals in their opening game of the season.

The win was secured with a clutch Trinidad Chambliss performance, which has come to be expected from the Heisman contender.

However, not everything went to plan for the Rebels. Ole Miss only won by three points on a walk-off field goal, even though the Rebels are significantly more talented than Louisville, and there's one side of the ball to blame.

Ole Miss' Defense Has To Be Better

Louisville Cardinals running back Keyjuan Brown carries the ball as Mississippi Rebels defensive end Kam Franklin defends. Mandatory Credit: Steve Roberts-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Last week, I wrote about how Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding's history against mobile QBs and Louisville QB Lincoln Kienholz's strong recruiting pedigree gave Ole Miss reason to worry.

Sunday night, Kienholz proved why it was correct to be concerned about him. His 370-yard, three-touchdown performance kept Louisville in the fight.

No doubt Kienholz's performance was remarkable, but questions remain over how such a high-profile defense can struggle so badly against a QB who hasn't started a game since high school in 2022.

Let's start with the positives: the Rebels' defense held Isaac Brown to run 36 rushing yards and 2.3 yards per carry. That's rare for a back of Brown's caliber.

It's worth noting that Kienholz and Louisville's backup running back, Keyjuan Brown, had more efficient days running the ball, but had fewer opportunities due to Louisville playing from behind late.

The Rebels' run defense was a result of the play of linebackers Keaton Thomas, Luke Ferrelli and Suntarine Perkins. It felt like at least one of the Rebels' linebackers would be on the ball quickly on many plays to stop whatever it was Louisville felt like doing.

That was at least until the second half, when Kienholz started picking up steam and helped the Cardinals score 32 points in the second half.

It felt like Kienholz could do whatever he wanted in the second half and Ole Miss' defense, particularly the defensive backs, couldn't stop him. Ole Miss' season would've started off with an embarrassing loss if it wasn't for a brilliant second-half performance from Trinidad Chambliss to win the shootout and avoid the upset

Winning a ranked matchup against Louisville is great, but if the Rebels play as they did on Sunday, the rest of the season, they're looking at a number of losses to teams like LSU, Oklahoma, Georgia and Texas, who are just some of the teams on the Rebels' difficult 2026 schedule.

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