(Photo from Ole Miss Athletics)
- Maintaining that hope requires beating No. 2 Georgia at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Lane Kiffin has the rare second chance to make a good first impression.
Ole Miss will find out where it stands with the College Football Playoff Committee this week. As relationships go, it’s complicated.
The Rebels are clinging to playoff hopes on the idea that there will be two-loss teams – which they are currently – in the field.
Maintaining that hope requires beating No. 2 Georgia at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Ole Miss was the summer’s trendy playoff pick after 11 wins last season, the last one a dominant Peach Bowl effort against Penn State, a nucleus of returning playmakers and the No. 1 transfer portal class.
What could go wrong?
It was a fair question, one that caused veteran Rebels fans to approach the season with cautious optimism more than confidence.
The Rebels rolled effortlessly through the pre-conference schedule, but fears were validated when Kentucky held the vaunted Ole Miss offense in check in a 20-17 loss in the SEC opener.
“I’ve been watching this (expletive) for 50 years,” said one fan – at least one that I know about – as the seconds ticked away.
Kentucky, 1-6 in the league, hasn’t won an SEC game since.
It’s a bad loss that lingers, a dragging bag of sand on the Rebels’ playoff resume, far more damaging than an overtime loss at LSU, another playoff hopeful.
But it’s November now, there are more games in the rear view mirror, and the Kentucky loss has become offset to some degree by the South Carolina game.
Williams-Brice Stadium is a tough environment with fans’ passion for many years exceeding the performance of their Gamecocks.
Carolina had narrow losses to LSU and Alabama before they dominated No. 10 Texas A&M 24-0 in the second half Saturday night. The 44-20 loss was the Aggies’ second, their first in conference play.
Ole Miss destroyed South Carolina 27-3 in Columbia on Oct. 5.
The Rebels contained quarterback LaNorris Sellers. The Gamecocks cracked the Ole Miss 10 once, and the drive ended with an end zone interception.
The Gamecocks have never won more than four SEC games under fourth-year coach Shane Beamer. They’re at Vanderbilt next week and have a home game with Missouri remaining. They close at Clemson.
Every little bit helps the Rebels.
Nothing would help the Rebels like beating Georgia, and the No. 2-ranked Bulldogs – in spite of their big win at Texas — have shown themselves vulnerable at home against Kentucky and this weekend against Florida on the somewhat neutral field in Jacksonville. In between they gave up 31 points and only beat Mississippi State by 10.
We all know what Georgia is, the team of the 2020s, twice a national champion and another top-three finish.
Rebels trying to reach the Bulldogs
Georgia is the team on the other side of the gap that Kiffin is trying to reach.
The Rebels’ two losses last year were against Alabama and Georgia, and while the Alabama game was a 24-10 loss that lacked real drama, Georgia was a 52-17 who’s-your-daddy beatdown that left Kiffin bemoaning his line of scrimmage.
He addressed that in the portal, his defensive line better than his offensive one, and while the Rebels’ injury-riddled offense had sputtered at times before Saturday’s 63-point outburst at Arkansas the defense – the front seven in particular – has held up its end of the deal.
If the Rebels are to beat Georgia it will be because the defense has been extraordinary, and the offense has managed enough.
That’s how these games go.
Beating Georgia – something the Rebels have done once in the last 11 meetings – guarantees nothing as the playoffs go, but it would give Ole Miss a rock-solid “look at me” resume bullet point. Whatever the South Carolina game might become it won’t have that star power.
Oddly, an Ole Miss win would also make Georgia a two-loss team and would contribute to a likely glut of two-loss SEC teams saying “look at me” to the committee. Right now there could be as many as seven.
Can you imagine the Rebels going up against Texas or Alabama to try to squeeze into the field? Do you like those odds for Ole Miss?
But teams can dream, at least until they have a third loss.
One of the things that makes College Football magical is Game Day. Coaches, players and fans live for it. As soon as one is decided they’re focused on the next.
It’s not the same environment as basketball that plays twice a week or baseball that plays three times on a weekend.
The week ahead
So Kiffin, after ghost-busting the Fayetteville demons, has a week to figure out how to spark a run game that lost starter Henry Parrish against the Hogs, a week to figure out how to scheme Tre Harris open in a likely return to action and how to put Jordan Watkins, fresh off his five touchdown-performance, in position for more big plays.
The anticipation is building. Ole Miss media relations is already asking any approved media who, for whatever reason, won’t make it to the game to please let them know, there’s great demand for those seats.
The Kentucky loss still matters if the Rebels win the biggest game in what will be the most electric campus atmosphere since LSU in 2003, but they would then firmly announce themselves as a legitimate playoff contender worthy of the preseason hype.
They would also show they’ve crossed to the other side of the gap, and that might be just as important.
Parrish Alford
