By Billy Watkins
OXFORD — With seven minutes left and a first-round College Football Playoff game firmly in Ole Miss’ grasp early Saturday evening, Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ On A Prayer” blasted over Vaught-Hemingway Stadium’s loudspeakers during a commercial break.
The largest crowd to ever witness a sporting event in Mississippi — 68,251 — began to sing along. They sang at the top of their lungs, and they continued to sing after the music stopped and as the Rebels’ offense ran a play.
Quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, a veteran of 12 NFL seasons and part of three Super Bowl wins under coach Bill Belichick, brought it up following the 41-10 rout of Tulane.
“Tonight was awesome, man,” Judge said. “That’s my second time in a postseason game where the crowd sang ‘Livin’ On a Prayer’’ without the music still playing. That’s one of the coolest things.
“Sometimes you can step back and realize the moment you’re in and how cool and exciting it really is — and be truly happy for the players. Because the game is about the players, right?”
That has been the motto around here since Pete Golding was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach on Nov. 30 — players first.
And the players, who had been mentally dragged through the mud for weeks by former head coach Lane Kiffin, showed up and showed out. The offense scored two touchdowns in its first seven plays. The defense produced an interception in between those scores. Tulane, 11-3, didn’t manage a touchdown until late in the game when Golding had sent in the reserves.
Ole Miss, 12-1, is one of eight out of 137 FBS teams still competing for a national championship.
The first playoff appearance and victory were properly celebrated in an atmosphere filled with light shows, fireworks, seating sections alternately striped in red and blue, a raucous “Are you ready?’ during the game by former Rebel and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Patrick Willis, Santa hats, blinking bracelets in time with the music, Archie and Eli Manning in attendance, country star Trace Adkins singing the national anthem, and tons of rockin’’ tunes.
Golding believes the victory will have a long-lasting effect.
“(We) can stop talking about what we’re gonna do,” Golding said. “That was one of the things that was a real struggle for me when I first got here (prior to the 2023 season) from the defensive side of the ball. Everything I showed them was from places I had been. ‘Hey, we’re gonna do ths’ and ‘we’re gonna do that.’
“We said we were gonna lead the SEC in defense. Well, we did that last year. That’s the expectation now. We’re pissed off because this season we didn’t.
“I think it will be the same thing for this next recruiting class — the expectation is to the make the playoffs . . . and for every class coming forward, that’s where the expectations is — a top 5 team in the country.”
A few hundred feet away, Tulane coach Jon Sumrall was giving reporters his view of Ole Miss’ future.
“Pete and I have been friends for a long time,” said Sumrall, who is leaving to become the new head coach at Florida. “We Facetimed four or five times the past couple of weeks. I’m very happy for him. He’s going to take great pride in being the head coach at Ole Miss. I think he’ll do a really good job.
“This place has gotten it going. Lane did a good job. I think Pete will do a good job. I think (athletic director) Keith Carter, (executive director of the Grove Collective) Walker Jones . . . all the people who have helped create the success here, it’s obvious they’re all pulling the rope in the right direction. That’s why there has been success created here. They’re all marching to the same beat.”
Sumrall inadvertently left out at least one person: Chancellor Glenn Boyce has supported the football program every way possible.
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Many outside of the program wondered how this team would respond after a three-week layoff and all the drama surrounding Kiffin’s exit. A few members of the staff who followed Kiffin to LSU helped prepare the team. Former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr. called the plays.
“I didn’t see anything different in the (Ole Miss) offense,” said Sumrall, whose team lost to the Rebels 45-10 on Sept. 20.
Golding wasn’t surprised the Ole Miss offense looked like . . . the Ole Miss offense.
“ I had zero concern with Charlie Weis calling this game, and for this one reason. All he’s heard is ‘Lane Kiffin’s offense, Lane Kiffin’s offense’ And this was his opportunity for our people to realize that Charlie Weis calls the offense, just like he’s done all year, and he did a great job tonight,” Golding said.
Some things changed. Players were no longer dunking a basketball after scoring a touchdown. The basketball goal could be at the bottom of Sardis Lake by now.
No more dunking was suggested by the players. Perhaps they saw the same dreaded possibility others did — the risk of tearing up a knee while performing a goofy celebration that the former head coach liked for some reason.
“It feels great to have a coach who listens to you and wants the best for you,” said sophomore wide receiver Deuce Alexander.
This is the first Ole Miss team to win 12 games. The program has lost just one home game in three years.
Doubters might say “Yeah, but the playoff win was against Tulane.”
It wasn’t about who the Rebels defeated. It was how they beat them. One penalty. One fumble late in the game. Extreme effort. Never allowing any doubt about which team’s season was going to end.
Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss threw for 282 yards and a touchdown. and he ran for 36 and two scores. Just another night at the mill for him.
Running back Kewan Lacy rushed for 87 yards and a score, his 21st of the season.
Alexander led receivers with seven catches on seven targets for 87 yards
Kicker Lucas Carneiro continued his outstanding season with two more field goals and five PATs.
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The next step in the playoffs— Jan. 1 in the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans — will be against a program that thrives this time of year. Georgia is seeded third and enjoyed a bye week after winning the SEC championship game Dec. 13. It beat Ole Miss 43-35 in Athens on Oct. 18. The Rebels led until early in the fourth quarter.
Georgia’s lone loss was by a field goal to Alabama in late September. The Dawgs have hit their stride with their running game.
“They will be physical, we know that,” said linebacker TJ Dottery. “And we will have to match that.”
Golding mentioned during a Zoom conference Monday that the defense had double-digit missed tackles in the first meeting, a disastrous way to play.
The early line has Georgia a touchdown favorite. There was a time, not too long ago, when the sight of Georgia’s helmet logo would’ve put Ole Miss a touchdown behind before the game started. That’s not the case any longer.
Judge was asked what part of the Rebels’ DNA made him believe this team is championship caliber.
“You see a team that is very unselfish,” Judge said. “You see a team that plays for each other, that is very accountable to each other and works extremely hard.
“They’ve been through a lot of games in a very tough conference. They’ve been able to win a lot of big games when they’ve been up, when they’ve been down. Closing games out when it mattered. Executing in different situations — two-minute drives, things of that nature.
“That’s the formula you have to have if you’re going to be successful. There are a lot of talented teams in the country sitting at home and watching others play right now. A lot of talented teams are sitting there because they don’t have a ‘team.’ ”
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