By Chris Marler
In front of a rain-soaked crowd and with a palpable feeling of desperation to keep their College Football Playoff hopes alive, Ole Miss earned arguably the biggest home win in program history.
For the crowd of pessimists and cynics (including myself), who have been waiting for Lane Kiffin to beat a top five team instead of just being a top five Twitter follow, he delivered. Finally. Finally, everything came together for Kiffin, Jaxson Dart, Pete Golding’s defense, and an Ole Miss program which had fallen flat on its face in this situation too many times over the last few years.
Not today. Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs came into Oxford as a 3.5 -point favorite and carrying a 30-3 record in road games as a favorite. Their loss to Alabama earlier this year was the only regular season loss for Georgia since the 2021 season. That streak ended with a 28-10 loss in Oxford Saturday.
It was Ole Miss who looked like the juggernaut, the more prepared team, and the better coached team on Saturday. Ole Miss held Georgia to 239 total yards of offense and harassed Carson Beck all day long. The Rebels forced three turnovers, held Georgia to just 2.2 yards per carry and had eight plays of 20 yards or more.
Late in the second half, when they finally extended their lead to two scores after a touchdown made it 22-10, Ole Miss did what vintage Kirby Smart and Nick Saban teams do. The defense never took their foot off Georgia’s proverbial throat, and forced three straight turnovers to put the game away.
Maybe I’m a prisoner of the moment, or maybe I’m still in shock after seeing Georgia get manhandled in the trenches by a Lane Kiffin coached team. But, it feels like this was not just a big win for Kiffin and the Ole Miss program. It feels like it was the validation, the confirmation, and the corner turning moment that they needed.
With the win, the Rebels’ odds to make the playoff increased from 35 percent to 65 percent. A loss would have put them under one percent. Ole Miss will have a bye week next week, and then close out their regular season with games at Florida and home against Mississippi State.
Georgia’s odds dropped from 86 to 72 percent, and they still have Tennessee on the schedule next Saturday.
