Ole Miss has been nothing short of spectacular in their playoff run so far. While their first game was against a weaker opponent, Tulane, they did what good teams are supposed to do: took care of business in a commanding way, blew the doors off Tulane, and ended their season with a 41-10 win. They followed that dominant performance by getting their revenge on Georgia, who they lost to in October, beating them in the Sugar Bowl 39-34, and gave college football fans an instant classic of a game.
Ole Miss has been doubted from the very beginning of these College Football Playoffs due to former head coach Lane Kiffin’s departure to LSU. Still, for a team that’s dealt with the distraction of Kiffin’s decision throughout most of the season, it wasn’t anything new for them. They haven’t skipped a beat, and now they find themselves as one of the last four teams alive in this tournament. Here’s how they’ve done it.
Ole Miss sits alone atop the SEC mountain
Trinidad Chambliss
One of the most intriguing stories of the season as a whole, Trinidad Chambliss wasn’t supposed to be in this position. He was brought to Ole Miss after leaving Ferris State, where he won a DII national championship last season. Chambliss was the backup to start the season behind Austin Simmons, and once Simmons got hurt, Chambliss took over and never looked back.
In his most recent performance against Georgia, Chambliss was spectacular. He made all the throws a star QB makes in high-leverage moments, throws on the run, back-shoulder fades, and strikes down the middle of the field. He was in a zone that very few quarterbacks in College Football can enter. He was doing all of this while running for his life at times as well. Maybe the most impressive part of the performance is that Georgia brought pressure consistently and still didn’t sack Chambliss once.
The performance was so exceptional that it drew comparisons to Heisman winners Kyler Murray and Johnny Manziel. Chambliss finished the night completing 30-46 passes, throwing for 362 yards and two touchdowns.
Charlie Weis Jr.
Despite losing Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss not electing to let him coach during the playoffs, offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. was allowed to stay with the Rebels for their playoff run thus far, and he’s been nothing short of a genius calling the plays on offense; it felt like every time Ole Miss needed a spark against Georgia, Weis Jr dialed up a beautiful scheme to create openings for his receivers downfield.
In two playoff games without Kiffin in the building, the Ole Miss offense has put up 970 yards of total offense. Weis Jr has shown that even without Kiffin, he can dial up the offense at an elite level, so much so that he has drawn interest from an NFL team, as the Giants showed interest in his services as recently as this week.
Weis Jr will be the offensive coordinator at LSU next season under Kiffin, but with how impressive the offensive play calling has been for the Rebels this postseason, there could be real buzz about Weis Jr taking a head coaching job in the next few years.
Weis Jr is going to call the offense for Ole Miss in their upcoming match-up against Miami. After that, it’s uncertain whether he’d call the offense in the National Championship game. Other coaches have started to leave the program for Baton Rouge after the Georgia win. Running backs coach Kevin Smith, tight ends coach Joe Cox, and receivers coach George McDonald are all heading back to LSU as portal season is in full swing.
Defensive improvements
The question mark for Ole Miss all season was if the defense could consistently create stops and set up the offense for success. Throughout the year, the defense shown vulnerabilities. In their first matchup against Georgia, the Bulldogs didn’t punt once. In their playoff rematch, the defense looked like a whole new unit, flying around, being aggressive in pursuit of the quarterback, and not letting the Bulldog receivers get their way as they did in the first matchup.
Georgia totaled 510 yards of total offense in their first matchup against the Rebels; that total dropped to 343 at the Sugar Bowl, and while 343 yards of offense is still good enough to win a lot of games, it’s still a considerable improvement from the Ole Miss defense. Most importantly, they made timely stops at the most crucial points of the game.
The play of the game was a third-down pass attempt, when Ole Miss safety Wydett Williams Jr. swatted a ball down that would’ve likely won Georgia the game, resulting in an incompletion from Gunner Stockton to tight end Oscar Delp. Georgia was then forced to kick a field goal and give the ball back to the Rebels, who then drove for a game-winning field goal.
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