The Ole Miss football team plummeted in the latest top 25 poll from the Associated Press after a gut-wrenching overtime loss at LSU.
Lane Kiffin’s squad now sits at No. 18 with hopes of making a debut in the expanded College Football Playoff on life support. In what was dubbed by players, coaches, and fans as “the last dance” in reference to the Michael Jordan documentary series, Ole Miss has a stunning two losses through seven games.
Last season, eventual Heisman-winning LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels heaved a pass into the end zone that was broken up by the Ole Miss secondary, sealing a Rebel victory at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. On Saturday, the pendulum swung in the opposite direction in the all-too-familiar Death Valley at night.
After Rebel kicker Caden Davis knocked in a 56-yard field goal to give his team a 26-23 lead in overtime, Brian Kelly dialed up a deep shot on the Tigers’ first play from scrimmage, and Garrett Nussmeier found Kyren Lacy in the end zone to walk it off in front of 102,212 fans.
A first half plagued with missed opportunities ultimately proved costly in Ole Miss’ (5-2, 1-2 SEC) attempt at playing spoiler in Tiger Stadium for the first time since 2008. Kiffin’s team had a deep ball uncharacteristically dropped by standout wide receiver Tre Harris, a missed field goal, a turnover on downs in the red zone after the defense picked off a pass in Tiger territory, and a fumble that gifted No. 13 LSU (5-1, 2-1 SEC) points.
Errors aside, Ole Miss maintained a lead for the overwhelming majority of the contest, but the stars all aligned for LSU on the 100th anniversary of Death Valley and Tiger fans stormed the field to celebrate a top-10 win.
“We were the better team for the majority of the game, but in the end, you have to close them out,” Kiffin said. “We left a lot of points there and still, after that, we were ahead with the ball in the fourth quarter. It was a tough one.”
Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart completed 24 of 42 passes for 284 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. Though he had played sparingly early in the season, Kiffin turned to running back Ulysses Bentley IV in Matt Jones’ absence — and the speedy back delivered. Bentley had 108 yards and an explosive touchdown on 11 carries. Harris hauled in seven passes for 102 yards and a score.
Though Ole Miss had more total yards and arguably outplayed its SEC counterpart, the Tigers came out victorious, largely due to a clean pocket Nussmeier had been graced with all night. Offensive line play favored the home team with LSU not allowing its signal caller to be taken down in the backfield once. On the other side, Dart was sacked a career-high six times.
Rebel edge rusher Princely Umanmielen’s absence was felt all game as the defensive line seemingly could not force the pocket to collapse. On offense, Harris went to the injury tent and returned for just a couple of plays in the second half. From the mid-third quarter on, the nation’s leading wide receiver did not touch the field.
A full recap can be found here.
Ole Miss heads into a bye week. Two Saturdays from now, the Rebels will host No. 18 Oklahoma (4-2, 1-2 SEC) in the early time slot.
The full AP top 25 can be found below:
- Texas
- Oregon
- Penn State
- Ohio State
- Georgia
- Miami
- Alabama
- LSU
- Iowa State
- Clemson
- Tennessee
- Notre Dame
- BYU
- Texas A&M
- Boise State
- Indiana
- Kansas State
- Ole Miss
- Missouri
- Pittsburgh
- SMU
- Illinois
- Army
- Michigan
- Navy
