OXFORD – While Sunday proved to be a historic day for the Ole Miss football program, there was no watch party or celebration to be seen in the Manning Center. The expectation for the Rebels is to consistently compete for championships and for selection shows to become status quo.
Ole Miss earned a berth in the 2025 College Football Playoff and will host a first-round game against Tulane on Dec. 20 at 2:30 p.m. It is the Rebels’ (11-1, 7-1 SEC) first ever berth in the CFP.
Ole Miss is the No. 6 seed in the 12-team bracket, while Tulane is the No. 11 seed. The teams met in the regular season, as the Rebels defeated the Green Wave 45-10 on Sept. 20.
With its victory over Mississippi State in last Friday’s Egg Bowl, Ole Miss secured its first 11-win regular season in program history and its first seven-win SEC campaign since 2003. The Rebels have notched double-digit wins in three-straight seasons for the first time ever.
The matchup at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will mark the first game as head coach for Pete Golding, who was elevated from his defensive coordinator role last weekend following Lane Kiffin’s departure to LSU. Golding has been the Rebels’ defensive coordinator the last three seasons.
“I called the player’s council in last week and I was like, ‘Look, the selection show Sunday, we can have a party if you want to. We can have a watch party. But to me, this is the expectation,” Golding said Sunday. “ … If you want to have a party and blow balloons up and have food, I’m good with it. Y’all are going to decide that. But we could be in there breaking it down and getting a good game plan together so we’re having a party after the game.’ And they were all on board.”
Following a 10-3 season where they came up agonizingly short of the CFP due to a late-season loss at Florida, the Rebels lost eight NFL draft picks and returned just four combined starters on both sides of the ball heading into 2025. Ole Miss was picked to finish seventh in the SEC preseason poll and were ranked No. 21 in the preseason AP Poll. Redshirt sophomore Austin Simmons started the first two games of the season at quarterback but gave way to Ferris State senior transfer quarterback Trinidad Chambliss for the final 10 games.
Behind Chambliss and a reinvigorated running game fueled by sophomore Missouri transfer and Doak Walker Award finalist Kewan Lacy, Ole Miss finished the regular season averaging 37.3 points per game, good for 11th nationally and third in the SEC. Chambliss has thrown for 3,016 yards, run for another 470 yards and has 24 combined touchdowns running and passing. Lacy has already set the single-season program record with 20 rushing touchdowns and has 1,279 rushing yards, which is eighth in the FBS. Five different Ole Miss receivers have at least 450 receiving yards this season, and the Rebels’ 498.1 total yards per game is third nationally.
Under Golding’s guidance, Ole Miss is tied for 25th in scoring defense (20.1 points per game) despite returning just two starters – junior linebackers TJ Dottery and Suntarine Perkins – and losing the core of a defensive line that helped Ole Miss lead the nation in sacks per game last year. Ole Miss is 20th nationally in passing yards per game allowed (182.6) and has surrendered just 164.4 yards per game through the air since the Rebels’ lone loss on Oct. 18 at Georgia.
“(With) adversity in anybody’s life, you’re going to do one of two things. You’re going to attack it or you’re going to run,” Golding said. “I think the mentality of this team – I’m not saying it wasn’t that prior to – I think we’ve got a lot of really good players on this team. We have a lot of guys wired the right way that are tough and competitive and play together. And so I think certain events happen at certain times for reasons. Sometimes it brings people together and they go on a h**l of a run. Sometimes it breaks people apart.
“And so I think that’s our responsibility as a coach, to be there for them right now. But I think we have a very unique group that’s really not concerned with who’s running the remote right now.”
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