OXFORD – From the outside, a lot has changed for Ole Miss since the last time the Rebels took the field for the Egg Bowl. The key, however, is to keep things as familiar as possible this time of year when the stakes have never been higher.

Ole Miss secured its first ever 11-win regular season with a 38-19 victory over Mississippi State on Nov. 28 in Starkville. Lane Kiffin was still the Rebels’ head coach, though his immediate and long-term future remained in doubt given the pursuits of Florida and LSU for their head coaching vacancies. A chaotic weekend ensued and culminated in Kiffin officially taking the LSU job and third-year defensive coordinator Pete Golding being elevated to permanent head coach.

A week after all the dust settled, Ole Miss (11-1) officially earned its first berth in the College Football Playoff, where the sixth-seeded Rebels will face 11th-seeded Tulane (11-2) in the first round at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2:30 p.m., and the game will be broadcast on TNT and HBO Max. The Rebels and Green Wave played Sept. 20 in Oxford, a 45-10 Ole Miss win.

Saturday’s matchup will be Golding’s first as a head coach at any level, though he said he isn’t giving much thought to what it will be like leading the team out of the tunnel for the first time.

“To be honest with you, no. And I really don’t plan to. I think we owe this to the team, to the fans, to the university, to have blinders on right now,” Golding said. “I know what it takes to win football games, I know what it takes to be successful on defense. And it’s hard work, and you have to do it better than anybody else, and you have to be willing to do things that they’re not. I think when you start getting caught up in moments and start taking pictures and do all that, your focus is on the wrong thing.

“… Right now, I’m not trying to enjoy anything. I’m trying to prepare extremely hard and get a good plan in place for these players and hold them accountable to practice the right way and prepare the right way to give (themselves) the best chance.”

Golding has preached he isn’t trying to reinvent the things that have worked for the Rebels over the last few years, whether it’s him calling the defense or using a fast-paced offense that currently ranks third nationally in yards per game. He’s also aware Tulane likely isn’t going to veer from what it is, even if the game plan is “presented in a different way.” Teams are who they are by December.

“You don’t get to this point in college football and try to change who you are and change an offense and change the defense,” Golding said. “Your players feel that, they sense that, they’re not comfortable with that. This is going to be about preparing the right way, having really good execution and being the most excited to play.

“ … I’ve been fortunate to be at a lot of these. And it’s the team that’s most excited to play, that’s the most well-prepared, that practices the best and that’s going to make the least amount of mistakes. And those mistakes come from proper preparation.”

Lacy named AP All-American

Rebels star sophomore running back Kewan Lacy was named a second-team All-American by the Associated Press on Monday. Lacy, a Missouri transfer who was a finalist for the Doak Walker Award, has rushed for 1,279 yards and 20 touchdowns, which rank ninth and second in the FBS, respectively.