It was another beautiful sunny Saturday in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium as the Rebels clenched their seventh win of the season at home against the Auburn Tigers.
Attendance for the game was 65,243, which is the sixth-largest crowd that has been hosted at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
Offensively, Ole Miss rushed for 448 yards on 69 carries. True freshman running back Quinshon Judkins led with 25 carries for 139 yards and two touchdowns. He is currently leading all freshmen in rushing touchdowns and has scored 10 since Ole Miss’ first game on Sept. 3.
Running back Zach Evans caught a touchdown reception from 23 yards out. Evans played a strong running game against Auburn and has proved to be a promising offensive player for the Ole Miss Rebels, along with Judkins.
Not only does quarterback Jaxson Dart have a strong arm with great aim, but he also rushed 14 times for 115 yards. Dart is a natural leader on the field who is not afraid to run the ball.
Defensively, Ole Miss forced three turnovers against Auburn, and defensive end Jared Ivey recorded his second forced fumble and his first fumble recovery of the season. Auburn scored 34 points on Ole Miss, which is 14 more than their average this season.
“We did not tackle well this week,” head coach Lane Kiffin said after the game. “They announced that there was lightning within eight miles of here, and I said, ‘Well we ain’t got any run defense within eight miles of here. Maybe we can take the 30 minutes (delay in the game) to go figure it out.’”
Although the score remained close through the majority of the second half, Ole Miss was able to stay ahead of Auburn throughout the game.
During the third quarter, Rebel fans were on the edge of their seats when Ole Miss was only leading by one touchdown. But per usual, Judkins rushed into the Auburn end zone for 41 yards with six and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter, putting the Rebels ahead by an extra touchdown.
During the lightning delay, Kiffin said he “had a long time to sit in there (the locker room) to talk about finishing Auburn off.”
After the delay, Ole Miss’ defense Auburn kept out of the end zone, and the Rebel offense then got two first downs to close out the contest.
“The story of the game is that we didn’t stop the run and we ran the ball extremely well. There were a lot of people doing a lot of things right,” Kiffin said after the game. “We’re 7-0 which is great, but it’s only going to get harder.”
Next week, Ole Miss will travel to the Louisiana bayou to play LSU. The game will be played at 2:30 p.m. CDT on CBS.
