Throughout fall camp, head coach Pete Golding said he saw flashes of greatness from his team; the Rebels just needed to be more consistent. Many people, including myself, hoped this was just coach-speak or him underselling the team because he is a no-nonsense coach. However, Golding was 100% truthful, and that should not be a surprise.
After No. 9 Ole Miss’ 41-38 win over No. 24 Louisville on Sunday night, Golding echoed that sentiment in the postgame press conference.
“It’s too many highs and lows. There’s flashes of an elite football team, and there’s flashes of a bad football team. We’ve got to get those off the tape, and that’s our job as coaches,” Golding said.
Three of four games under Golding have been one-score games — the exception being the first-round College Football Playoff game against No. 11 Tulane last December. In the other contests, Ole Miss beat No. 3 Georgia in the playoff quarterfinal by five points and lost to No. 10 Miami in the semifinal by four. On Sunday, a Sugar Bowl-esque game-winning kick from Lucas Carneiro gave the Rebels a 1-0 start in a 3-point win.
In all three of those games, Ole Miss did not play particularly well. That Sugar Bowl win went down as one of the best games of the season and will be remembered for years to come, but fans may forget that Ole Miss went into the half down nine points. Running back Kewan Lacy fumbled, leading to a scoop-and-score touchdown for the Bulldogs, and the offense was dysfunctional early on.
Carneiro kept the Rebels in that game early with a couple of long-range field goals before quarterback Trinidad Chambliss had the half of his life, scrambling his way into an all-time great performance.
Ole Miss looked like a team playing without its head coach against an SEC opponent in the first half of that game. Growing pains were always going to happen, so it seemed logical. Still, the Rebels won, and all was forgiven.
They got off to another slow start offensively against Miami in the Fiesta Bowl. Lacy’s 73-yard touchdown run gave the Rebels their first points in the game.
Ole Miss went scoreless in the first quarter and struggled to bring down Hurricane ball carriers all night. Chambliss nearly threw a few interceptions, while Carneiro missed a field goal, though he made four others in the contest.
The Music City Kickoff was no different from the last two Ole Miss Football games last season, though this being Week 1 certainly factored into some disheveled plays. The game was full of memorable moments you wish you could forget and capped off with a storybook ending.
In the eight quarters against Louisville and Georgia, Ole Miss surrendered 18 or more points in a single quarter, but also allowed three or less points in four quarters. At times, the defense swarms the offense and takes over games. Other times, it looks lost and cannot make open-field tackles.
The Rebel defense had eight tackles for loss and three sacks. They allowed just 83 yards in the first half, but then allowed 386 yards in the second half.
In the first half on Sunday, the offense was painfully slow and inefficient. Chambliss successfully converted on a fourth down but fumbled after crossing the line-to-gain. Center Brycen Sanders delivered a high and wild snap, leading to a 3rd-and-forever. Even Carneiro booted a field goal attempt.
Winning these kinds of games has seemingly become the new normal for Ole Miss in the Golding era, and Chambliss spoke on these dramatic endings.
“I honestly hate these games. I don’t know why we do this. We like close, one-score games, but we got the win. That’s all that matters,” Chambliss said in a postgame press conference on Sept. 6.
As Golding gets more games as a head coach under his belt, Ole Miss fans will hopefully see more polished and complete games from the Rebels. Currently, going 1-0 every week is the team’s mindset, but at some point, how the team wins begins to matter.
Sloppy mistakes from Week 1 cannot be carried into the rest of the season. This team will not get where they want to go if both sides of the ball are malfunctioning at various points in games. Neither side has to be perfect every time, but blown coverages, missed tackles, miscommunications and a lack of explosiveness — with flashes of dominance mixed in — cannot become common practice.
The Rebels play in the Vaught for the first time since December this Saturday against Charlotte. That game will not be a real test for any element of Ole Miss’ game, but Golding and the team will need to make adjustments and be at their best against LSU in Week 3.
