The Rebels toppled the Tigers with stellar performances from both the offense and defense in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 27. This was the first Magnolia Bowl matchup in 66 years where both teams came into the game undefeated, and LSU won the last matchup in 1959. Today, however, was a different tale.
“I hope our fans had a good day and I appreciate them not rushing the field,” head coach Lane Kiffin said in his postgame press conference. “To me it’s really cool to be at a place with a program where you beat the No. 3 team in the nation and you don’t rush the field.”
First half
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium was rocking to begin the game and the atmosphere was electric, with players and the crowd alike hyped for the game.
Ole Miss won the toss and elected to receive. A false start penalty pushed the offense back to a third-and-10 that Trinidad Chambliss failed to convert. LSU safeties were covering De’Zhaun Stribling and Harrison Wallace III very well. This forced numerous poor throws from Chambliss to start the game and led to two straight drives with zero yards gained for the Rebel offense.
The Tigers capitalized with the first touchdown of the game off a defensive deflection that LSU wide receiver Nic Anderson was able to corral in the end zone.
Chambliss started the Rebs’ third drive with a dart to Dae’Quan Wright for 12 yards. This revitalized the Rebel offense and resulted in their longest drive of the year, an 18-play, 83-yarder.
The game plan then shifted to rely more on option plays, quick throws and sweep plays. This helped Chambliss settle down and lead the offense more effectively.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to. You want a fast start as an offense to set a tone,” Chambliss said in his postgame interview. “It didn’t affect us and we knew we were a great offense and could push the ball against the defense.”
The Landshark defense attempted to establish momentum, but four costly defensive penalties in the first quarter, including a shaky pass interference call on third-and-five, a hands to the face personal foul and an offsides penalty, wiped any progress they tried to create.
For the second week in a row, Deuce Alexander emerged as an offensive star. He showed off his athletic prowess with a difficult physical catch for 23 yards and immediately followed that with a 16-yard catch where he showed his run-after-catch abilities and juked out several Tiger defenders.
The LSU defense had poor coverage on Cayden Lee and allowed him to run free and make a 32-yard catch, but he fumbled while getting tackled just short of the end zone. LSU got the ball back, then a crippling holding penalty resulted in a three-and-out for the Tigers.
“Our number one rule in the program is to take care of the ball and I’ll take responsibility for that,” Lee said in his postgame press conference.
Back-to-back pass interference calls on LSU helped the Rebel offense score their first touchdown of the game with about five minutes left in the half to go up 10-7. Kewan Lacy added to his season total of seven touchdowns with an explosive 15-yard run to cap off the drive.
In true Kiffin fashion, Ole Miss converted a fourth-and-two from the LSU 14-yard line with about 30 seconds left in the half. Chambliss capped off the drive with a two-yard touchdown pass to Lee off a nice play design to end the half up 17-7.
Penalty flags were thrown frequently during the first half. While some went in Ole Miss’ favour, many destroyed Rebel momentum on both sides of the ball. Ole Miss had 10 penalties for 69 yards and LSU had six penalties for 74 penalty yards.
Second half
The Ole Miss defense played ferociously to open the second half. Kam Franklin contributed with a quarterback hurry and Will Echoles had an eight-yard sack. That was the first sack for the defense since the Kentucky game three weeks ago.
Ole Miss persevered and halted the LSU offense, though Chambliss made his first huge mistake in his Rebel career with about three minutes left in the third quarter. Chambliss tried targeting Alexander, but the coverage was too tight and LSU’s PJ Woodland intercepted the ball.
The defense remained firm yet again, and the Tiger offense was held to three points off of a 48-yard field goal to bring the game within four points, 17-13.
Chambliss finally rekindled the Rebel offense with a positive play at the end of the third quarter. He threw a 26-yard completion to Wright. This was quickly thwarted by Ole Miss’ 12th penalty of the day: a holding call on guard PJ Wilkins.
A holding call on Stribling took away an 11-yard first down rush by Lacy. This was the 13th penalty on the Rebels and the crowd was growing increasingly frustrated with the referees. Boos kept raining down all game, yet with every penalty on the Rebels, they kept responding positively.
A huge drop by LSU’s Kaleb Jackson set up one of the most pivotal moments of the game. On fourth-and-two Nussmeier found Kyle Parker, who fully extended his body to barely stretch the ball for a first down.
With about five minutes left in the game, LSU scored on a six-yard touchdown run by Harlem Berry to make the score 24-19. LSU tried a two-point conversion to bring the game within a field goal, but a rush attempt by Ju’Juan Johnson was thwarted to keep the score 24-19.
The Ole Miss offense got the ball back and needed to either drain the clock or score. The drive started off well with 36 rushing yards off the bat and about three minutes off the clock.
On a third-and-four with less than two minutes to go Chambliss kept the ball on a quarterback run. However, he got only about one yard, but more importantly he ran out of bounds, which stopped the clock.
Lane Kiffin’s career has been based on his aggressive playstyle. On fourth-and-three with the game on the line, he went for it. Chambliss had nerves of steel on the biggest moment of his career. In front of more than 67,000 fans he snapped the ball and threw to a wide open Wright for 20 yards.
This play sealed the game and notched the sixth Rebel top-five win at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in program history and the fourth top-five win against LSU.
“Leading Ferris (State) to the national championship definitely was a big goal of mine, a big college win, and then today obviously leading the team to a win against No. 4 LSU, our rivals, is a dream come true. Great team win,” Chambliss said.
What’s next?
The Rebels have a bye week to rest after this monumental win before being back at home on Oct. 11 against Washington State. That game will kick off at 11:45 a.m. and will be streamed on SEC Network.
