Ole Miss Football went into the half against Texas down 24-3, but by the end of the third, they had tied the game at 24. The Rebels played uninspiring football in the first half, and it cost them the game. Ole Miss fans surely got Fiesta Bowl flashbacks late in the fourth quarter.
With less than half the season to go, this loss certainly hurts the Rebels. They will now have to go undefeated to make the College Football Playoffs. Ole Miss faces Auburn, No. 5 Georgia, Oklahoma and Mississippi State to round out the season.
With just over eight minutes left in the game, Texas quarterback Arch Manning scored an uncontested touchdown after a fake handoff, strikingly similar to Miami quarterback Carson Beck’s game-winning score in the CFP semifinal last January.
Texas added a field goal with less than three minutes to go to make it a 10-point game. The contest came down to quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebel offense finding a way to score a touchdown with just seconds on the clock and no timeouts.
Chambliss is the core of the Ole Miss offense. The success of 2026 Rebel football essentially depends on him. In Week 8, on the road against Texas in a stadium with 100,000 plus people, Chambliss struggled mightily.
He was 6-of-18 for 63 yards and had two interceptions in the first half. Several of his passes were tipped at the line of scrimmage, nearly leading to more picks. He consistently missed receivers by wide margins.
In the postgame press conference, Chambliss credited himself as the reason for the Rebels’ lack of first half offense.
“(It was a) slow start offensively, and it starts with me. (I struggled with) getting the guys going, getting into a flow, just doing the little things that we are used to doing in practice and in games early on,” Chambliss said. “That just falls on me, I played terrible tonight and I can’t do that. I don’t want to feel this feeling again. I feel like I let my team down tonight and it’s the worst feeling ever.”
Chambliss ended the night 25-of-52 for 250 yards, two touchdown passes and three interceptions. He overlooked wide-open receivers on numerous occasions and was held to just seven rushing yards on five attempts.
Astonishingly, he had just two completions in the second quarter. The Rebels did not score a touchdown in the first half. The only reason they even came close to scoring six was because punter Oscar Bird had a 17-yard run on a fake punt.
Chambliss was level-headed in the second half, but that was certainly not the case in the first half. He will need to find more consistency for the rest of the season. At times this season, Chambliss has seemed restrained by the play-calling. In Week 8, he just did not execute.
Overall, the Ole Miss offense was not on the same page. Nothing worked, and Chambliss was at the center of it. Truthfully, the Rebels were able to come back in the second half thanks to the Longhorns’ 121 penalty yards.
Left tackle Terez Davis, who has been incredibly dependable this season, did not play. In his stead, right tackle Connor Howes shifted to the left side and Tommy Kinsler IV started on the right side. Davis’ presence was sorely missed. Chambliss was fighting for his life in the pocket all night.
Chambliss said that he did notice Davis’ absence, but that he did not assess it as the main problem. Rather, he said he was unable to make the correct throws.
“It definitely (was) harder I would say, but there’s no really drop off in the O-line room. I trust my guys,” Chambliss said. “Losing a player like Terez (Davis) and not having him dressed definitely impacts the game a little bit… I felt comfortable in the pocket, I just didn’t play my best.”
Ole Miss took just two trips to the red zone and only scored once. Prior to today, they scored on every red zone possession. Meanwhile, Texas was 5-for-5 in the red zone and totaled 27 points between the 20s.
Unfortunately, the Rebel run defense did not show up like it did against Missouri, allowing 207 yards and three touchdowns on the ground. Several big runs midway through the fourth quarter allowed Texas to reclaim the lead. Had Ole Miss shut down a couple of those runs, the end result would be different.
The tide shifted in the second half when edge rusher Blake Purchase strip-sacked Texas quarterback Arch Manning and defensive end Kam Franklin fell on the ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
Chambliss found receiver Horatio Fields in the end zone to make it a one-score game. In the fourth, he connected with Fields again to tie it.
After falling down by 10, Rebel head coach Pete Golding elected to kick a field goal, then attempt an onside kick. Both were successful, and Ole Miss got the ball back down by seven. The Rebels showed real fight late in the game, a good sign for the first of the season, but it was not enough to secure the win.
