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David Hale
New Orleans–the day after tomorrow ole miss After achieving its biggest win in decades, the team adopted its usual “Fast Friday” routine, including a dry run for kick offs at the end of the game. lucas carneiro Lined up near the 30-yard line, headed toward the north end zone, advanced toward the ball, and kicked.
He missed.
Rebels coach Pete Goulding ran the same routine again and got the same result. It wasn’t until the third try that Carneiro landed an overhead boot to mercifully end the slow “Fast Fridays” before the Sugar Bowl.
This routine can serve as a perfect analogy for this Ole Miss team’s run to the College Football Playoff semifinals. There has been drama and uncertainty for weeks and there are many reasons to believe the facade would collapse, but when it mattered most, the rebels delivered.
With six seconds remaining and the score tied, Carneiro kicked a 47-yard field goal from almost the same spot where he had missed the day before, helping defeat Ole Miss. Georgia 39-34 Thursday as the Rebels head to the Fiesta Bowl where they will face No. 10 Miami.
“He took out his mulligans [Wednesday]” Golding said after Thursday’s win.
If it was all symbolism — a kick that underlined Ole Miss’s role as college football’s official team of destiny after coach Lane Kiffin’s humiliating exit for LSU a month earlier — no one inside the Rebels locker room is eager to embrace the metaphor.
“We’re not focusing on luck or anything like that,” the quarterback said. trinidad chamblisWho threw for 362 yards, including a 40-yard touchdown. D’jaun Stribling On 3rd and 5 with 32 seconds remaining to set up the winning kick. “We just want to play ball and have fun. A lot of people doubted us – before the season, then when our coach left. But we’re just having fun, and I think it shows.”
For a month the players avoided questions about their late coach. The offensive staff, who have already been ticketed for full-time roles at LSU, have pulled double duty, game-planning for the Rebels during the day and working early mornings and late nights for Kiffin. And Goulding has produced consecutive playoff wins in his first two games as interim head coach.
“Guys, this is a mature group,” said Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter. “The leadership in the locker room showed on the field. They never panicked. They just kept going. It wasn’t a perfect game, but they kept going and found a way to win.”
Even as Ole Miss was preparing for Thursday’s Sugar Bowl, Kiffin’s presence loomed large.
Rumors swirled earlier in the week that Kiffin, the guest of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, would attend the game. On Tuesday night, Kiffin tweeted a photo of LSU’s coaching staff working during a “late night meeting.” Many of the same coaches were in the Ole Miss meeting room hours earlier. Instead of the Sugar Bowl, Kiffin attended LSU’s women’s basketball game on Thursday, but he received an offer Demonstration of support for the rebels after Thursday’s victoryWhile Ole Miss players and staff worked to maintain a civil tone after Kiffin’s sudden departure, the Rebels’ Sugar Bowl performance felt like a team ridding itself of its past and embracing the moment,
“It was like a slap and a backhand,” Ole Miss defensive tackle zaxavian harris Said about Kiffin’s departure. “We took it personally, especially this game. It was also an individual game.”
And yet it wasn’t Kiffin’s influence or his absence that won the ole the game. It was a relentless ability to stand back up and fight again, to tailback kevan lacy Said.
“It never crossed my mind,” said Lacey, who rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns in the win. “We still have the same guys playing with the right mentality every game.”
If there was neither destiny that Carneiro connected on the same kick he had missed twice earlier in the day, nor magic that allowed Chambliss to dance through pressure repeatedly on an early fourth-quarter touchdown drive, nor luck that allowed Golding to become just the 11th coach with multiple playoff wins despite coaching only two career games.
It may not have given Ole Miss any extra motivation due to Kiffin’s departure, but as the Rebels erased a 10-point deficit in the second half and sent Georgia to its first loss in 75 games after blowing a lead entering the fourth quarter, it felt like more than just a win.
“Being around these guys on a daily basis, I don’t want it to end,” Golding said. “It’s definitely special. … I know everyone was doubting us this season, but the goal this season, why we came to Trinidad, was to compete for a championship. That’s something we’re going to do here on a consistent basis.”
