By Sean Labar
Lane Kiffin has revitalized the Ole Miss football program — and coming off a massive win over Georgia over the weekend — the Rebels are in prime position to make the College Football Playoff if they win their final three games.
Since 2021, the Georgia Bulldogs have been the premier team in the country, with their only losses in three seasons coming against Alabama.
The Bulldogs head into their late September showdown against the Tide with a school-record streak of 42 straight regular-season wins, as well as a school- and SEC-record 28 consecutive conference regular-season wins. Georgia had also won its last 16 games in its opponent’s home stadium. Previous to that meeting, the last time the Bulldogs came up short in a true road game was at Alabama in 2020.
The Crimson Tide ended those streaks, knocking off Georgia 41-34 on Sept. 28.
But coming into this season, Kiffin fully understood that beating Georgia would be pivotal if Ole Miss wanted to compete for SEC championships and make the College Football Playoff. Last year, the Rebels finished with an impressive (11-2) record but weren’t remotely competitive against Georgia, falling 52-17.
Saturday’s home clash against Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs was a much different outcome. Ole Miss was the more physical team on both sides of the ball and it proved to be the difference, with the Rebels coming away with an impressive (28-10) win.
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In years past, Georgia would dominate at the line of scrimmage, and beat opponents up with a vicious ground game that set up big passes on offense, and a stifling defense that made it impossible for opposing offenses to function.
But on Saturday, it was Ole Miss that dominated the line of scrimmage. The Rebels held UGA to 245 yards of total offense, with just 59 of those coming on the ground. They put pressure on Bulldogs’ QB Carson Beck all afternoon and forced three turnovers. On offense, they had a balanced attack, averaging 6.2 yards per play and constantly putting Georgia on its heels.
On Tuesday, Kiffin joined the Dan Patrick show and was asked if he did anything special to prepare for Georgia. Kiffin then revealed the entire offseason has been focused on knocking off the Bulldogs.
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“The best thing that happened to us, is Georgia beat us pretty good a year ago,” Kiffin said.
“And the feeling of seeing how that game went, and being bullied around on really the line of scrimmages, classic Georgia what they do to a lot of people. We made the decision we have to change our line of scrimmages, even though we won 11 games last year, we wanted to beat Georgia.”
“I just felt that Georgia was far and away the top program in college football, they could have won the national championship last year and really outside of Alabama, nobody has beat Georgia since COVID. If you’re going to win you have to go through Georgia so you better build you team to beat Georgia, especially when they are on your schedule and given the potential you may have to play them twice.”
It’s clear Lane Kiffin’s plan worked — and now with the SEC wide open in 2024 — the Rebels are in great shape to make a run in the postseason.
