When Ole Miss made the college football playoff, the only two outcomes were the euphoria of winning the whole thing and the brutal nature of finality if they fell short. And, friends, the finality, not the outcome, was brutal.
One minute, everything was there for the taking, and then, in a flash, the unprecedented 4-month ride that created so much joy was over. No easing into it, no let’s take a minute to appreciate what happened, no preparing for a loss. The end.
How Ole Miss lost to Miami made sense (more on that in a minute!), but the difficult part was accepting no more games with this team, especially seeing how crushed they were. I will always remember De’Zhaun Stribling standing by himself after the game and staring into the void.
As for players and coaches, who have more invested than any of us, I heard former Villanova basketball coach Jay Wright talk about what it’s like when a season ends in tournament play. A team spends months together working to get to a place to give themselves a chance to win the title, and it never crosses their mind the season will end with a loss.
And when it does, it’s heartbreaking and devastating. Nothing can prepare them for the finality and accompanying pain.
None of the players and coaches will ever read this, but what we fans got to experience in the 2025 season, because of them, was something I never thought would happen in my lifetime. An 11-1 regular season and a handful of plays away from playing for a national title. What a gift.
Who knows if we’ll climb that mountain again, but they showed it can be done at Ole Miss. A salute to our 13-2 sons and coaches for the last 4+ months and how to-my-core special it was.
What we know
Big picture reasons for the Fiesta Bowl loss
I told people on the way to the game that if Ole Miss did dumb things to lose, it would be frustrating and bring on a lifetime of if we had just not done this, this, and this, we would’ve won. But that didn’t happen.
Ole Miss lost because they didn’t play an efficient game on offense and didn’t have enough defensive players to overcome fatigue and injuries. All season, the defense was a thin group that didn’t rotate a lot and couldn’t afford any injuries, and that caught up with them.
Playing interior defensive linemen for 70-80 snaps, combined with injuries to the second-best linebacker (Andrew Jones) and best safety (Wydett Williams Jr.), was not sustainable and made the margin for error zero. There were too many missed assignments and technique mistakes in missed tackles and undisciplined pass rushes, which appeared at various points throughout the year.
And obviously, Kewan Lacy tweaking his hamstring was KIND OF A BIG DEAL. To his credit, he came back (and wasn’t the same), but the Ole Miss offense became super pass heavy, which wasn’t ideal.
Stats of note in the Fiesta Bowl loss
If you told me Ole Miss finished with the following advantages:
- Tackles for loss (5 to 1)
- Sacks (4 to 1)
- Yards per play (6.6. to 5.2)
- Yards per rush (5.8 to 3.7)
- +1 turnover margin
- 6 fewer penalties (40 yards)
I would’ve said SEE YOU IN MIAMI ON THE 19TH.
Unfortunately, the Hurricanes’ offense wrecked Ole Miss on 3rd/4th downs, and the Rebels’ offense was awful on 3rd down:
- Miami – 11 of 19 on 3rd down, average distance to go of 7.6 yards
- Ole Miss – 2 of 10 on 3rd down, average distance to go of 6.6 yards
Miami was also 2 of 2 on 4th down. Oh, and just as another kick in the teeth, Carson Beck was 7 of 9 for 85 yards on 3rd down, and Trinidad Chambliss was 1 of 6 for 11 yards.
If you’re wondering how Miami ran 88 plays to Ole Miss’ 60, there you go! Ole Miss couldn’t get off the field on defense, and Miami could.
And finally, outside of Lacy’s explosive 73-yard touchdown run, Ole Miss had 20 carries for 48 yards. And if you take away Chambliss’ 19-yard run, that’s 19 carries for 29 yards. NOT GONNA GET IT DONE, BOB.
Offensive summary
A dynamic group that was one of country’s best at generating explosive plays. They were prone to periods of inefficiency, and the offensive line got better as the year went on, but they were the weakest link.
Ole Miss didn’t pay much of a price for a middling offensive line due to Chambliss’ ability to avoid sacks and get the ball out quickly, as well as Lacy’s ability to get yards after contact, which limited negative plays.
Obviously, the Chambliss story was wild, and what a treat it was to watch him. I remember thinking in his first start against Arkansas that, okay, this guy is at least a gamer. And then a few games later realizing, okay, wait, this guy is a gamer and really good.
Defensive summary
They evolved from a not great defense to one that was fine against average to bad offenses. They couldn’t generate sacks or turnovers at a high rate, but they found a way to do enough when it mattered (obviously helped by an offense that scored 30 or more points in 7 regular season SEC games).
It was a group limited in overall talent, but, friends, they squeezed every drop of talent out of the group. This was most on display in the Fiesta Bowl when, based on who was available and fatigue, they should’ve crumbled but didn’t.
Even on Miami’s go-head touchdown drive in the final minutes, with the needle well below the E on the fuel gauge, they made the Hurricanes put together a 15-play drive.
Finally
There were many things to love about the 2025 team, but one that will stick with me is how mentally tough they were, both within games and during the horseshit brought on by their former adult child head coach, who did his best to wreck them on the way out.
Having seen many an Ole Miss team fold for any number of bad reasons, it was enjoyable to watch this group become a team that, if you wanted to beat them, you had to kill them. They weren’t going to #WAOM their way into losing a game like so many teams before them. That alone puts them in rarified air for Ole Miss football.
So, to the 2026 team, take some notes, and let’s spend next December and January once again ignoring all fiscal responsibility.
