The Ole Miss Rebels were one of the biggest wild cards in the College Football Playoff just because they had the distraction of losing head coach Lane Kiffin at the conclusion of the regular season. How would they respond to that sort of change just before their first College Football Playoff appearance, trying to win with an interim head coach?
As it turns out, they have responded quite well.
With Thursday’s 39-34 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, Ole Miss is now onto the semifinal of the CFP and is just two wins away from a national championship.
The Rebels will play Miami in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 8.
The biggest reason for their success: The play of quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacy. They played starring roles on Thursday, and as long as Ole Miss has them, it does not matter who their head coach is.
Trinidad Chambliss and Kewan Lacy are the impact-makers for Ole Miss
Head coaches might be important. And Lane Kiffin might be a really good one. But at the end of the day, these games still ultimately come down to players, and they especially come down to impact players.
Ole Miss has two of them in Chambliss and Lacy, and after demonstrating it all season, they may have played their best game of the season on Thursday.
Lacy finished the game rushing for 99 yards and two touchdowns, while catching two passes for an additional 12 yards.
He was fantastic. He was clutch.
But Chambliss was the one who really shined in the biggest moments, completing 30-of-46 passes for 362 yards, two touchdowns and zero interceptions.
It was also not just the numbers or volume of plays that stood out. It was the clutch plays and the highlight-reel plays.
At one point, he completed 13 consecutive passes. He kept plays alive with his feet and made seemingly impossible throws on the run. Perhaps his biggest pass of the night came late in the fourth quarter, in the final minute, just after Georgia had tied the game appearing to send it to overtime.
It was at that point when he completed a 40-yard pass to De’Zhaun Stribling to put Ole Miss into field-goal range.
That set the stage for the winning kick.