Ole Miss’ 2013 opener turned into a night of back-and-forth chaos, and in the middle of it all was senior Jeff Scott, who made sure Hugh Freeze’s freshmen walked off the field with a win.
Scott ripped off a 75-yard touchdown run with 1:07 remaining, lifting Mississippi to a 39-35 victory over Vanderbilt in a wild season opener Thursday night. The Rebels had already rallied once, then twice, in a game that flipped four times and never really settled down.
Vanderbilt had grabbed a 35-32 edge just 23 seconds earlier on Austyn Carta-Samuels’ 34-yard touchdown pass to Steven Scheu. But Ole Miss answered immediately, and Scott’s burst to the end zone delivered the final blow.
"We stole one tonight," Freeze said. "We didn't necessarily play that well, particularly defensively in the second half. But one of the staples of our program since I've been here is that you play for 60 minutes and you do not blink and you play until the whistle blows at the end of the game."
The Commodores still had one more shot to keep the Southeastern Conference’s longest winning streak alive, but Cody Prewitt picked off a pass off Jordan Matthews’ hands with 26 seconds left to seal it. The Rebels also snapped a three-game slide against Vanderbilt, including last year’s painful 27-26 loss in Oxford.
Scott said the memory of that finish mattered.
"I knew we had to make something happen," Scott said. "Last year, it was very painful.
They came back. It was basically the same situation.
We didn't want to go through that again and feel that pain. We can't.
It is a long ride back home."
Bo Wallace powered Ole Miss’ comeback after the Rebels fell behind by 11, running for two touchdowns and hitting freshman Laquon Treadwell on the 2-point conversion. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, gave up 29 second-half points, its most since allowing 20 to Florida in its previous loss on Oct. 13 of last season.
The defeat also ended a seven-game winning streak for the Commodores, who were playing in their first home season opener sellout since 1996 against Notre Dame.
"The game is never won, just like it was never won last year when we were down at their place and came back and won," Vanderbilt coach James Franklin said. "They did the same thing to us. We got a taste of our own medicine."
Freeze’s highly touted recruiting class was on display right away. Nine freshmen saw the field in their first game, with Treadwell starting and leading the team with nine catches for 82 yards. Freshman tight end Evan Engram added five receptions for 61 yards.
Defensive end Robert Nkemdiche, the consensus No. 1 player coming out of high school, also started and picked up 11 rushing yards on a fake punt on fourth-and-1 late in the first half.
Still, the biggest moment belonged to Scott. He took the handoff, got outside a defensive lineman, and outran Vanderbilt to the end zone.
Andre Hal had a final chance to bring him down at the 20, but Scott slipped away. He finished with 138 yards on 12 carries.
"I knew that it would be a good run play," Freeze said. "Obviously, I didn't know it would go all the way to the house. But I thought it would be a good run play."
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