Ole Miss came out of its season opener with two SEC weekly honors in hand after Deuce Alexander and Lucas Carneiro both got recognized for their work against No. 24 Louisville.
Alexander shared Offensive Player of the Week after a night that looked built for a highlight reel. The senior wideout from Douglasville, Georgia finished with a career-high 159 yards on five catches and scored twice. His first touchdown covered 62 yards, a catch-and-go down the right sideline that stood as the second-longest reception of his career, behind only his school-record 88-yarder from last season.
He found the end zone again in the third quarter on another 62-yard play, this time hauling in a deep ball from quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and outrunning the defense to finish the job.
Carneiro also split a weekly award, earning co-Special Teams Player of the Week after delivering the kind of finish kickers dream about. The Cornelius, North Carolina native drilled a 48-yard field goal as time expired to lift Ole Miss past Louisville, 41-38. He also knocked through a 43-yard field goal in the second quarter and went 5-for-5 on extra points, finishing with 11 points in the game.
That outing pushed Carneiro to 160 career points, moving him into 14th place on the school’s all-time scoring list. It also added another entry to a remarkable clutch-kicking résumé: he has now made three career game-winning field goals from 45 yards or more in the final 15 seconds of regulation, the most by any FBS kicker over the last 30 years.
In Other News...
Ole Miss Fans ESPN Moment Became A Much Bigger Story Than Expected
The season opener against Louisville gave Ole Miss plenty of drama on the field, but one fans reaction wound up getting nearly as much attention as the game itself. During ESPNs coverage, Sara M. Smith was shown looking understandably stressed after a Louisville touchdown, and the brief moment quickly took on a life of its own once it hit social media.
Smiths anxious expression spread fast enough to turn her into an unintended viral figure, prompting a flood of attention and forcing her to temporarily lock down her Instagram profile. It was a strange little subplot to a wild night in Oxford, where the Rebels eventually finished the job with a 41-38 win on a walk-off field goal. [Read more 🡒]
Ole Miss Win Comes With One Deuce Alexander Debate
Deuce Alexander turned in the kind of breakout day Ole Miss fans will remember from a wild 41-38 win over Louisville, hauling in two 62-yard touchdown receptions to help fuel the Rebels offense. He finished with five catches for 159 yards and two scores, giving the passing game a huge lift in a game that stayed tight deep into the afternoon.
Alexanders second touchdown also left behind a small bit of sideline debate, thanks to a celebration that came immediately after he crossed the stripe. On the play, he flipped the ball behind him and may have let it go before fully reaching the goal line, but the officials did not stop to review it, allowing the score to stand and Ole Miss to keep control of a game it could not afford to lose. [Read more 🡒]
Trinidad Chambliss Answered Ole Miss Biggest Week 1 Question
The most important thing Ole Miss needed to learn in Week 1 was whether Trinidad Chambliss could steady a game that might have gotten away early, and he answered it in a big way against Louisville. After a shaky start that included turnovers, Chambliss settled in and kept the Rebels on course in a back-and-forth matchup, piling up 386 passing yards and accounting for four touchdowns while helping Ole Miss survive a 41-38 finish.
What stood out most was how the game tightened around him late, when every possession mattered and the Rebels needed someone to handle the pressure instead of adding to it. In a weekend when a lot of SEC teams cruised through lopsided openers, Ole Miss got a real test, and Chambliss final drive gave the Rebels a much clearer idea of what they have under center as the season moves into a tougher stretch. [Read more 🡒]