Paul Finebaum didn’t leave much room for hope after Georgia walked into Oxford and flattened Ole Miss.
After the Bulldogs’ 42-7 blowout, the SEC Network analyst said the Rebels’ College Football Playoff path was effectively gone, even though Ole Miss still has three games left and sits at 6-3. On ESPN’s SportsCenter with Randy Scott, Finebaum didn’t soften the message.
“Ole Miss, last rites have been administered by Pastor Kirby Smart. You are done. You cannot let this happen at your house.”
Finebaum had already spent part of Saturday in Oxford watching Rebels fans celebrate LSU’s 31-13 home loss to Alabama, which marked the third defeat of Lane Kiffin’s first season in Baton Rouge. Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU before last year’s playoff, and Finebaum made sure to note the irony. “Karma is a, you know what,” he said.
By the time Georgia finished its work, the numbers told the story. The Bulldogs scored touchdowns on four of their first six possessions and took a 28-0 lead into halftime.
They ran for 295 yards, while Ole Miss managed just 66 on the ground. Gunner Stockton was sharp all night, throwing four touchdown passes and adding another score on the ground.
Three of those touchdown throws went to Talyn Taylor.
It was a rough night in every sense for the Rebels. Smart had been winless in two previous trips to Oxford, but he finally left with a statement win, snapping Ole Miss’ 16-game home winning streak and handing the Rebels their worst home loss since Alabama beat them 62-7 in 2018.
Finebaum tied the collapse back to Ole Miss’ earlier win over LSU, which looked like a season-defining moment at the time. “You beat LSU earlier in the season in the game of the century,” he said. “You forgot the best team in the country was dropping by later on.”
Pete Golding didn’t try to dress up what happened. “I did not see that coming.
I’m not going to lie to you,” the Ole Miss coach said. “We obviously did not have them ready to play, and that’s not the product that we want to put on tape.”
Trinidad Chambliss was at the center of both Ole Miss turnovers. KJ Bolden picked him off late in the second quarter, and Rasean Dinkins recovered a fumble after a third-quarter sack, setting up Georgia’s fifth touchdown.
Golding’s role in this season adds another layer to the result. After Kiffin’s exit, he was promoted from defensive coordinator and helped Ole Miss beat Georgia 39-34 in the Sugar Bowl quarterfinal last season before the Rebels fell 31-27 to Miami in the Fiesta Bowl semifinal.
Still, Finebaum said this year’s team won’t be part of the postseason conversation for long. “They will not be the story of the postseason this year,” he said. “They will barely be noticed in the postseason this time around.”
Ole Miss is not officially out. ESPN’s playoff predictor gave the Rebels a 41% chance to make the 12-team field after Week 10, though even a perfect finish may not be enough without help from other SEC teams.
Golding said the Rebels have to keep their focus on the next game rather than the committee. “We can’t control right now what the playoff committee thinks,” he said. “We’ve got to get ready for Oklahoma.”
Ole Miss heads to Oklahoma on Nov. 14 before finishing the regular season at home against Wofford on Nov. 21 and Mississippi State on Nov. 27.
In Other News...
Georgia Fans Got An Ugly Glimpse Of The Oxford Atmosphere
A tense scene unfolded at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium when a pass interference call against Ole Miss sparked a surge of frustration in the stands. Fans responded by throwing trash and bottles onto the field, forcing the game to stop for several minutes while officials and stadium staff tried to get the situation under control and asked the crowd to back off.
For Georgia fans watching from the other side, it was an ugly look at the Oxford atmosphere in a game that already had plenty of edge. The incident quickly spread beyond the stadium, drawing heavy attention and criticism on social media, and it added an unwelcome flashpoint to a matchup that was supposed to be decided on the field. [Read more 🡒]
Georgias Fast Start Turned Oxford Into An Ugly Scene
A tense moment in Oxford spilled beyond the field when a pass interference penalty against Ole Miss sparked a wave of trash thrown by Rebels fans. The scene forced a temporary stoppage of about six minutes, turning an already heated matchup with Georgia into something uglier and more chaotic than anyone inside the stadium wanted to see.
Ole Miss tried to get ahead of the situation by flashing a warning message on the video board, a reminder that the crowds actions could affect the game in more ways than one. In a matchup with plenty of emotion already baked in, the interruption became its own storyline, one that added an uncomfortable edge to a night the Rebels would have preferred to keep focused on football. [Read more 🡒]
SEC Criticism Of Lane Kiffin Just Got Harder For LSU To Ignore
The post-Alabama chatter around Lane Kiffin has only gotten louder, and not in a way that helps settle anything for LSU. Paul Finebaum took aim at Kiffin after the loss, arguing that the coachs rsum still leaves plenty of doubt when the opponent level rises and pointing to a pattern of success against lesser teams without the kind of breakthrough wins that change the conversation.
For LSU, the timing makes the criticism harder to brush aside. The Tigers are 6-3 in Kiffins first season, and the schedule ahead offers little room to hide, with Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas still looming. If Kiffin is going to quiet the questions about whether he can get LSU to the sports highest level, the next stretch feels like the place where that answer has to start taking shape. [Read more 🡒]