PHOENIX — Nothing about Mississippi’s path to the College Football Playoff has been conventional. The Rebels enter Thursday’s Vrbo Fiesta Bowl led by a coach who was hired in November, a staff in flux and a quarterback who, one year ago, was playing Division II football.
Yet, somehow, Ole Miss stands one win away from a national championship berth.
On Nov. 28, Ole Miss won its final regular season game at Mississippi State, which brought the program its first 11-win regular season.
On Nov. 30, coach Lane Kiffin informed Ole Miss he had accepted the LSU job, a significant conference rival.
The move sparked controversy across the NCAA, and the university denied Kiffin’s request to finish the season. This paved the way for defensive coordinator Pete Golding to take over as interim head coach.
Following Kiffin’s hiring at LSU, the Tigers brought in 11 new coaching additions, eight of whom came from Ole Miss.
Those who followed Kiffin to join LSU include offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator George McDonald, running backs coach Kevin Smith, tight ends coach and co-offensive coordinator Joe Cox, quarterbacks coach Dane Stevens and assistant coach Sawyer Jordan.
LSU’s administration is allowing Weis Jr. and Smith to continue coaching Ole Miss Thursday, while Cox and McDonald are not expected to be on the sidelines.
Miami coach Mario Cristobal had high praise for the way Golding has held the program together.
“I knew he was going to be a head coach,” Cristobal said at a news conference Wednesday morning, “but to be able to navigate all this during this time and still have the type of success that he is having, it’s off the charts.”
Despite all the chaos, Ole Miss has been able to hold true to its record. The Rebels earned the No. 6 seed in the College Football Playoff bracket. They handled No. 11 Tulane in the first round, which granted a chance at redemption in the Allstate Sugar Bowl against the one team that bested them during the regular season: Georgia.
Senior quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was exceptional in New Orleans, throwing for 362 yards and two touchdowns. With a tie score and less than a minute to play, Chambliss showed his senior poise and led the charge that put the Rebels in a position to win the game 39-34.
While coaching and staff personnel have been in a scramble, a shining light has emerged under center for the Rebels. In week three, Chambliss, a former Division II athlete, took over for starting quarterback Austin Simmons after Simmons went down with an ankle injury.
Chambliss transferred to Ole Miss in April after playing three years at Ferris State in Big Rapids, Michigan, where he won the Division II national championship months before. Chambliss’ experience competing for a title may not be as high stakes as it is this year, but he has experience nonetheless.
“Playoff football is playoff football,” Chambliss said. “It’s win and go home.”
Another standout for Ole Miss this season has been sophomore running back Kewan Lacy. Second in the nation in touchdowns (23) and third in rushing yards (1,464) in 2025, Lacy has been a catalyst for the Rebels.
“He’s taken some big hits throughout the season,” Chambliss said of Lacy. “That just shows he’s just a ball player, and he just wants to do whatever it takes to win.”
After transferring from Missouri, Lacy rushed for 108 yards and three touchdowns in his first game with the Rebels. He added 98 yards and two touchdowns to his total on New Year’s Day and now looks to Miami for his biggest test yet.
“We just got to go out there ready to be physical and dominate at the line of scrimmage,” Lacy said. “Just come out there with the right mentality and focus on what we need to focus on.”
Unfortunately for Lacy and Chambliss, Miami’s defense stands in the way of Ole Miss’ national championship aspirations and will certainly be a tough storm to weather for the Rebels’ offense. A hurricane, if you will.
Miami’s defense ranks fourth in the nation in points allowed and 10th in yards allowed this year. Defensive linemen Rueben Bain Jr. and Akheem Mesidor are both projected NFL first-round draft picks and have been the workhorses for defensive coordinator Corey Hetherman.
Miami finished the regular season 10-2 to claim the No. 10 seed in the College Football Playoff, where it held its two opponents thus far to a combined 17 points.
”Lot of respect for coach Cristobal and everything he’s done throughout his career,” Golding said. “Always has his teams ready to play, a guy that I’ve admired for a long time. They’re playing at a really high level.”
Thursday’s matchup presents a clash between Ole Miss’ high-powered offense and a Miami defense that’s built for stopping high-powered offenses. While the Hurricanes thrive on slowing opponents down and controlling tempo, the Rebels arrive confident, battle-tested and unshaken by adversity.
“Coach Golding and his staff put together arguably the most dangerous team in the country,” Cristobal said. “They haven’t been stopped. They haven’t been slowed down.”
Ole Miss has cleared just about every hurdle in its path so far this season, and Golding is determined to finish what this program set out to do this season no matter who is on the sidelines.
When asked about his message to Lane Kiffin and any fans who gave up on Ole Miss, Golding replied with this:
“I don’t have a message for anybody else. I think our team had a message. They had a message about how they prepared and how they play and that they weren’t tired of playing. … If one coach in any sport can determine the outcome of it, he probably doesn’t have a very good staff. If one player can determine the outcome of it, we probably didn’t recruit and create the right depth.
“I don’t have s— to say about anybody else.”
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