Here’s who Ole Miss is playing in the first round of the College Football Playoff
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Despite having recently lost its head coach to a bitter rival, Ole Miss is gearing up for its first-ever College Football Playoff appearance following an 11-win campaign.
The Rebels were in the headlines for all the wrong reasons when Lane Kiffin left the program for LSU last Sunday. But this weekend comparatively ranks among the best in the school’s history, as Pete Golding & Co. are set to welcome regional foe Tulane for the first round of the CFP in what is being billed as the biggest game in program history.
The Green Wave have already paid one visit to Oxford this season, falling 45-10 in a Week 4 battle of unbeatens.
Tulane’s star quarterback Jake Retzlaff struggled mightily in that game, completing just 5-of-17 passes for 56 yards to go along with 51 rushing yards. Still, the visitors were able to produce 178 rushing yards on 4.6 yards per carry, a sign that better success in the air could lead to an efficient, balanced attack.
But on the flip side of that, the Green Wave defense will have to figure out how to better contain Ole Miss’s dynamic offense. The Rebels racked up 548 yards of offense (307 passing, 241 rushing) and scored 3 times in the fourth quarter to secure a dominant win that has remained a shining part of their résumé.
The good news for Tulane is that its defense is coming off a game in which it limited an explosive North Texas offense to its season-low in points, in large part thanks to 5 forced turnovers.
Parker is currently the sports editor for the Enterprise-Journal in McComb, Mississippi. He's a graduate from Mizzou who has experience covering the Tiger football and basketball beats for SB Nation, and he's worked for a variety of sports news outlets in the past.
