Those clad in blue and orange in the stands wanted Lane Kiffin.
The guys wearing orange and white on the field wanted no part of Kewan Lacy.
Behind a monster day from the Rebels’ leading rusher and a timely interception from Suntarine Perkins in the fourth quarter, No. 7 Ole Miss held off Florida for a 34-24 win. Gator fans might want Kiffin, but they’ll have to continue waiting. The Rebels (10-1, 6-1 SEC) took another significant step toward the College Football Playoff while also staying in the hunt to reach the SEC Championship.
Lacy was simply unstoppable.
He entered the day needing just 88 yards to cross the century mark. He nearly got there in the first quarter alone. He officially crossed the threshold with a 9-yard run in the second quarter.
Lacy ended the day with 224 yards and 3 scores on 31 carries. With the effort, he became the second Rebel to rush for 1,000 yards under Kiffin, joining Quinshon Judkins (twice).
Judkins set the program record with 1,567 yards in 2022. Lacy needs 431 yards to tie that record.
Lacy scored the game’s opening touchdown. A 27-yard field goal then put the Rebels up 10-0 early. Florida punched back to take a 14-10 lead in the opening moments of the second quarter. We went back and forth from there.
Ole Miss took the lead back on a 43-yard touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling. Florida wrestled it back with a 57-yard touchdown pass to J. Michael Sturdivant.
Lacy scored from a yard out in the opening moments of the fourth quarter to put the Rebels up 3. That was the final score of the ballgame.
Ole Miss had a chance to put the game out of reach in the final 3 minutes. Facing a third-and-goal from the 3-yard line, Ole Miss called pass plays on consecutive snaps. Trinidad Chambliss threw it away after rolling into no-man’s land on third down, then fired incomplete on fourth to turn the ball over.
It was the Rebels’ sixth trip to the red zone at that point. They produced 2 touchdowns from those 6 trips. A cleaner operation in the red area might have given the Rebels breathing room earlier. Instead, they had to sweat out the result.
But they did exactly that. Perkins picked off Florida’s DJ Lagway with 9:21 to play. When the Gators got the ball back with 2:40 to go, Princewill Umanmielen got to Lagway for a third-down sack that forced the Gators into a fourth-and-9 from their 4. Florida got the stop and Lacy scored his third touchdown of the day on the very next play.
The Rebels are off next week to prepare for the regular-season finale in Starkville. A win in the Egg Bowl would punch the Rebels’ ticket to the Playoff.
Florida (3-7, 2-5 SEC) is officially eliminated from bowl eligibility. The Gators have home games remaining against Tennessee and Florida State. They’ll look to avoid what would be just the fourth 8-loss season in program history. Florida hasn’t lost 9 games in a single season since 1979.
No. 6 Ole Miss 34, Florida 24
Here’s the Ole Miss-Florida box score (use the dropdown menu to select team or player stats), followed by the complete play-by-play:
Trinidad Chambliss vs DJ Lagway
Did Trinidad Chambliss help his Heisman odds? Here’s a statistical breakdown of how Chambliss performed against Florida quarterback DJ Lagway:
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
