Mississippi was battered on offense. The Rebels were down four starters, including two receivers.

The offensive line struggled to handle Tennessee’s defensive front. The group was tired — like a team that ran 101 plays. At 10 of 11 positions, on paper, Ole Miss looked like an offense that would struggle to score 10 points. But the Rebels scored 31 instead and won an SEC road game.

The sole reason for this was the man under center: Matt Corral.

Corral led the team in rushing with 30 carries for 195 yards, a career high. He had 200 yards before the final drive, in which Ole Miss unsuccessfully tried to ice the game. He was 21-for-38 passing for 231 yards with 2 touchdowns. He threw his first interception of the season; it came out of desperation while the junior was trying to will his team past the first-down marker one more time.

Saturday night in Knoxville, Corral cemented himself as the most valuable football player in the country, and arguably the best. No team asks one player to do as much as Ole Miss has asked of Corral over the last three weeks. And he has been up to the challenge each time. Corral was unflappable as 102,000 wreaked havoc in the seats of Neyland Stadium. Rather than shrink in the moment, he thrived in it.

“That was a good experience for this week, being able to understand how big the moment was for us and to seal the deal tonight,” Corral said.

Corral made play after play with his feet. He made life easier on the inexperienced players filling in because of a litany of injuries — like his perfectly placed deep ball down the far sideline to Dannis Jackson for a touchdown. Each time Ole Miss needed a play to extend a drive, it seemed like Corral delivered every time, as he has all season. On this night it was with his legs even more than his arm.

When plays broke down, he used his feet to extend drives and keep Ole Miss on the field. More important, that kept the Tennessee offense off the field, which helped rest a thin Rebels defense.

Ole Miss would be a bad football team without Matt Corral. He does so much to mask the underlying issues on this roster that the Rebels are somehow 5-1 and ranked 12th in the Associated Press and coaches polls. His arm talent is rare. Everyone has always known this. The most impressive part of this version of Corral is his evolution from a talented recruit with baggage and a quick temper, to an unflappably even-keeled leader of a football team that rallies around him.

“I don’t know what you say about him. He doesn’t have his left guard. He doesn’t have two of his top three receivers,” Rebels coach Lane Kiffin said. “The tight end’s out and the guy ended up — with sacks — carrying the ball 30 times. That was not by design. Some of the quarterback draws and big plays obviously were by design because of their coverages. You can’t say enough about a guy who did that on the road and put the game on his shoulders.”

There is an argument to be made that Corral needed Kiffin to fully realize his potential. But the reality is that Kiffin needed Corral too. Because none of Kiffin’s success through his first season-and-a-half happens without Corral.

It’s true for the team’s success this year. Ole Miss isn’t close to 5-1 without No. 2 at quarterback, and the Rebels definitely do not win in Knoxville without the Heisman Trophy favorite’s incredible performance.