Mississippi football passed its first test in the post-Lane Kiffin era on Saturday, Dec. 20 with a commanding 41-10 win over No. 11 seed Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff.
A few hours after the Rebels secured the first-ever CFP win in program history, the ex-Ole Miss coach jumped back on X (formerly Twitter) and congratulated his former program on the win:
It is one of several Ole Miss-related tweets Kiffin sent from his personal account throughout the day. Other tweets include him attempting to extend an olive branch between Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, and then agreeing with SEC Network’s Jordan Rogers that Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss is the ‘most overlooked’ quarterback in the CFP field.
On the field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Chambliss led the way for the Rebels with three combined touchdown scores and his 10th game of the season with at least 250 passing yards. He completed 23 of 29 passing for 282 yards and a touchdown pass.
The win for Ole Miss marked its 12th win of the season, which set a program record for most wins in a single season. It also was the first for Pete Golding, Kiffin’s former defensive coordinator at Ole Miss who was promoted to the program’s next full-time head coach.
Kiffin, who wanted to coach the Rebels in the playoffs, left the program after six seasons on Sunday, Nov. 30 for the open job at LSU. His request to continue coaching Ole Miss was declined by the Rebels administration.
No. 6 seed Ole Miss will now face No. 3 seed Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on Thursday, Jan. 1 at 8 p.m. ET in New Orleans at Caesars’ Superdome.
The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
