Ole Miss' CFP Hopes Take a Hit After Loss to Texas

Ole Miss’ CFP hopes took a hit in a 34-27 loss at Texas on Saturday night.

The Rebels likely will slip a bit from their No. 7 position in the AP poll after dropping to 5-2 and 3-2 in the SEC, but they’ll still be very much in contention for the CFP.

But the concern for Ole Miss is that its performance in the loss to the No. 19 Longhorns was as uneven as its season-long performance has been. If that continues, whatever remains of its margin for error regarding the CFP is likely to be used up in the remaining five games.

Consider how the Rebels’ season has gone:

The team took care of business in beating then-No. 24 Louisville on a walk-off field goal in the opener and easily put away Charlotte to ensure a Top 10 match-up when former head coach Lane Kiffin brought LSU into Oxford on Sept. 19.

Ole Miss sent a message to Kiffin and to all of college football with an impressive 32-24 victory over the Tigers. The message was that Ole Miss might be just as good if not better under head coach Pete Golding than it was under Kiffin.

Golding had been promoted from defense coordinator and guided the CFP team that Kiffin built to playoff victories over Tulane and Georgia before losing narrowly to Miami in the semifinals, all amid the tumult of Kiffin’s abrupt and contentious departure last season.

But just seven days after beating LSU, the Rebels went to Florida and got humbled in a 52-28 loss. Golding’s defense allowed 302 rushing yards among 498 total yards, didn’t take the ball away and enabled the Gators to keep the ball away from Trinidad Chambliss for nearly 37 minutes.

About as quickly as the euphoria of the 3-0 start was replaced by the disappointment of the beat-down at Florida, so too was that disappointment replaced by two very encouraging victories after an open date to refresh.

The best recovery came from Golding’s defense, which took the ball away four times in a 52-17 win at Vanderbilt and limited visiting Missouri to 39 rushing yards in a 31-3 rout.

Then came Saturday and inconsistency similar to that of the first six games happened within the 60 minutes in Austin. The very good-very bad-better pattern of the first six games was replaced by a very bad-very good-very bad-not quite good enough performance.

The game was a microcosm of the season to this point. Texas steamrolled to a 24-3 halftime lead after the Ole Miss defense allowed touchdown drives of 60, 61 and 62 yards in a span of 6½ minutes.

Then at the start of the second half the defense did something the offense hadn’t been able to do – score a touchdown. On the fourth play of the third quarter Blake Purchase forced a fumble by Arch Manning as Manning was being sacked and Kam Franklin fell on the football in the end zone.

Chambliss directed two touchdown drives and the Rebels forged a tie early in the fourth quarter.

Ole Miss had seized the momentum just as it had regained momentum for the season with the back-to-back October victories, but the defense gave up runs of 47, 12 and 19 yards on consecutive plays leading to Manning’s 1-yard touchdown run.

The momentum vanished.

Good field position thanks to a blocked field goal and runs of 12 and 28 yards led to a Longhorns field goal and a late 10-point lead.

A Rebels field goal and an onside kick recovery preceded a late drive to the Texas 24, but Chambliss’ desperation heave was intercepted as time expired.

The bad news for Ole Miss is that the defensive breakdowns and the inconsistency of the team have left them with two losses with four games still remaining in the SEC gauntlet.

The good news is that stabilizing the defense can make everything work better.

And Golding’s history with orchestrating good defensive play is why he has the job he has.