Ole Miss dominates Central Arkansas, amassing over 500 yards in 59-3 win
OXFORD, Miss. — The Ole Miss Rebel football team did what it was supposed to do Saturday against an FCS opponent, defeating the Central Arkansas Bears, 59-3, to improve their record to 2-0 on the season.
Coach Kiffin discussed the win in his opening statement and thanked the fans who stayed until the end.
“Much better feeling than a week ago. I think as a team, as a coach, you really like to finish well. You have that feeling if you don’t when you come off, even in wins. So it’s really cool to see a lot of people play and make plays like the interception and seeing the backups score there at the end. A lot of those guys work really hard and don’t get a chance to play. I commend our fans that stayed. The student section, that group that stayed, it was a really cool. It was a long game, especially when they started calling all those holding penalties. Good win. Not perfect, but any time you win 59-3, there’s a lot of good things.“
Coach Kiffin on the win over UCA
Luke Altmyer started the game at quarterback, but following the Starkville native’s apparent shoulder injury Jaxson Dart entered the game.
After the game, head coach Lane Kiffin talked about Altmyer’s situation.
“We’ll have to go watch the film. I feel bad for Luke because he was injured and he’s so competitive that he stayed in. You could see on the interception obviously there was an issue there. We’ll go back and look at the film and see what we think.“
Lane Kiffin on Luke Altmyer’s injury and how that affects the QB competition
Dart finished his outing going 10-of-15 through the air for 182 yards and two touchdowns, while Altmyer started 6-for-7, but finished 6-for-13 following his injury. He tallied 90 yards through the air and had two passing touchdowns of his own to go with one rushing TD.
Quinshon Judkins notched his first collegiate 100-yard rushing game as the Rebels rushed for over 200 yards as a team for the second time in as many games. Jonathan Mingo hauled in three receptions for 103 yards and Michael Trigg tied the Ole Miss school record for most receiving touchdowns in a single game with three scores.
First Half
The Rebels put this one away about as quickly as they possibly could have. Altmyer connected with Jonathan Mingo for a 36-yard gain on the first play from scrimmage, and five plays later Altmyer found Michael Trigg in the end zone to put Ole Miss ahead 7-0.
After UCA collected two first downs on its opening drive, Ole Miss forced a punt attempt and an errant snap by UCA’s long snapper allowed Ladarius Tennison to scoop up the ball and score it with ease to give the Rebels another quick touchdown and a 14-0 lead.
Then, on the ensuing possession after a UCA three and out, Ole Miss’ Richard O’ Bryant blocked a punt that set the Rebels up on UCA’s four yard line. Two plays later Altmyer found Trigg again for the duo’s second touchdown connection of the night.
The Ole Miss defense then forced another three and out on the ensuing drive, and Altmyer would then lead the Rebels all the way down the field with his arm before using his legs to punch it in the end zone from one yard out.
The Rebels found themselves leading 28-0 after a dominating first quarter of play, but quarter number two was a different story.
UCA finally showed some life on Ole Miss’s first drive of the second quarter. The Bears forced a turnover on downs after 25 and 34-yard rushes from Quinshon Judkins set the Rebels up inside UCA’s ten yard line.
The Rebels exchanged punts with UCA throughout the quarter, and Altmyer, whose shoulder appeared to be bothering him, was replaced by Jaxson Dart with 1:29 left in the first half.
After an Isheem Young interception in Ole Miss end zone spoiled UCA’s best chance of the night to score, Dart was given an opportunity to lead the Rebels down the field with 51 seconds to go in the first half, and he did just that.
He hooked up with Trigg and Mingo on long passes to put Ole Miss in field goal range and Jonathan Cruz nailed a 41-yarder to make the score 31-0 as the first half expired.
Kiffin talked about Dart’s performance. “I thought he was doing really good,” he noted. “He had one series where he threw the slant in the dirt. But I thought he did some good things. Got us three points in the two-minute drive leading into the half. That’s good. He’s still young.”
Second Half
The third quarter saw Dart and the Rebels dominate UCA. On the second play of Ole Miss’ first drive of the second half, Dart found Mingo for a 51-yard gain, and two plays later Evans punched it in from three yards out to extend the Rebel lead to 38.
After yet another three and out from UCA’s offense, Dart would find success through the air again on the next drive as he connected with Dayton Wade for a 15-yard gain, and then again later in the drive for a 39-yard gain. He would then find Trigg in the end zone for a two-yard touchdown that gave Trigg his school record-tying third receiving touchdown of the game.
Later in the quarter, Ole Miss got the ball back and Dart, again, led the Rebels to points. He connected with Malik Heath for a touchdown from six yards out that finished off a seven-play, 54 yard scoring drive.
Ole Miss took a 52-0 lead into the fourth quarter and shifted into cruise control for the remainder of the game as the Rebels finished up what was a dominant victory with the final score of 59-3.
Next Up:
Ole Miss will head into week three with a record of 2-0 on the season. The Rebels will take on the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in Atlanta next Saturday. Kickoff is set for 2:30 PM CST on ABC.
(Feature image credit: Josh McCoy, Ole Miss)
Dillon Cader
Dillon is from Yazoo City, Ms. He is a senior journalism major pursuing a career in sportswriting. He grew up an Ole Miss fan and has always followed Ole Miss sports as well as the Dallas Cowboys and Atlanta Braves. He played football and basketball in high school and enjoys spending time with friends and family.
