Calling 1962: Rebels face long-time nemesis LSU in Death Valley
Editor’s Note: David Walker writes this as a former Louisiana High School Player of the Year who in 1974 became the youngest quarterback who’s ever won at Tiger Stadium (18-year-old sophomore), leading a backfield that had three backs rushing for over 100 yards and an LSU-opponent-record 417 yards, scoring the winning touchdown on their final possession. It was just A&M’s second win at LSU in 15 years and its 5th in 25 overall. All games between the two were played at Tiger Stadium. LSU was ranked 7th in the country, the Aggies were unranked. The final was 21-14.
Channeling the 1962 Rebels
This week while making their own mark in history, perhaps it’s best the Rebels channel the 1962 Ole Miss football team, and in so doing draw inspiration from the gridiron ghosts of those great champions who played inside Hemingway Stadium.
After all, the 1962 team put a stop to a disheartening Ole Miss streak of four consecutive seasons (1958-1961) where the Rebs were 6-0 going into the LSU game — only to have the Tigers slam the door shut on their dream-seasons every time by winning three and tying a fourth.
That 1962 Rebs team, 5-0 as they entered the game against the Bayou Bengals, was led by first-team All-American quarterback Glynn Griffing, and went on to a 10-0 season after that 15-7 win over LSU at Tiger Stadium. That included a victory over Arkansas in the Sugar Bowl.
The Tigers were 5-0-1 and ranked fourth in the country going into that 1962 game against the boys from Oxford. It’s the only perfect season for Ole Miss in program history, and that team gave LSU its only loss that year.
The other four years that Ole Miss teams had glorious 5-0 starts prior to 1958 were 1935, 1940, 1954, and 1957. They would all sadly lose their sixth game — in 1935 to Marquette and the latter three to Arkansas.
There’s no need to wonder from where the bad blood comes when talking Arkansas and LSU with Ole Miss fans, as it has been passed down from generation to generation.
And just to be fair, Ole Miss turned the tables again against an undefeated, untied Tiger football team in 1969, beating LSU when the Tigers were 6-0 and a rising No. 8 in the AP Poll, 26-23. Archie quarterbacked that one.
Ole Miss was the only team LSU lost to in ‘69. The salt in the wound? The loss likely cost the Tigers a shot at a national championship game in the Cotton Bowl against football’s original Wishbone team, the Texas Longhorns.
Those Longhorns had personally been crowned national champions by President Nixon after “The Great Shootout” in Arkansas, but the AP Poll, unlike the Coaches Poll at the time, wasn’t finalized until after the bowl games.
Incredibly, 9-1 LSU took its ball and went home after being snubbed by both the Cotton Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. In their huff, the Tigers refused overtures from several other bowls and skipped out on bowl season altogether.
Ole Miss, meanwhile, received that Sugar Bowl invitation and beat that same Arkansas team, a 3-point favorite still ranked No. 3, by a 27-22 count. Archie Manning was named the game’s MVP. It was the first year the Sugar Bowl was televised by ABC and the legendary Chris Schenkel and Bud Wilkinson were its announcers.
2014 Rebels start out 7-0, first Ole Miss team to do so since 1962
The 2014 Ole Miss team was the first to start a season at 7-0 since the champions of 1962 and just the second all-time. And just as the football gods and schedule makers would have it, LSU awaited.
In as tough, physical, and hard-fought a game as you’ll ever see, the 24th-ranked Tigers prevailed 10-7 in Baton Rouge over the No. 3 Rebels who were favored by four. Ole Miss wouldn’t finish well in 2014, spiraling to three losses in its final four SEC games, then suffering a 42-3 onslaught by TCU in the Peach Bowl.
That was then; this is now
Now it’s this year’s tantalizingly exciting 7-0 edition of unfazed and undefeated Rebels who are set to invade Tiger Stadium in the school’s biggest LSU game EVER.
While revving up the engines a bit against Auburn last Saturday in its first home win over the Tigers since 2012, Ole Miss rushed for the most yards in a game since that championship team of 60 years ago. There’s definitely a correlation brewing here, as distant as it may seem. There’s some channeling going on.
Ole Miss is easily the best rushing team in the Power 5, trailing only flexbone academy teams Air Force and Army in the entire FBS. This offense is putting up wishbone-triple-option-type rushing yards, yet has the added benefit of an outstanding passing game both schematically and physically. Lane Kiffin’s offense is the best of all worlds.
Opponents’ defenses consistently find it difficult to determine where the ball’s actually going, pre-snap or post-snap. Tendencies are hard to come by and so are tackles in open space.
This Rebels team has found answer after answer thus far this season, whether by offense or defense.
This program under Lane Kiffin has now strung together 18 straight leads without a loss. In fact, the last team to trail the Rebels and come back to beat them was none other than the 2020 LSU Tigers, 53-48.
Ole Miss has also won 16 of 18 when receiving the opening kickoff. If you haven’t noticed, the Rebs no longer defer at the coin toss. They get off the bus attacking — history, wind conditions and old-school-football wisdom be damned.
At the time of this post, the Rebs are the slightest of underdogs at +1.5 after opening at pick ‘em. With a win, Ole Miss reaches heights not seen record-wise for six decades.
Of course, and no disrespect intended, to be victorious this Saturday would be so much more monumental than that of the JFK years when the college game was still in its infancy on black-and-white-antenna-TV, telephone party-lines were the only social media, radio was king, new homes were being built with air conditioners included, and every player wore black shoes.
A win at Tiger Stadium as the sun sets this Saturday evening would be nothing less than forever epic. THIS game is what all the transfers and high school recruits came to Oxford for.
And when these 2022 Rebels step into Death Valley — not only for the SEC Game of the Week but for the university’s Game of TWO Centuries — trending upward as they are under Lane Kiffin — it’ll be time to party afterwards like it’s, well, 1962. What a journey.
Hotty Toddy!
(Feature image credit: Kiana Dale, Ole Miss Athletics)
David Walker
David Walker was named Louisiana’s High School Player of the Year at just 16 years old and, at 17, became college football’s first quarterback to earn Freshman of the Year honors. He remains the NCAA’s youngest-ever starting quarterback, a distinction that has stood for decades.
Transitioning from a wide-open high school offense to Emory Bellard’s renowned wishbone triple option, Walker excelled as a dual-threat quarterback. He graduated as Texas A&M’s all-time winningest quarterback and served as a two-time team captain, helping to transform a program that had endured 15 losing seasons in the previous 16 years.
After his playing career, Walker coached and taught algebra at six Texas high schools before moving into private business. In 2011, he published his memoir, “I’ll Tell You When You’re Good,” a title inspired by the coaching philosophy of Shannon Suarez, the Sulphur High and Louisiana High School Hall of Fame coach who was a significant influence on Walker’s life and career.
Walker’s compelling storytelling in his autobiography reflects the breadth of his experiences in high school and college football, and it is an undeniable fact that he saw more action than any athlete in the history of the NCAA. Since 2013, he has contributed to The Rebel Walk, sharing his insights and expertise with readers.
