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Gamer: Ole Miss puts on offensive clinic against nation’s No. 1-ranked Penn State defense

Posted by | Dec 30, 2023 |

Gamer: Ole Miss puts on offensive clinic against nation’s No. 1-ranked Penn State defense

OXFORD, Miss. – The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl played host to an offensive clinic put on by the Ole Miss Rebels as they took down the No. 10-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions, 38-25, to secure a program-record 11th win.

“I’m very excited about how our players showed up today. To come in here and have a chance to do something that’s never been done before in the history of the school, to win 11 games against a big-time program, big-time opponent, just really proud of how they did. Really, really happy that four years ago I got this opportunity to come here for Chancellor and Keith to give me that opportunity to put the staff and players together. It’s been a really cool journey and one I’m really grateful for.” 

~ Lane Kiffin in his opening statement  

Offense

The Rebel offense took the field after receiving the opening kick, and right away Penn State went after Jaxson Dart. Dart began to favor his left leg for the remainder of the drive, one that ended quickly with a punt.

After a rough first drive, the Ole Miss offense answered with a field goal of its own to tie things up at 3. However, the Penn State pass rush was still a problem, giving Dart little to no time to get rid of the football.

Following the forced punt by their defense, the Rebel offense went to work in the last 4 minutes of the first. Facing a fourth down, Lane Kiffin went deep into the play sheet with a receiver pass from Jordan Watkins to Dart to keep the drive alive.

Immediately, Dart hit ‘big play’ Tre Harris down the sideline for a 25-yard gain to set up first and goal for Ole Miss. The next play ended with Caden Priekorn celebrating his third touchdown grab of the year to make it 10-3 Rebels as the first quarter came to a close.

Prieskorn was named the Offensive MVP of the Peach Bowl. The tight end had 10 catches for 136 yards and 2 touchdowns. He took the chance to thank his teammates and coaches in the postgame.

“I’ve got to thank my coaches, Coach Weis and Coach Kiffin, for trusting me, and just the whole O-line, just blocking. I’ve just got to thank my teammates for just trusting me.” 

~ Prieskorn on his success

Behind some big grabs from Harris, the Rebels were able to work their way into field goal range to regain the lead by three. Ole Miss also began to see life in the run game with Quinshon Judkins.

Following a huge turnover created by the Ole Miss defense, the Ole Miss rushing attack began to get going with Judkins and Ulysses Bentley IV. Despite that, the drive was put together by Dart and Prieskorn once again. The big man had an amazing one-handed grab on the sideline, then a 37-yard touchdown to cap off the drive.

Rebel quarterback Jaxson Dart picked up right where he left off to begin the second half, continuing to find Prieskorn and Harris on the sidelines. However, the Penn State defense came up big, forcing the Rebels to settle for a 52-yard field goal from Caden Davis to make it 23-17.

Off the back of back-to-back forced three-and-outs by the Rebel defense, Judkins began to find another gear. The Rebel running back had 51 yards rushing on the drive alone, ending it with a 14-yard touchdown catch. Ole Miss went for two as Dart found Prieskorn to make it 31-17 Rebels late in the third quarter.

Head coach Lane Kiffin was asked about the run game improving in the second half.

“Once you kind of start winning outside the one-on-one matchups, you know, they got really good coaches, so they adjust and play some more zone and put a safety over the top of Tre (Harris) and didn’t play much more man on third down. So that’s part of it. Then we go back to running the ball.” 

~ Kiffin on Judkins’ second half success

Judkins ended the day with 34 carries for 106 yards on the ground, finding the endzone via the pass from Dart.

With a two touchdown lead, the Ole Miss offense put together a long drive to drain the clock and put the potential dagger in this one. As he’d done all day, Dart continued to find Harris then eventually used his legs to punch it in for his fourth score of the day and give the Rebels a three-touchdown lead with six minutes left in the game.

The Penn State defense was, statistically, the number one defense in the country. Kiffin commented on how the Rebels found success in the Peach Bowl win.

“Just in studying and game planning, didn’t really feel in that conference they had played much tempo. Obviously that’s part of what we do, and we were able to — that only works when you make first downs. So we made some plays, and we were able to get into some tempo situations where they weren’t aligned, and took advantage of that.” 

~ Kiffin on the offensive success 

The Ole Miss offense put up 540 total yards, over double what the Nittany Lions were allowing per game on the season.

Defense

Penn State’s first possession was run-heavy, and the Rebels could not stop the push from the Nittany Lion offensive line. The Ole Miss defense found themselves with their backs against the wall early; however, the Rebel secondary stood tall in the red zone and forced a field goal to make it 3-0 Penn State.

With a 10-3 lead, the Rebel defense had all the momentum until a tipped pass was caught by the Penn State tight end who took it 75 yards inside the Ole Miss 5 yard line. The Ole Miss defense got it to third down, then Penn State QB Drew Allar tied things up with a touchdown pass.

After taking a 13-10 lead, the Ole Miss defense quickly flipped things back in their favor with an interception from Daijahn Anthony. Allar tossed one into no-man’s-land right into the defensive back’s hands, eventually resulting in Ole Miss extending the lead.

Needing some momentum down 10, the Penn State offense fired back quickly. In just four plays, back-up quarterback Beau Pribula brought the Nittany Lions within three, making it 20-17 after a long touchdown pass.

Coming out of the half, the Rebels improved even more from the end of the first half at stopping the Penn State run. The Ole Miss secondary continued to give Allar a tough time, as the Rebel defense gave their offense the ball back quickly to begin the second half.

With a few mistakes made in the first half, it was clear that Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding made some halftime adjustments. The Rebel defense forced their third straight three-and-out to begin the second half, giving them a chance to extend their 31-17 lead.

Kiffin spoke in the postgame about the Rebel defense dominating the third quarter.

“That was really cool to come out in the second half like that, a game that we had the lead and really had a great, kind of dominant third quarter in a lot of phases of the game,” he explained.

The Penn State offense began to find some life as the fourth quarter started, putting together a nice drive to give the Nittany Lions a chance at a field goal. Zxavian Harris had other plans, though, doing one of the things he does best and blocking the 51-yard try to keep the score at 31-17.

As the Nittany Lion offense began to drive the field again, Ole Miss defensive lineman Akelo Stone knocked the ball out of Allar’s hands, allowing Jared Ivey to recover it and ultimately ice the game.

Jared Ivey was the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl defensive MVP, finishing with 5 tackles, 2 tackles for loss, 2 pass break ups and the fumble recovery. The Georgia native spoke about what getting a win close to home felt like.

“It was really cool. I had maybe 20-30 people come to the game today. It was awesome to just make history with my guys, and then even more special to do it at home. So it was great.” 

~ Ivey on winning in his home state

However, the Nittany Lions then quickly found themselves back on offense, scoring in less than a minute to bring them within 13 after the successful 2-point try. Fortunately for the Rebels, Penn State was out of timeouts with 4 minutes to go and Ole Miss was ready for victory formation.

Up Next

The 2023 Peach Bowl Champions will return to Oxford to celebrate their program-record 11-2 season and look forward to the 2024 season. Ole Miss has the number one ranked transfer portal class and they await the announcements of a few more players’ intentions for the next year.

Kiffin gave Rebel fans a quote they’d like to hear in the post game as well.

“I think it’s really a cool time right now at Ole Miss. To win the most games in the history of the school and to have so many pieces already announcing that they’re coming back, which I made sure a couple of them are still doing that after their performances today.”

Head coach Lane Kiffin
Kameron Wicker

Kam is a senior at Ole Miss, currently pursuing a degree in Journalism. Even though he's from Delhi, Louisiana, that didn't stop Kam from growing up a diehard Ole Miss fan. He's a sports guru who watches and follows all sports at all times. He lettered four years in football and baseball in high school and is an avid Saints, Pelicans, and Astros fan. In his free time, you can find him watching sports or at the rec participating in them.

About The Author

Kameron Wicker

Kam is a senior at Ole Miss, currently pursuing a degree in Journalism. Even though he's from Delhi, Louisiana, that didn't stop Kam from growing up a diehard Ole Miss fan. He's a sports guru who watches and follows all sports at all times. He lettered four years in football and baseball in high school and is an avid Saints, Pelicans, and Astros fan. In his free time, you can find him watching sports or at the rec participating in them.

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