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OXFORD, Miss. – According to Parentsofcollegestudents.com, the ‘Velvet Ditch” moniker is an interesting one.
“Dating back to the 1950’s, this is a phrase used to described Oxford; meaning it’s a place that is ‘easy to fall into and hard to crawl out of.’ From the beautiful university campus with red-brick buildings to the vibrant downtown area full of local shops and restaurants, many people quickly fall in love with Oxford and never want to leave.”
Ole Miss quarterback coach Joe Judge can attest to that definition as it is exactly how he feels about his new home.
After a stint in the “Big Apple” as the head coach of the New York Giants – and a brief stop with the New England Patriots – Judge found the desire to return to college football. His first stop in search of new employment was Ole Miss in 2024 where he served as an offensive analyst.
This season he was named quarterbacks coach and the results have been so successful he was recently offered a contract extension to remain in Oxford. It was an opportunity he could not reject and for a very good reason.
“Because I love it here, real simple,” Judge said recently.
“I love being in Mississippi, I love being in Oxford, I love these players. The university has been tremendous. The fans have been great to me and my family. Why would I want to leave here? This is awesome, right?”
Joe Judge
Judge then commented on the unexpected extension to his contract.
“Extend the contract? I was glad they gave me an extension,” Judge said. “That’s awesome, that’s not something I had to go seek out. You know they present you with the opportunity to do something you love, great.”
The extension may have been unexpected, but the results of his time working with the Rebels’ quarterbacks are undeniable.
Working with offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, Jr., Ole Miss (12-1) is averaging 312 yards per game in the air and has accounted for 23 touchdowns.
His star pupil, Trinidad Chambliss, arrived during the summer from the Division II ranks, and he has thrown for nearly 3,300 yards and 19 touchdowns. Last week Chambliss finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy race and received two first-place votes.
But more importantly, the Rebels are winning.
Saturday, Ole Miss became the first team from Mississippi to make the College Football Playoff field, and the Rebs took advantage by beating Tulane 41-10 in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium before a stadium-record crowd.
The crowd did not have to wait long for Ole Miss to provide excitement. The Rebels’ first drive consisted of three plays, covering 75 yards and Ole Miss scored its initial touchdown less than a minute into the game.
The next drive also resulted in a touchdown. Ole Miss scored 14 points in its first seven plays.
As hot as the offense was, Judge had to walk that line of exhilaration and complacency.
“Well, you can’t get too high or low in these games, right? So it was great we were able to come out the first two drives, you know, go down there and just score. I mean, that’s ideally how you want to start every game, right? Play from ahead, you know, kind of shapes the way your defense can play as well if you can put the other team in more of a passing, catch-up mode. Playing from ahead is the way every coach wants to play.”
Joe Judge
Judge has been on a playoff run before during his career and he likes what he sees from this Ole Miss team.
“You see a team that’s very unselfish,” Judge said.
“You see a team that plays for each other. You see a team that’s very accountable to each other, and they work extremely hard. Because they’ve been able to go through a lot of games, that this is a very, very tough, competitive conference, they’ve been able to win a lot of big games when they’ve been up, when they’ve been down, you know, closing games out when it mattered, executing in situations, two-minute drives, things of that nature.”
Joe Judge
The team concept is something Judge knows will be needed as Ole Miss advances to the next round of the playoffs.
“That’s just the formula that you have to have to have a chance for success,” Judge said. There’s a lot of talented teams in this country that are sitting home watching teams play right now, okay? More talented teams in a lot of instances right there, but they don’t have a team, right?”
Ole Miss moves on to a Sugar Bowl date Jan. 1 against third-seeded Georgia, the team that dealt the Rebels their only loss of the season.
The Ole Miss administration surprised him with a contract extension a few weeks ago. Judge will be looking for a present from his team in New Orleans. It would be a good time to deliver it to him – his birthday is Dec. 31. What better present than bringing home a Sugar Bowl win to the Velvet Ditch?
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Steve Barnes
Steve Barnes joins The Rebel Walk staff as a senior writer and brings a trifecta of journalistic experience. As a writer, he has covered college sports for Rivals.com, Football.com and SaturdayDownSouth.com as well as served as a beat writer for various traditional newspapers.
He has been a broadcaster for arena football and several national tournament events for the National Junior College Athletic Association as well as hosting various shows on radio.
A former sports information director at Albany (Ga.) State University and an assistant at Troy and West Florida, he has helped host many NCAA conference, regional and national events, including serving five years on the media committee of the NCAA Division II World Series.
Barnes, a native of Pensacola, Fla., attended Ole Miss in 1983-84, where his first journalism teacher was David Kellum. The duo has come a long way since that time.
He will bring a proven journalistic track record, along with a knack for finding the out-of-the-ordinary story angles to The Rebel Walk.
Barnes continues to reside in Pensacola a mere ten minutes from the beach because he does have taste and a brain.
