Note: Our coverage of Ole Miss football in the College Football Playoff is brought to you by the great folks at BlueSky, Richland Dental, Oxford Krystal and Southern Traditions Farm. We are incredibly appreciative of these sponsors and encourage you to click on the links above to visit their sites.
GLENDALE, Ariz. — Heartbreak has a sound. It’s the quiet that settles in when the clock hits zero. It’s the stunned pause before reality sets in. It’s the tears falling on the faces of players who gave literally every ounce of their being for their team. Ole Miss felt all of it on Saturday night, falling just short against the Miami Hurricanes, 31-27, in a game that will sting for a long time.
But what this loss should never be remembered for is quitting—because head coach Pete Golding’s Rebels never did.
From the opening kickoff to the final snap, Ole Miss fought with a grit and resilience that defined their season. When momentum swung, they answered. When adversity piled up, they pushed back harder. And when the game seemed to slip away more than once, Ole Miss refused to let it go quietly. They trailed the entire game until taking the lead in the fourth quarter.
This was not a game that followed a clean or comfortable script. Miami landed early blows, capitalizing on key moments and forcing Ole Miss to chase from behind. Each time it would have been easy to fold, the Rebels responded with urgency—stringing together drives, making defensive stands, and clawing their way back into contention.
Time and again, Ole Miss put itself in position to flip the game. Big throws under pressure. Tough runs through contact. Defensive players emptying the tank to keep the Hurricanes from pulling away entirely. This team played with desperation, but also belief—the kind that says “we are never out of this.”
And they were right—until the very end.
The final seconds were cruel in the way only football can be. A scramble here. A missed tackle there. And, oh, the cruelty of watching an obvious defensive pass interference go uncalled simply because it was the final play of the game. Hope lingering right up until it was gone. The scoreboard will show a loss, but it will never capture how close Ole Miss was to rewriting the ending.
What it will show is a team that played with heart.
This season—and this game—revealed something deeper about Ole Miss. Not just talent. Not just potential. But resolve. The Rebels took every punch Miami threw and kept standing. They kept believing. They kept fighting for each other, for the jersey, and for the moment.
Losses like this hurt because they matter. Because expectations were high. Because the opportunity was real. But heartbreak is often the price of caring deeply—and Ole Miss clearly did.
The season may not have ended the way the Rebels wanted, but they walked off that field having earned respect. From opponents. From fans. And from anyone who watched and saw a team that refused to quit, no matter how painful the circumstances became.
This one will linger. But so will the pride.
Ole Miss fought until the end—and that tells us everything we need to know about who Pete Golding’s Rebels are.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Evelyn Van Pelt
Evelyn has covered sports for over two decades, beginning her journalism career as a sports writer for a newspaper in Austin, Texas. She attended Texas A&M and majored in English. Evelyn's love for Ole Miss began when her daughter Katie attended the university on a volleyball scholarship. Evelyn created the Rebel Walk in 2013 and has served as publisher and managing editor since its inception. Email Evie at: Evie@TheRebelWalk.com
