Ole Miss Prepares for First Bowl Game Since 2016

By Adam Brown
Sports Editor
adam.brown@hottytoddy.com

The Rebels will ring in the New Year in Tampa, Florida, as they take on the Indiana Hoosiers on Jan. 2. The Outback Bowl will be the first bowl game Ole Miss has attended since the team beat Oklahoma State in the 2016 Sugar Bowl.

“That’s a really good bowl, one that I remember when I was younger going to,” Head Coach Lane Kiffin said in his Monday press conference. “We’ve got a heck of a matchup.”

Indiana is 6-1, losing only to Ohio State this season. The Hoosiers finished ranked No. 8 in the Amway Coaches Poll and No. 11 in the College Football Playoff rankings. 

Kiffin’s strategy for winning against Indiana, ranked No. 11 in the College Football Playoff rankings released on Sunday, is still in the works.

“I don’t know much about them yet,” Kiffin said. “I do remember watching them in the Penn State game… early on. They did a great job coaching that game, and managing that game, and winning that game. We’re going to have our hands full.”

Ole Miss finished the regular season 4-5 following a hard-fought 53-48 loss to the LSU Tigers in Death Valley.

“We are really beat up… injury-wise and two opt-outs at the end of the game playing without our starting tailback [Jerrion Ealy], one of the two best receivers in the country,” Kiffin said. “And then Braylon [Sanders] was down. We’re kind of running out of weapons here, but… We’ll go down with whoever we got.”

The Rebels will continue with business as usual as they prepare to finish out a season that has been anything but “usual”.

“We don’t leave until Thursday, so it is like a normal Saturday game. We just leave one day earlier,” Kiffin said. “They will have two and a half days off over Christmas… Then we go to work in a normal prep week.”

Kickoff for the Outback Bowl is scheduled for 11:30am CST and will air on ABC.