Ole Miss Looks Ahead to Sugar Bowl

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

The Ole Miss Rebels are headed to the 88th Allstate Sugar Bowl against the No.7 Baylor Bears on New Year’s Night.

Head coach Lane Kiffin met with the media over Zoom on Monday to talk about the upcoming matchup with the Bears.

“We are excited to be in the Sugar Bowl – an amazing tradition,” Kiffin said. “For us to be in there in our second year, just a phenomenal job by our players and assistant coaches.

Ole Miss has pushed back travel plans to New Orleans due to the rising issues with the pandemic.

“COVID is still around and has been an issue that we’re dealing with,” Kiffin said. “We pushed back as far as we could from going down there.”

Kiffin added that they are going to get out of the protocols at home that are easier to follow.

“We will be there eventually,” Kiffin said.

Ole Miss was originally set to be in New Orleans on December 26 but arrived back in Oxford on Sunday from Christmas break.

“None of the prep work has changed,” Kiffin said. We arrived back last night and practiced this morning as we would have in New Orleans. We’re just doing our stuff here instead of there.”

Kiffin added that they have players who can’t practice at the moment or could miss the game due to COVID.

There are no players on the team opting out of the Sugar Bowl after the 10-2 regular season.

“I think it is awesome,” Kiffin said. “We didn’t have a conversation of anybody wavering. It says a lot about this team and the culture that has been created here. I think improvement from year one to year two also. It takes a while for your culture to set in.”

Ole Miss and Baylor are set to kick off on Saturday at 7:45 p.m. on ESPN.