Ole Miss wears down Mississippi State for 26-14 win to finish sesaon

OXFORD, Miss. — It took Ole Miss awhile to let Mississippi State blow out the energy they had at the start, but then took a 26-14 win at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to close out the regular season.

The Rebels, now 9-3, will have to wait until Tuesday to find out their status for the College Football Playoff. That won’t be known for a couple of weeks. To even think about the playoffs, though Ole Miss had to win this game.

It was shaky in the first couple of periods, but the Bulldogs out-scored the Rebels 14-10 in the first quarter. Ole Miss defensive coordinator Pete Golding figured out what Jeff Lebby was doing offensively and put a stop to it with the help of a fourth-quarter goal-line stand.

For the second straight week, the Rebels’ offense didn’t look particularly sharp. Quarterback Jaxson Dart didn’t seem to be on the same page with his receivers all night and had to rely on a running game that piled up over 250 yards after getting just 141 in a loss to Florida the week before.

Dart had a lot of the key runs that were not scrambles, but planned runs on draws and sprint outs. It was clear the Mississippi State game plan was to go with three safeties and take away the home-run passes the Rebels had used in big wins previously this year.

Ole Miss’ game with Mississippi State started about like the Egg Bowl usually does. Tensions are high on both sides.

While the No. 14 Rebels are getting off to a wobbly first half, the Bulldogs are playing with more energy and expending a lot of it on emotion. State has been shoving and barking since the game started, drawing one flag. The only unsportsmanlike against Ole Miss was when a Bulldogs’ runner went out of bounds and ran into Zxavian Harris, who was standing there observing. And he was flagged for not getting out of the way of the State runner after he bounced off the big defensive tackle.

In the first half, though, Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin went to running back Ulysses Bentley IV and there will be more questions about that later. His scoring run grabbed the momentum from the Bulldogs, who had it most of the time in the first half.

Here are the scoring plays and highlights from the first half:

1Q 12:43: After Chris “Pooh” Paul picked off Michael VanBuren’s pass, the Rebels drove to the State 22-yard line before stalling on runs. Somehow, officials couldn’t see Mississippi State defensive back Hunter Washington holding DaeQuan Wright going to the end zone and preventing him from catching a throw from Jaxson Dart and Caden Davis had to kick a 39-yard field goal. Rebels 3, Bulldogs 0

1Q 7:54: State answers, but it wasn’t without drama. Bulldogs’ punter Nick Barrmira completed a fourth-down pass to Justin Ball to save the drive. On a later fourth-and-7 Van Buren completes. pass over the middle to Kevin Coleman who covers 34 yards for the score and State has the momentum. Bulldogs 7, Rebels 3

Mississippi State Bulldogs quarterback Michael Van Buren Jr. (0) looks to pass against the Ole Miss Rebels during the first quarter at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. / Matt Bush-Imagn Images

1Q 2:16: The Mayor JJ Pegues caps a 75-yard drive in 13 plays with a 4-yard scoring run. The Rebels had converted and fourth-and-1 to start the drive and things got chippy. First Cayden Lee was shoved by a Bulldogs’ defender that didn’t draw a flag and the barking continued on Pegues’ scoring run, this time drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct flag. Kiffing was about to go for a 2-point conversion penalty before a flag moved it back and Davis added the regular point-after. Rebels 10, Bulldogs 7

1Q 0:00: Van Buren throws a 16-yard completion to Kevin Coleman Jr., then a 42-yarder to Jordan Mosely and a 9-yarder to Seydou Traore to set up a 6-yard scoring run by the freshman quarterback. Bulldogs 14, Rebels 10

Ole Miss Rebels running back Ulysses Bentley IV (24) runs the ball against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on an 89-yard touchdown run during the second quarter at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. / Matt Bush-Imagn Images

2Q 8:40: After a punt backed up Ole Miss to their own 11-yard line, Bentley broke free up the middle and sprinted untouched through a gaping hole in the line for an 89-yard score. Bently’s status has been the talk around town the last couple of weeks because he hasn’t seen the field often. Kiffin has repeatedly said he wasn’t in trouble or injured, but all the guy does is make plays and this one was big. Rebels 17, Bulldogs 14

2Q 0:00: After getting a holding call that backed up Caden Davis for a field goal going into halftime, his 54-yarder as time expired pulled slightly left of the uprights. State counting this as a win being down just three points. Rebels 17, Bulldogs 14

3Q 5:40: Ole Miss catches a break when replay overturns Mississippi State touching a punt, but the offense is stymied when Bentley is thrown for a 2-yard loss on first down. Dart tried a couple of passes that missed by inches and Davis came on to kick a 39-yard field goal to extend the lead. Rebels 20, Bulldogs 14

4Q 9:56: Mississippi State hasn’t scored since the first quarter and Ole Miss added another one with Dart finding tight end Caden Priescorn to open a two-score lead. The difference in talent depth starting to become apparent as State appears to be wearing down a little. Ole Miss goes for 2 but Dart’s pass is intercepted in the back of the end zone. Rebels 26, Bulldogs 14

Ole Miss’ defense comes up with a stop after Mississippi State goes down the field and gets to a first down at Rebels’ 1. Walter Nolen and the rest of the defense stuff the Bulldogs, combined with an illegal procedure penalty that moved them back and a fourth-down pass into the end zone was incomplete.