OXFORD, Miss. — Most everyone knew what was about to happen. Security didn’t seem to even bother trying to stop it. The public address announcer made the perfunctory “reminder that fans are not allowed on the field at the completion of the game.” It would do no good.
“Where’d they take the goal posts?” Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart would ask media members about an hour later.
One was located in the middle of The Square, about a mile from Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Another went up the stadium steps, location unclear. That, and the field storming, are the visual meanings of what No. 16 Ole Miss did on Saturday night, finally getting its breakthrough win, 28-10 over No. 3 Georgia.
Found the Ole Miss goal post in the middle of the square pic.twitter.com/Odg9kmwFQC
— Molly McGrath (@MollyAMcGrath) November 10, 2024
But it was the feeling in those waning minutes inside the stadium that really conveyed it to an outsider standing on the field, near the home locker room tunnel. This felt different. People on the field and in the stands congratulating each other. Soaking in the reality that something special was happening.
It was a long time coming.
“I told you what time it was! I told you!” an Ole Miss assistant coach shouted as he approached a friend and hugged him.
Players and coaches alike lingered on the field, choosing not to escape the crowd but revel in it. Some were put on fans’ shoulders. Many pictures were taken.
Incidentally, this is referring to the second field storming: The first one came with 16 seconds left, after Georgia failed on its final fourth down and a few thousand fans prematurely rushed. It seemed at that point the best thing to just cancel those final 16 seconds, but oh, well, Dart was made to do the final kneel-down.
“I kind of blacked out, honestly. I lost track of where I was,” Dart said. “I was celebrating for a while, then I said I gotta get outta here.”
Others just stayed. The scene was one part exultation, part well-earned relief.
Dart was asked how long he would celebrate this, or do you obey the 24-hour rule — celebrate only for 24 hours and move on to the next one. Dart offered a knowing smile.
“I’m gonna celebrate this one,” he said. “I’m gonna celebrate this one.”
He left it at that.
Lane Kiffin, never one to be the conventional coach, also didn’t invoke the 24-hour rule.
“This party in the Sip will be going on for well over 24 hours,” he said.
Someone asked Kiffin about his father, defensive mastermind Monte Kiffin, who passed away earlier this year.
“I’ve thought about him a lot this week,” he said. “This game was really his style. Great defense. Kinda mushy offense. He would’ve loved this one.”
Lane Kiffin has been on the national scene a long time, entering the SEC as a controversial force of nature in 2009, his one and only year at Tennessee. Fifteen years later, he remains a character, but has largely shifted from polarizing to … just interesting? Perhaps even endearing? But for those who still don’t like him, or even those who do, there still remained the question of whether he was that great a coach. Every time he had a game like this, a chance to knock off a top team and show that Ole Miss truly was elite, he had failed.
Like last year, when his team went into Athens, Ga., and lost 52-17. That game brought home to Kiffin that there was still too much of a talent gap, and served as a catalyst for the offseason collective spending splurge, especially on the lines.
“This game started a year ago, when these guys beat us like that,” Kiffin said. “We made a decision to go to the portal, got some guys to come back, not go to the draft, and for, really a lot for this game. And a number of those guys said it this week, this is why they came here, it was for this game to play Georgia.”
As this season approached, plenty of people were buying into the idea that this Ole Miss team was different, including Kiffin’s old boss Nick Saban, who said at SEC media days that the line play made this team different.
Then the season started. There was an embarrassing home loss to Kentucky. There was a road loss to LSU. And with no impressive wins on the resume, the Rebels entered this week as home underdogs. The start of the game wasn’t promising: Georgia’s front got to Dart on first and second down, then rushed him into throwing an interception, with Georgia’s offense punching it in for the early lead. Here we go again.
But not this time, it turned out. Ole Miss sacked Georgia quarterback Carson Beck a season-high five times. Rebels receivers sprang open downfield, and Dart hit them. The better team on Saturday night, by far, was not the one with two of the past three national championships.
It was Ole Miss.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around it,” Dart said. “Our backs have been up against the wall. A lot of people around the country and in the media have lost confidence in us, and kinda counted us out. But the guys in the room, the people in the program never lost faith.”
There’s still plenty of season left. After a bye week, Ole Miss goes to Florida, then hosts the Egg Bowl. Ole Miss will be a heavy favorite, but if the team that lost to Kentucky shows up, or the players think too highly of themselves now, then either game could get dicey.
But that’s a worry for another week. For now, there’s no 24-hour rule, there’s no downplaying. Ole Miss, a program with high ambitions, which looked poised to not reach them again, deserved to celebrate. It will happily pay a $250,000 fine for the field storming. It will pay for new goal posts. It already paid to get its talent level to a place where it could make the College Football Playoff, maybe even make a run at a national title.
On this night, it all paid off.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Dart said. “We’ve had our ups and downs. This is why we came here. This was the vision we had when we came here.”
(Photo of Ole Miss’ Antwane Wells Jr. and Georgia’s KJ Bolden: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
