The College Football Playoff semifinal field is set, and for the first time in history the Ole Miss Rebels will feature in it.
With their Sugar Bowl win against the No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs on New Year’s Day, the No. 6 Rebels earned the right to face the No. 10 Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl and are two wins away from their first national championship in 64 years.
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That means Ole Miss and Rebels coach Pete Golding have twice as many CFP victories as Oklahoma — with four fewer appearances. It means former Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin will earn $500,000 in bonuses from LSU for work he didn’t perform in the postseason.
And those aren’t even my top four takeaways from this CFP quarterfinal thriller between Ole Miss and Georgia, but these are:
1. Trinidad Chambliss steps up again on a big stage
(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
No one expected Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss to be this good, but he needed an otherworldly effort to bring Mississippi back.
And he delivered.
Facing a double-digit deficit to Georgia, Chambliss put the Rebels on his back and lifted them to a 39-34 Sugar Bowl victory — plus their first berth in the College Football Playoff semifinals — at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.
Chambliss is the man who marred Georgia coach Kirby Smart’s 4-0 record in rematches against opponents faced earlier in the year with a loss.
He entered the Sugar Bowl with 3,406 total yards in the regular season — fourth most as a starter in FBS, and he did not start a game until the Rebels’ third game this season.
He also is the latest in a tradition of dual-threat quarterbacks at Ole Miss to throw for at least 300 yards and rush for 100 yards in the same game, following his 307 passing yards and 112 rushing yards against Tulane in the Rebels’ first-round CFP appearance and first win in the playoff. Only Archie Manning (1969), Chad Kelly (2015) and Jordan Ta’amu (2018) have thrown for 300 and rushed for 100 in the same game for Mississippi.
Chambliss proved once again to be an elite passer with his eighth 300-yard passing outing this season and his second-straight in the CFP. And he’s done it with a devastating group of receivers.
Ole Miss is the only program in the SEC with five receivers each averaging at least 40 yards receiving per game in 2025.
The move by Golding and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. to put the game squarely back into the hands of their quarterback in the second half led to the emergence of Ole Miss receiver Trey Wallace as a star in a game that was rolling out of reach. With his ninth reception, he eclipsed 156 receiving yards, and his touchdown catch was the 13th consecutive completion thrown by Chambliss to a Mississippi receiver.
Chambliss’ stat line reads: 30 of 46 for 362 passing yards with two touchdowns. But those numbers belie his brilliance as a magician in the pocket, extending plays that should’ve resulted in Georgia sacks or worse. In the second half, those 13 consecutive passes make him the first player to complete 12 or more consecutive passes against an AP top-5 opponent since Georgia quarterback Gunner Stockton did the same against Ole Miss when the two met in October.
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2. The legend of Gunner Stockton will continue to grow — just not now
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
Very few folks expected the Georgia passer to be this good. This is especially true against ranked opponents. With Stockton at quarterback, the Bulldogs walked into the Caesars Superdome with a 5-1 record against ranked opponents this season. In the fourth quarter against those ranked opponents — AKA “Winning Time” — Stockton had completed 29 of 32 passes for 319 yards with six touchdowns and zero interceptions through 13 games.
Importantly, against Ole Miss earlier this season, Stockton led a comeback win with a perfect passing display in the third and fourth quarters: 12 of 12 for 135 yards with three touchdowns. That performance helped Georgia overcome the 35-26 deficit it faced in the second half and made Stockton the first quarterback to go 12 for 12 in a single half against an AP Top 5 opponent since Aaron Rodgers did the same at Cal against No. 1 USC in 2004.
His experience starting in last year’s Sugar Bowl, a 23-10 win against No. 5 Notre Dame, showed itself early against the Rebels. He rushed for each of Georgia’s first two touchdowns.
He also stood in the face of Rebels defender Chris Graves Jr. closing like a freight train powered by 1.21 gigawatts of electricity, on third-and-12 with 4:40 left to go in the second quarter, got cracked by Graves, and completed a pass that finished 26 yards downfield. That play set up the second touchdown of the night for the Bulldogs.
However, that was as good as it would get for Stockton and the Georgia offense against Ole Miss this time around. He finished with 15 of 31 completions for 219 yards with a touchdown.
[MORE CFP: 4 Takeaways From Oregon’s Shutout Win vs. Texas Tech in the CFP Quarterfinals]
3. Coaching blunders on each sideline were gut-wrenching
(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
First, there was the fumble by Ole Miss running back Kewan Lacy that led to a defensive score for the Bulldogs. Next, Ole Miss mismanaged the clock late in the first half, robbing itself of the chance to close the arrears to a single scoring act. How? The Rebels missed the opportunity to run the place-kicking unit onto the field because Ole Miss receiver Dae’Quan Wright simply forgot to step out of bounds after his 8-yard gain had moved the ball to the Georgia 35-yard line as time wound down.
The Bulldogs defense scored as many touchdowns in the first half as the Rebels offense after Georgia defensive back Daylen Everette picked up a bouncing ball that popped out of Lacy’s hands and returned it to the end zone for six. With the extra point — and a failed two-point conversion attempt by Ole Miss — the defensive score allowed Georgia to take a 21-12 lead with 2:34 left to play in the first half.
A point thrown away on a failed two-point conversion. A 12-point swing on Everette’s scoop-and-score. A missed chance to take three points late. That’s 16 points Ole Miss gave away in the first half alone.
Mississippi players jogged into the locker room lacking the ability to stop the clock.
Then, on Ole Miss’ first possession of the second half, Golding chose to go for it on fourth-and-1 and let the offensive coordinator take the ball out of Chambliss’ hands, only to watch Lacy get stuffed behind the line of scrimmage on a direct-snap dive.
Those two plays alone are enough to ruin most teams’ chances to defeat a Kirby Smart-coached Georgia team.
[MORE CFP: 4 Takeaways From Indiana’s Rose Bowl Demolition of Alabama in CFP Quarterfinal]
And in the fourth quarter — the same quarter the Bulldogs shut out Ole Miss in the teams’ first meeting — Chambliss got the ball in his hands.
First, he closed the distance between his team and Georgia’s with a 36-yard strike to set up a touchdown. Just inside the fourth quarter, he escaped three sacks that looked like certain death for the Bulldogs on a drive that gave Ole Miss the lead 27-24 with a two-point conversion that actually worked. And the comeback was on.
Down by just three, Smart’s decision to make a hockey-line change from his punt unit to his offensive one on fourth-and-2 with 9:40 left to play from the Georgia 33-yard line did not catch Golding’s punt or defensive unit off-guard. But Stockton’s snap-count seemed to surprise his own team. When the ball was snapped, the left side of the Georgia offensive line did not move, and Ole Miss edge rusher Suntarine Perkins sacked Stockton to not only create the turnover-on-downs but also a short field for the hottest quarterback in the playoff.
Ole Miss needed just three plays to take a double-digit lead with 9:02 left. Ultimately, it took Lucas Carneiro’s 47-yard field goal with nine seconds left to play to seal the win. But Smart’s decision to go for it on fourth-down late — after using his trick play card earlier with a fake punt conversion — made Ole Miss’ lead insurmountable.
4. Three teams can win the national title for the first time in the modern era
(Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)
The CFP semifinals feature three teams that have not won a national title in the modern era: Ole Miss, No. 5 Oregon and No. 1 Indiana. The Ducks and Hoosiers will be looking to win their first-ever, and Mississippi is two wins away from its first since 1962.
Miami has won a national title in the 21st century, but just barely. 2001 is the last time the Hurricanes stood atop the rest of college football.
No matter who wins the CFP national championship this year, the story will be the same, though. There has never been a semifinal round quite like this one with so many “new” players so close to clutching glory.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
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