Four offensive starters are slated to leave Ole Miss due to graduation and stud offensive tackle Laremy Tunsil and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell are both predicted to enter the National Football League draft.
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On paper, Ole Miss (9-3) should beat Oklahoma State (10-2) in the Sugar Bowl.
No. 12 Ole Miss followed the trend in a day of one-sided bowl games, pounding No. 16 Oklahoma State in the Sugar Bowl 48-20.
It seemed as if the 16th-ranked Rebels (10-3) used just about all the pages in their playbook in the first 30 minutes, and many of them resulted in long gains. In the game against the Crimson Tide, Kelly threw for 341 yards, three passing touchdowns, no interceptions and added one rushing touchdown against one of the nation’s top defenses.
“I just don’t want to take away from this team and the guys coming together and winning 10 football games”, Gundy said. Kelly, who completed 21-of-33 for 302 yards, finished with four touchdown passes and Treadwell caught three of them. In addition to the touchdown catch, did a good job of containing outstanding pass rusher Emmanuel Ogbah and gave Kelly enough protection to pick apart the Cowboys defense.
Mason Rudolph was 18 of 31 for 179 yards for Oklahoma State. Indeed, Oklahoma State, playing in the aerial circus that is the Big 12, gained 357.3 yards per game passing, seventh in the FBS.
(17) MI 41, (19) Florida 7: In Orlando, Fla., Jake Rudock threw for 278 yards and three touchdowns and Michigan’s defense dominated throughout in the Wolverines’ victory over Florida in the Citrus Bowl.
In the days leading up to Friday’s Allstate Sugar Bowl, most pundits predicted a shootout.
The most dynamic defensive player on either of these teams won’t dress out: Ole Miss DL Robert Nkemdiche is suspended.
Ole Miss can finally feel a measure of vindication.
Things fell apart quickly after OSU opened things up with a field goal to go up 3-0.
Sugar Bowl recap, score and key stats for the Rebels and Cowboys.
The only time the 13th-ranked Cowboys (10-3) had a chance to seize momentum, they couldn’t punch it in on second-and-1 from the 8 and settled for a 26-yard field goal by Ben Grogan for a 3-0 lead with 4:52 to go in the first quarter. But the wheels came off down the stretch, and they only backed their way into the Sugar Bowl because of Baylor’s upset loss to Texas on the final weekend of the regular season.
Treadwell also completed a 45-yard pass on a trick play to continue a scoring drive and left tackle Laremy Tunsil scored a 2-yard touchdown at the end of the first half. One the other side of the ball, Ole Miss made it look easy throughout the second quarter, and extended the lead to 27-6 just before half on another touchdown catch by Treadwell.
The coach said a leadership council made up of players C.J. Johnson, Justin Bell, Evan Engram, Trae Elston and Mike Hilton set the curfew for bowl week, and he believes that has worked very well with the team.
“You study film, you play the percentages”, Freeze said. “I felt comfortable with the lead we had at that moment and really thought that could be somewhat of a dagger to end the first half”.
Even Archie Manning, the Rebels’ quarterback in 1970, was impressed. Kelly paused for a second and then grinned as he said, “I do now”.
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The Cowboys had a small window to gain an advantage over Ole Miss, but they couldn’t find the end zone.
