Like the Oklahoma-Alabama game, these two teams have already met in the regular season, when the Rebels defeated the Green Wave 45-10 in Week 4. It was a dominant win for the home side, but it was exactly three months since the last time they played. If you follow college football at all, you know a lot has changed for Ole Miss. Here’s a preview of each CFP team heading into Saturday afternoon’s games:
🦈 Ole Miss (11-1)
The Rebels’ season has gotten off to a rollercoaster start as the team heads into a first-round matchup with the Green Wave. Ole Miss starting quarterback Austin Simmons injured his ankle in Week 2 against Kentucky and is out for at least a month. Rebels fans were unsure how they would handle a tough schedule without their quarterback.
If you didn’t know his name then, you probably do now – Trinidad Chambliss. The senior pass rusher from DII’s Ferris State stepped in for Simmons in Week 3 against Arkansas, throwing for 353 yards and a team-leading 62 rushing yards. He proved it the next week against Tulane with over 400 total yards. The starting quarterback’s usual script declined and the season ended, turning heads with Chambliss. So even when Simmons returns in Week 8 against Georgia, Lane Kiffin decided to stick with Chambliss. After all, Chambliss passed for 1,227 yards through four games against Georgia.
After Georgia rattled off 17 unanswered in the fourth quarter, the loss to the Athens Dawgs was Ole Miss’ only loss of the season. But Chambliss played well, and the Rebels have stuck with the Ferris State product ever since. That solved one problem, but now Ole Miss is in the middle of another. On November 30, Lane Kiffin announced that he would be leaving Ole Miss for LSU, and he would not be coaching the team in the College Football Playoff. The Ole Miss athletic department wasted no time promoting defensive coordinator Pete Golding to head coach, even signing him to a five-year contract.
So, it’s clear that there are a lot of questions about this team’s ability to make the playoffs. But one thing we know for sure is that Oxford, Mississippi State has one of the most explosive offenses in the country, ranking third in the FBS with an average of 498.1 tackles per game. That’s the highest mark among CFP teams, with only North Texas and South Florida leading the way. This team has playmakers on both sides of the ball, and the Rebels, with and without Kiffin, will be tough on any team in this year’s CFP.
🌊 Tulane (11-2)
The Green Wave won its second American title of the season, defeating North Texas 34-21 in the College Football Playoff game. The American Conference has been a battle all season long, ending up as one of the most competitive conferences from top to bottom.
After beating Florida State earlier in the year, South Florida was the early favorite, then Memphis held the lead for a while before falling to North Texas and Tulane. The AAC winner was predicted to receive an automatic bid for much of the season and throughout the CFP poll, and the Green Wave were dominant enough to make the playoffs with one of just two losses this year.
Tulane is led by BYU pass rusher Jake Retzlaff, who has thrown for nearly 3,000 yards this season and leads the FBS in receiving yards (16). He’s a dynamic player similar to Chambliss, and if you steal a pass, both will be happy to beat you with their feet, especially in man defense.
During the playoffs, the Green Wave aren’t necessarily the No. 1 pick like many CFP schools, so it’s hard to project them. Five receivers have over 400 yards and 10 different players have received touchdowns, making it difficult to decide who to try and limit. However, Retzlaff was 5-for-17 in the opener against the Rebels, and the Green Wave will need a better performance from the quarterback to pull off the upset.
Defensively, Tulane doesn’t have any numbers coming out, but the Green Wave knows how to make turnovers with 15 interceptions on the season, which ranks third in the CFP field behind Texas Tech (16) and Indiana (17). But Chambliss defends the rock better than most, throwing just three times all season.
It will be a tough battle for the Rebels, and Tulane will need its best performance of the season to impress Ole Miss.
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