OXFORD, Miss. – Ole Miss fans were so excited and so unused to handling a win that was seconds away from completion, they rushed the field too early.
The early rush with 16 seconds still left in the game evoked a NSFW reaction from head coach Lane Kiffin but it's hard to blame Ole Miss fans for wanting to start the party early. They've been conditioned to leave Vaught-Hemingway Stadium early to return to their cherished Grove to wash their sorrows away with whiskey and fried chicken.
But not this time.
In the pouring rain on a day that would have been dreadful if not for a football game, they lingered late to dance to Ray Charles' "Georgia on My Mind" on the field, rip the goal posts down and celebrate the biggest Ole Miss home win in at least a decade and possibly ever. It wasn't just that No. 16 Ole Miss defeated No. 3 Georgia, 28-10, but how thoroughly they did so in the face of real pressure.
A loss would have doomed the most highly anticipated Ole Miss season ever after suffering early losses to Kentucky and LSU. Instead, as the clocks hit zero, everyone couldn't help but think about how the program's first playoff berth feels that much closer.
"I'm sure the party in the 'Sip will go on for definitely more than 24 hours," Kiffin said.
Kiffin deserves a chance to enjoy it, too. For as masterful as the Ole Miss head coach is at generating headlines and trolling former bosses on social media, he was still missing a definitive win as a head coach. In fact, he entered Saturday's game against No. 2 Georgia with a 1-11 record against top five opponents, his last win coming against No. 4 Oregon back in 2011 when he was still USC's head coach.
Beating Georgia, a program that hadn't lost to a school not named Alabama in more than 50 games, gave the Lane Train the biggest win of his career. In a room packed full of reporters and boosters after the game, Kiffin joked Ole Miss might get fined twice by the SEC for the double field rush. Athletic director Keith Carter quickly replied they'd pay.
What a difference a year makes for Ole Miss after it suffered an embarrassing 52-17 loss at Georgia last season. It was the kind of wake-up loss that signaled to Kiffin and the rest of his brain trust that the 11-2 final record belied real roster issues that would hold it back from winning against the nation's truly elite programs.
Monte Kiffin, Lane's late father who passed away in July, told him after the Georgia loss that they'd find a way to get it turned around and would beat the Bulldogs the following season.
"I know he's watching," Kiffin said. "I thought about that a lot this week and I was like, 'Man, we win this and he'll be so happy."
To try to bridge the gap between the two programs, Ole Miss went on an offseason acquisition spree. Kiffin and his staff mastered the art of transfer recruiting, putting together the nation's best transfer portal class and compiling an eight-figures roster that ranks near the top of the Southeastern Conference. Watching Ole Miss physically man-handle Georgia all day Saturday -- yes, that is a real and accurate sentence -- made it crystal clear why Ole Miss so aggressively sought to upgrade its roster.
They let talented highly-paid running back Quinshon Judkins walk -- he landed at Ohio State -- to instead prioritize spending in the trenches and other key positions. Ole Miss went out and got defensive tackle Walter Nolen and defensive end Princely Unmanielen and cornerback Trey Amos and linebacker Chris Paul Jr. and receiver Juice Wells. And on and on the list goes. Their talent and impact was evident throughout the game, so clearly in fact Ole Miss completely weathered the absence of superstar wideout Tre Harris.
Ole Miss gave up an early touchdown in the first quarter after Georgia capitalized on a short field, but then held the Bulldogs to only three points the rest of the way. Ole Miss hassled and harassed Georgia quarterback Carson Beck all day, forcing two turnovers, five sacks and leaving him little time to get comfortable. You could feel the Ole Miss defense getting more and more confident as the game progressed, especially Unmanielen, the Florida transfer who finished with two sacks and five tackles.
"This game don't even need to be close," Unmanielen told his defensive teammates. "I don't think they're on our level."
They certainly weren't in this game.
Ole Miss looked faster, physically tougher and more composed than Kirby Smart's Bulldogs. It was striking to see in person as the Rebels withstood Georgia's early touchdown punch to dominate the rest of the game. No one embodied that toughness more than quarterback Jaxson Dart, who looked like he might be done for the day after an ankle injury on that first offensive drive.
Ole Miss fans were surely slamming the panic button as their beloved quarterback hobbled off the field to the locker room. So was their head coach. A week after throttling Arkansas for 694 yards and 63 points, Ole Miss' offense looked in big trouble against Georgia.
"It didn't look good to me the way he limped off … I kind of thought he was done," Kiffin said.
A year ago, Dart got hurt against Georgia and Kiffin held him out because the game was already out of reach for the Rebels. This time, down only 7-0, Kiffin relented when Dart said he wanted back in after returning from the locker room.
"There has to be something severely wrong with me to come out of the game," Dart said.
Dart gutted out the rest of the game, doing enough to keep the Rebels' offense moving and to give kicker Caden Davis, who made all five of his field goal attempts, a chance to score. Dart finished 13 for 22 for 199 yards, one touchdown and one interception plus 50 rushing yards.
Coupled with a brilliant defensive gameplan from defensive coordinator Pete Golding, it was more than enough to take down Georgia and put Ole Miss on a great path to a playoff berth. With only Florida and Mississippi State, two games it should be heavily favored in, remaining on its schedule, Ole Miss should be in if it does the expected.
It is why Kiffin and Grove Collective leader Walker Jones aggressively fundraised to build a roster capable of beating the best of the best. This was the year to go all-in and they didn't want to leave any room for regrets for not doing enough.
And it is why Ole Miss fans couldn't wait to celebrate a win that loudly proclaims to the rest of college football that the Rebels are for real and aren't going away.
"Don't let us get hot," Dart said.
Georgia learned that lesson too late.