No. 6-seed Ole Miss will host 11-seed Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff on December 20.
It’ll be a historic day for the Rebels since it’ll be the first time a playoff game is played at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
It’ll also be a historic day for Tulane, who is finishing one of its best seasons of all-time. And for a Group of 5 team, any playoff appearance is historic.
But the playoff game will also be a rematch of a game from earlier this season the Rebels won 45-10. On Sunday, after the playoff field was announced, the Green Wave’s head coach (and Florida’s next head coach) Jon Sumrall held a press conference to talk about Tulane going to the playoffs and Ole Miss.
Here’s everything Sumrall said about the Rebels:
On playing Ole Miss again…
I’m glad we’re not having to fly across the country. They’re a really good opponent. Obviously, they beat the stew out of us game one in this matchup, week four. We didn’t play very good, they played great. We got to play better. We need to give them a better game.
On potential differences in Rebels after coaching change…
I think schematically, they’re going to be who they are. And the personnel, they haven’t lost any players. Lane (Kiffin) won’t be there and that has some impact to some degree. But I think Charlie Weis Jr.’s been calling plays. So, it’s not like they’re changing offenses. Pete’s going to call the defense. I think probably the biggest thing that changes is just maybe some in-game decision-making that you don’t really have any evidence of because I hadn’t seen Pete (Golding) do it as a head coach. So how aggressive does he call maybe certain situations in a game? From a big picture standpoint as a head coach, I don’t know. Won’t really spend a ton of time thinking about that.
On Pete Golding…
Pete FaceTimed me last night. I was sitting in my house watching the ACC game and the Big Ten game. We’re great friends. I have a good relationship with Pete; known him a long time. I’m very happy for him. I’m proud of him. He’s a really good football coach. He’ll do a great job there as the head coach. And he does a great job on the defense. I think he’s got a great football mind. So big picture stuff, I think they won’t miss a beat. They’re a really good football team. They got talent all over the field. They’re going to be well coached.
On Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss…
He’s a handful, man. He’s a really good football player. We were going in to play them week four. He had played the week before against Arkansas. And I’m like, ‘this guy’s different.’ Like, he’s crafty. He’s got a skill set that is hard to defend. He can make all the throws. He’s got great short area quickness. He gets to top end speed fast. He’s instinctive as a runner. He sees the throw game well. He’s got great touch on his passes. He’s accurate. I just think he’s a really good football player. And we have to play better. He’s going to play good. He’s a good player. We got to play better.
On benefit of familiarity of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium…
For our players, like I said, they’re going to know the locker room. They’re going to know the tunnel we go out. They’re going to know the pregame so I don’t have to cover all that. Usually I have to cover all that on a road trip. Like, hey, this is the layout of the field. This is where the locker room is. I do that on my Thursday or my Friday, really my Thursday meeting each week so our guys understand the environment we’re walking into and the layout of the field and if you have to go across the other team to get to your sideline or you don’t. So I shouldn’t have to talk about that because we’ve already done that. I’ll hit on it, but it won’t be quite as long.
On possibility of playing in the Sugar Bowl…
(Playing in the Sugar Bowl) would be cool. It won’t be cool if we get our ass beat. So we got our ass beat last time we played Ole Miss. I don’t want to get our ass beat. I want to go play good. And if we can play good and get to the other side of it, then (playing in the Sugar Bowl) would be cool. But what would not be cool is getting our ass beat again.
