No. 6 Ole Miss and No. 3 Georgia put on one of the most exciting games of this year’s College Football Playoff.
The quarterfinal game came down to the very last seconds with the Rebels’ kicking a field goal with one second left to secure the victory.
The win sends Ole Miss to the CFP semifinals against No. 10 Miami on January 8 in Glendale, Ariz.
After Thursday’s game in New Orleans, coach Pete Golding and several athletes held post-game press conferences. Here are the six best things the Rebels said:
Coach Pete Golding on Ole Miss players…
“I think you got to have the right guys. What I mean by that, I think they got to be tough. I think they got to be competitive. I think they got to love football. And I think you got a lot of guys on other teams that don’t love football. There’s one thing about this group. They love football. They love competing. They like practicing. They like preparing and they like playing and I think at this point in the year, you better have a group of guys that still wants to play because every time you go out there and you spot the ball, you’re playing for another opportunity to play and these guys aren’t tired of playing and it’s fun watching them.”
QB Trinidad Chambliss on emotions after the win…
“My emotion right now is crazy. Really speechless, honestly, about everything because it was that same point. We were down nine. Or they were down nine last time we played them. So it was kind of like roles reversed. Then obviously, you know, played them before. I didn’t play my best in the fourth quarter. So I wanted to redeem myself and get that get back again. So honestly, just trusting my guys, you know, our coaches put us in a great position and we executed.”
Golding on Lacy’s fumble…
“He came right up to me, he’s like, coach, I got you, don’t worry. I said, I’m not. You know, it’s just that’s who they are, man. They’re wired the right way.”
Golding on game plan for final, game-winning drive…
“There was 20 something seconds left on the clock. We had no timeouts. So if you run the ball and you’re tackled inbounds, the clock runs. And you’re running red field goal out there at that moment, which is crazy and a lot of things can happen. So the first was an out route into the boundary to try to get a cheat five, right? Because every three yards increases your field goal percentage by 10%. So we’re trying to move it up five more yards. They did try to trap it. So after that, it was air balls to delay time off the clock, throw it over the head, knowing we’re not going to turn the ball over right here. And so that was the philosophy behind it, knowing there was going to be about a three second play. You know, once we made the field goal, and that’d be a kickoff and you’re going to defend one play because we’re going to kick it out of the back of the end zone and you were going to call circus and be fine. So that was the thought process.”
DL Will Echoles on teammate Corey Adams…
“He’s been on our mind heavy. He’s on my mind really all day. You know, we break it down at the practice. We break it down on C4. We gave his mom the game jersey yesterday before the game. And we talked we talked with her a lot. And she just shared more stories about him and how great of a kid he was. And I was just glad that we got to come to New Orleans to play his home state and represent him.”
Chambliss on kicker Lucas Carneiro…
“We have all of our trust in Lucas. You know, like PG just said that, you know, during our fast Friday, we call it fast Friday. But the day before the game, it’s like a walkthrough. And he went out there and missed two field goals. And that’s very uncharacteristic of him. So for him to hit the game when he field goal, there’s no doubt in our minds that he won’t be able to make that. So we always have trust in Lucas. And yeah, well, we believe in him.”
