Georgia vs. Ole Miss: College Football Playoff players to watch, key to the Sugar Bowl
NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...
The only rematch of the quarterfinals is the final game on New Year’s Day.
Georgia beat Ole Miss 43-35 on Oct. 18 as the Bulldogs’ defense came through in the fourth quarter after getting rolled by the Ole Miss offense for much of the day. Can Georgia do it again in New Orleans? Or will Ole Miss be just one win away from a spot in the national title game after Lane Kiffin’s departure?
[More CFP: OSU vs. Miami | Oregon vs. Texas Tech | Indiana vs. Alabama]
Sugar Bowl: No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 6 Ole Miss
How these teams got here
Georgia (12-1): The SEC champions are on a nine-game win streak after losing to Alabama on Sept. 27. The Bulldogs have won just three of those nine games by a single possession and the closest win was a 24-20 victory over Florida in the teams’ annual rivalry matchup in Jacksonville.
The 35 points Georgia gave up in that last matchup with Ole Miss is more than the Bulldogs have allowed in their last four games combined, too. Georgia has given up just 29 points over its last four wins and Texas’ 10 points is the most that any team has scored against UGA in that span.
Ole Miss (12-1): The Rebels made easy work of Tulane in the first round of the playoff. That was also a rematch from earlier in the season. After beating Tulane 45-10 in Week 4, Ole Miss beat the Green Wave 41-10 on Dec. 20.
Since losing to Georgia, Ole Miss has had one close game. That came at Oklahoma in a 34-26 win. The Rebels’ defense hasn’t allowed more than the 26 points it gave up against the Sooners since that Georgia loss either. Can Pete Golding’s unit keep Georgia in check this time?
How the QBs stack up
Both quarterbacks finished in the top 10 in the Heisman voting at the end of the season. Georgia’s Gunner Stockton was seventh and Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss was right behind him in eighth.
Stockton was on a heater in early November. He threw nine touchdowns and rushed for another score over the Bulldogs’ first three games of the month and surged into potential Heisman contention. Any chance of winning the award disappeared with just 70 passing yards against Georgia Tech, but Stockton threw for three TDs in the SEC title game win over Alabama.
For the season, Stockton has thrown for 2,691 yards and 23 TDs with just five interceptions while adding 442 rushing yards and eight scores on the ground.
Chambliss, a transfer from Division II Ferris State, seized control of the starting job after Austin Simmons’ ankle injury. He’s thrown for 3,298 yards and 19 TDS while rushing for 506 yards and eight touchdowns.
He was ruthlessly efficient against Tulane, too. Chambliss was 23-of-29 passing for 282 yards and a score while rushing six times for 36 yards and two touchdowns. Chambliss is a fifth-year senior, but it looked evident that he was a bit overwhelmed by the crowd at Sanford Stadium in the fourth quarter in October. The Superdome audience will be a lot more neutral — and could even favor Ole Miss.
Players to watch
Georgia WR Zachariah Branch: The USC transfer is Georgia’s leading receiver and it’s not even close. Georgia likes to spread the ball around; 10 players have 13 or more catches. But Branch is the only player with more than 27 catches or 339 yards.
Branch has 73 grabs for 744 yards and leads the team with five touchdowns. He’s had at least four grabs in each of Georgia’s last nine games and hasn’t had a game with fewer than three catches all season.
More importantly, he’s gotten into the end zone in each of Georgia’s last two games. Branch had five catches for 53 yards and a score against both Georgia Tech and Alabama. Ole Miss kept him out of the end zone in October, but Branch had eight catches for 71 yards in the win.
Ole Miss RB Kewan Lacy: How close to 100% will Lacy be on Thursday night? Lacy left the playoff win over Tulane with a left shoulder injury and didn’t return. His absence could simply have been precautionary and Ole Miss could play coy about Lacy’s status leading up to the Sugar Bowl. But we’re assuming that he’ll be on the field. And Georgia will too.
Lacy has been one of the best running backs in the country in 2025. He has 273 carries for 1,366 yards and 21 TDs this season. No other Ole Miss running back has more than 29 carries for 179 yards. Simply put, Lacy is Ole Miss’ run game. If he’s unable to play — or be nearly as effective as he has been — Ole Miss could be in trouble.
Given the way Georgia’s defense has played over the last four games, we’d be stunned if the Sugar Bowl comes close to having the 78 total points that the regular-season matchup did. Vegas is aware of that too. The total is 56.5.
In a lower-scoring game, the onus is going to be on the Ole Miss defense to pull its weight. And it didn’t do that against the Bulldogs earlier this season. Georgia ran 80 plays for 510 yards in the win. That’s 6.4 yards per play.
Only Arkansas (7.3) averaged more yards per play against the Ole Miss defense all season. Stockton threw for four touchdowns and completed 84% of his passes while the Bulldogs rushed 49 times for 221 yards and a score. Georgia also ran 20 more plays than Ole Miss did.
If that happens again, Georgia isn’t going to need a strong fourth quarter to beat Ole Miss. The game will be over by halftime.
More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos