Ole Miss dream season comes to abrupt end in the desert. What's next?
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GLENDALE, AZ — The magic carpet ride that was the Ole Miss football season came to an excruciating end on Jan. 8 as more than an estimated 40,000 Rebels fans invaded the Sun Valley in hopes of securing a national championship.
A season of surprises on and off the field that began with a player death and witnessed a coach abandonment saw the resilient Rebels fight to within 19 seconds of booking a title trip to Miami. But nothing quarterback Trinidad Chambliss or newly minted Head coach Pete Golding or anyone else could do held the Miami Hurricanes at bay in the College Football Playoff semifinal.
The Hurricanes topped the Rebels in dramatic fashion, 31-27, and in so doing Miami advanced to the championship game, a first for a home team in the playoff era.
Even without a title trip, Ole Miss fans can look back at the 2025-26 season with a 13-2 record as the best the team has experienced since winning its last national championship in 1962.
Sure, Lane Kiffin quit before the three-game run through the CFP, but Ole Miss has long lasting memories and looks to the future with a new-found optimism maybe unlike anything the school has experienced.
What fans are saying?
Lisa Mora, a 1995 Ole Miss grad, who now lives in Birmingham, walked through the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale the morning after the game with a voice that was a bit hoarse but smiled when she talked about the season.
“Yeah, that was disappointing last night, but I am so proud of these boys and Pete Golding,” she said. “This run in the playoffs has been so special, so much fun. I hope Trinidad gets to come back next year.”
As she walked away, she turned and smiled and said, “Hotty Toddy.”
Drinking a cup of coffee and waiting for the rest of his family before heading to the airport, Wilson Caraway of Memphis reflected on the loss.
“I mean, seriously, games like last night are what you sign up for when you get season tickets,” Caraway said. “We didn’t win that one, but we were in the final four of college football. Only three others can say that. No one else in the SEC can say that, that’s for sure. But it still hurts. We were so close.”
Ole Miss on the rise?
Jim Jenson of Denver, who did not go to Ole Miss, has a daughter who is a senior in Oxford. He said they chose Ole Miss because she wanted a good school with an SEC experience.
“It has been perfect for her,” he said at State Farm Stadium on Jan. 8. “It’s the perfect college town with a great experience to offer. My daughter has loved it and I have adopted Ole Miss as my school. I think games like this will have more families like ours from different parts of the country wanting to be in Oxford. Plus, how can you not like Pete. What a breath of fresh air after what was here.”
An Ole Miss season of twists and turns
Before the season even began, freshman Corey Adams was killed in Memphis. Teammates used it as a rallying cry the remainder of the way.
Early in the year, highly touted quarterback Austin Simmons went down to injury, leaving a Division II transfer from Ferris State to take the helm. Chambliss would go on to earn Heisman talk and songs of his exploits as the flag of Trinidad and Tobago flew across the Magnolia State, despite the fact that Chambliss had no ties to the tiny Caribbean islands.
Simmons never got his job back is now reportedly transferring to Missouri.
The QB drama would become an appetizer for the full course served up by Kiffin in November. When Florida and LSU fired their coaches, rumors swirled that Kiffin would leave for one or the other. Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter finally gave Kiffin an ultimatum to make up his mind.
Kiffin was jeered by fans as the Oxford airport as he pressured his staff to head with him to Baton Rouge. His departure in season to a neighboring rival was a gut punch. Nobody at the time had ever left a playoff-bound team, and the resentment boiled from Biloxi to Southaven.
In stepped Golding, a product of Delta State and a first-time coach. He inherited a mess. Would offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. and other LSU-bound assistants be able to finish out the season? What players would follow the charismatic-but-now-reviled Kiffin to LSU? Distractions abounded.
Golding stabilized and galvanized the team, navigated the turbulent waters as a masterful captain, helming the team to unprecedented heights, and when Chambliss dropped a touchdown dime to receiver Dae’Quan Wright with 3:13 left, Ole Miss had the lead and the palm trees of South Beach in its sight.
The Rebels would hold that until 18 seconds remained when veteran Miami quarterback Carson Beck capped an amazing drive that left the Ole Miss faithful hunched over, sick to their stomachs.
Still, the season was not quite over. As he had done so many times before, Golding and Chambliss orchestrated one last drive, and Chambliss had one final attempt to secure a Rebel win, but the ball sailed long to an aggressively covered receiver as time expired. Chambliss, Golding and Rebel nation screamed for an interference call that never came.
A teary-eyed Chambliss was consoled by teammates as he left the field one last time in Ole Miss’ greatest season of the integrated era of football.
It was a season in which the nation became familiar with the ubiquitous “Hotty Toddy” chant.
“Just thinking about my brothers, people that have sacrificed so much to be in this position,” Chambliss said. “There’s a lot that goes on behind the scenes … and this team has just sacrificed a lot to get to this point. And this season has been bumpy, and there’s a lot of things going on, they just kept our focus. It’s been truly special.”
Staff writer Tia Reid contributed to this report.
Ross Reily is a writer for the Clarion Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network. He can be reached at rreily@gannett.com or 601-573-2952. You can follow him on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter @GreenOkra1.
This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Ole Miss dream season comes to abrupt end in the desert. What’s next?
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