Observations: The Rebels survive state and finish the regular season 9-3

Ole Miss outlasted Mississippi State 26-14 on Saturday in Oxford. The Rebels finished the regular season 9-3 and are waiting for their postseason appearance. Ole Miss has won nine or more regular season games for the third time in Lane Kiffin’s five seasons – 2020 was the 10-game SEC Covid year.

The much-discussed Ulysses Bentley story gained more momentum even though it was against the SEC’s worst rush defense. Bentley rushed for more than 100 yards, including an 89-yard touchdown dash, marking the conference’s longest rush in 2024.

Bentley ran for 136 yards on 20 carries and had the Rebels’ two 100-yard rushing games this season. The other was against LSU, which included a 55-yard touchdown run.

Jaxson Dart had his toughest day of the year from a statistical standpoint, throwing for just 143 yards on 14 of 24 passes. He passed Eli Manning in the first half to take first place on the all-student leaderboard. Manning had 10,119 points in his three-plus seasons. Dart is within bowl game distance of Chad Kelly’s single-season record of 4,042 yards.

Ole Miss’ defense made a crucial goal-line stand in the fourth quarter. After State caught a pass and ended up just short of the end zone, Ole Miss stopped two rushes, used a penalty to force the Bulldogs back, tackled a receiver at the two-yard line and then forced an incomplete pass for a turnover on downs.

The Rebels recovered the ball and scored a first down to run out the clock in the final quarter. Ole Miss trailed 14-10 after one period, but the Rebels pitched a shutout the rest of the way.

Ole Miss leads the series 66-49-6 and has won four of five under Kiffin.

State had three turnovers and ran for just 39 yards. Ole Miss ran for 254 yards on 51 carries as a team.

Both teams lost eight tackles and Ole Miss sacked Michael Van Buren three times. Ole Miss was 8 of 17 on third downs and held MSU to 4 of 15 in that category.

Ole Miss, despite offensive woes, turned two trips into the red zone into two touchdowns.

Walter Nolen led Ole Miss with eight tackles and also had 3.5 tackles for loss.