With Bryant-Denny Stadium filled to the brim, the number 15 Ole Miss Rebels upset the second ranked Alabama Crimson Tide for the second year in a row. Fans started pouring out of the stadium with ten minutes left in the game, with all hope completely gone. Ole Miss fans had something to rejoice over for the third week in a row, and they deserved it.
The first big shock of the night came when it was announced that Cooper Bateman would be starting over Jake Coker. This ended up being a very poor choice by the Alabama coaching staff. Bateman seemed to lack the leadership to control the offense, resulting in a lot of miscommunications and lack of energy.
Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly had a spectacular game. Kelly went 18-33 with 341 passing yards and three touchdowns. He also had an unbelievably lucky play in the third quarter that bounced off the helmet of Alabama defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick and was caught by Quincy Adeboyejo who went on to score a touchdown. Kelly threw no interceptions and locked up his first big win for the Ole Miss Rebels.
Chad Kelly connects with Quincy Adeboyejo for a 66-yard touchdown and Ole Miss goes up 24-10.
Jake Coker came into the game in the second quarter, replacing Bateman. While he had some great moments in the game and helped keep Bama within striking distance, he also had some huge flaws. He was 21-45 when passing and threw two interceptions that ended up being huge for the Rebels. One of the interceptions came at the end of the fourth quarter when the Tide was down by six points with 3 minutes left in the game. All night Coker and his wide receivers seemed to lack communication when going for the deep ball. Many of his passes landed 5 plus yards away from the nearest receiver.
Derrick Henry had a decent game tonight. He totaled 127 yards on 23 carries. This would be his seventh 100 plus yard game of his career. He had some trouble in the first half against the big Ole Miss defense but came out a lot stronger in the second half.
Ole Miss completely exposed the Tide's secondary, having too many big throws down field. The defensive line held up pretty well, however, and made some big stops at key moments of the game. With this being the Tide's biggest test of the season thus far, many flaws were exposed on both sides of the ball.
Adam Griffith deserves some props, however. He has had a lot of people riding him, rightfully so since he came into the game missing all four of his field goal attempts. However, he did make his first field goal of the season. Yes, it was only a 20-yarder but it could help him gain some confidence back. He also produced a remarkable onside kick that Bama was able to recover late in the fourth quarter. Maybe this is a sign of things looking up for the Alabama kicker.
Ole Miss showed that they are here to stay in the SEC West. They will give a lot of teams problems this season, and this is only the beginning for the Rebels. Be on the lookout for them for the rest of this season. They will definitely be shaking up college football.
What's Up Next?
Ole Miss will be playing Vanderbilt at home next Saturday. It should be a relatively easy game for the Rebels, especially since they lost their season opener to WKU. The Rebels may even put up their third 70 plus point game of the season. Who knows? The game starts at 7:00 P.M.. EST.
Alabama will also have an easy game next week against Louisiana Monroe. This game will give the Tide some more time to work out all of their problems before a huge game against Georgia in Athens. Kickoff is at 4 P.M.. EST.