OXFORD — The Ole Miss Rebels are one step closer to playing for a national championship after Saturday’s convincing 41-10 playoff-opening victory over Tulane. The win advances the Rebels (12-1) to a second-round showdown with Georgia in the Sugar Bowl on New Year’s Day in New Orleans. That matchup will offer Ole Miss a chance to avenge its only loss of the season (the Rebels lost to Georgia 43-35 back on Oct. 18) after denying Tulane its own shot at redemption Saturday. The Rebels beat the Green Wave (11-3) by five touchdowns in the regular-season meeting back in September, and poured it on again in the rematch in front of an announced record crowd of 68,251 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. Tulane linebacker Chris Rodgers, right, reaches past a Mississippi blocker to sack quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, left, during the first half in the first round of the NCAA College Football Playoff, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Oxford, Miss. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis It was a game of firsts for Ole Miss: It was both the Rebels’ inaugural college football playoff game and the opening salvo for newly minted head coach Pete Golding, elevated from defensive coordinator after former coach Lane Kiffin bolted for LSU on Nov. 28. “This is obviously an exciting night for our program, our fans and most importantly, our players,” Golding said. “You know, obviously, I think they’ve been through a lot over these last couple of weeks, and it was good to just get back on the grass, at home and in front of our fans, and get out there and play the game they love.” And play they did. Despite the turnover and a three-week layoff, the first 12-win team in program history showed few signs of rust. The Rebels went 75 yards in three plays on the game’s opening possession, taking a 7-0 lead on a 20-yard run by All-SEC tailback Kewan Lacy. Their second drive went 60 yards in four plays, with quarterback Trinidad Chambliss scampering in from six yards out to put Ole Miss ahead 14-0 at the midway mark in the first quarter. That’s seven offensive plays, 135 yards and two touchdowns if you are keeping score. That start put to bed any concerns about offensive coordinator Charlie Weiss, back on loan after following Kiffin to LSU, calling the Ole Miss plays. Tulane football coach Jon Sumrall, left, and Mississippi football coach Pete Golding confer prior to the first half of the first round of the NCAA College Football Playoff, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Oxford, Miss. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis “I wasn’t worried about Charlie calling a solid game for one reason,” Golding said “This whole time, anyone who talked about us has referred to ‘Lane Kiffin’s offense.’ So if we come out here and lay an egg, it was going to be because Lane Kiffin wasn’t here. So I knew he would want to come out here and show it was him calling these games and getting the credit for it.” The two teams traded field goals in the second quarter, and Ole Miss took a 17-3 lead into the halftime break.The second half was more of the same. Chambliss tossed a 13-yard touchdown pass to De’Zhaun Stribling on the Rebels’ first possession of the third quarter, and kicker Lucas Carneiro’s second field goal put the Rebels ahead 27-3 headed to the fourth quarter.As one-sided as the final score appeared, Tulane had a much better plan for the Rebels than it did in September. The Green Wave rolled to 421 yards of total offense — much more than the 282 they gained in the first meeting — but almost all of Saturday’s production came on their own end of the field. The Ole Miss defense also shut down their opponents when it mattered most. The Green Wave offense was 0-for-4 on fourth-down conversion attempts. Tulane’s outgoing head coach Jon Sumrall said that the determining factor. “The yardage wasn’t that big of a discrepancy,” Sumrall said. “But the situational stuff wasn’t good for us. We went under center on third and fourth down twice with a yard to go, and couldn’t get it. Then we went into the (shot)gun because if we couldn’t sneak it, maybe we could get it on the perimeter, but we couldn’t.” Tulane’s lone touchdown came with four minutes left in the game on a 29-yard pass against the Rebels’ defensive reserves. The Green Wave’s only trip into the red zone came in the second quarter and resulted in a field goal. Mississippi quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, left, and running back Kewan Lacy (5) pose after Chambliss scored a touchdown against Tulane during the first half in the first round of the NCAA College Football Playoff, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in Oxford, Miss. Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis The Tulane defense offered less resistance. Chambliss finished with a crisp stat line — he was 23 of 29 for 282 yards and three total touchdowns — and Lacy’s 87 yards led a rushing attack that rolled up 151. “I didn’t feel like the team was nervous or doubting ourselves or anything like that,” Chambliss said. “We didn’t face a whole lot of adversity today, if we’re being honest. We had a couple of drives we stalled out, and those could have been crucial, but other than that we were kind of rolling and I thought we really executed well.” ...read more read less