EDITOR’S NOTE: The Football Beat has had a presence at most of this year’s bowl games, including today’s Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl at Atlanta. Photographer Dennis Jacobs was on hand to shoot the matchup between the Ole Miss Rebels and Penn State Nittany Lions. Check out his gallery below the story.
Ole Miss doesn’t often get a lot of attention – with Alabama, Georgia, and LSU all having so much success in the Southeastern Conference, it’s hard for any program not to be smothered.
But the No. 11 Rebels did get the spotlight today, deservedly so, when they got a rather convincing 38-25 win over 10th-ranked Penn State on Saturday in the Chick-Fil-A Peach Bowl at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, the second SEC win over the Big Ten in the matchups between the conferences this season (Dart leads No. 11 Ole Miss to 38-25 Peach Bowl rout of No. 10 Penn State’s proud defense)
(There’s a much bigger one on Monday that you might have heard about: No. 1 Michigan facing No. 4 Alabama in the Rose Bowl).
The win gave the Rebels (11-2) 11 wins in a single season for the first time in school history.
Coach Lane Kiffin predicted there would be more to come.
“I really do believe we’re just getting started,” Kiffin said. “I think that we’re doing something. We’re on our way to something really special.”
The teams traded field goals early – Alex Felkins hit a 26-yarder for Penn State, then Caden Davis tied it on a 36-yarder about two minutes later.
Caden Prieskom caught a 2-yard pass from quarterback Jaxson Dart for the game’s first touchdown, and Penn State tied it when Theo Johnson caught a 2-yard pass from Drew Allar.
The game went back-and-forth in the first half, ultimately seeing the Rebels go to the half with a 20-17 lead.
But the Rebels’ defense tightened in the third quarter, shutting the Nittany Lions out. Davis hit another field goal, this one from 52 yards, and then Quinshon Judkins scored on a 14-yard pass from Dart, and the Rebels added a two-point conversion when Davis threw a ball to Prieskom.
That put Ole Miss up by 14 (31-17), but they increased their lead when Dart scored on a 2-yard run (38-17). Penn State scored with four minutes left (38-25), but could get no closer.
Judkins finished with 131 yards rushing and also had the 14-yard receiving TD. Dart went 25-of-40 for 379 yards and three touchdowns, and then ran for the score. He was only sacked once. Prieskom had a huge day. He caught 10 passes for 139 yards and the two scores.
For Penn State, Allar went 19-of-39 for 295 yards, the touchdown and an interception. Tyler Warren caught five passes for 127 yards and Nicholas Singleton caught four passes for 86 yards and a score.
