No. 6 Ole Miss will try to win its first game under new head coach Pete Golding when it meets No. 11 Tulane in a College Football Playoff first-round game on Saturday in Oxford, Miss.
The Green Wave will try to prevent the game from being its last under outgoing head coach Jon Sumrall.
The success of the Rebels (11-1) and Tulane (11-2) led LSU to hire Lane Kiffin away from Ole Miss while Florida hired away Sumrall.
Ole Miss chose to not let Kiffin stick around for the playoff and quickly promoted Golding from defensive coordinator. The Green Wave chose to allow Sumrall to complete the season even after naming passing game coordinator Will Hall to succeed Sumrall for next season.
Golding said his focus is on finishing the job Kiffin started, and he can wait to reflect on his first opportunity to be a head coach during the offseason.
“Right now I’m trying to prepare extremely hard and get a good plan in place for these players and hold them accountable to practice the right way and prepare the right way to give themselves the best chance,” Golding said.
Ole Miss does have some continuity with Golding handling the defense and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis Jr. sticking around before joining Kiffin at LSU.
“We’ve got highly qualified (offensive coaches) that have been very successful this season,” Golding said. “I’m not going in there like I’m Jon Gruden all of a sudden.”
Rebels quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a second-team All-SEC selection, said Kiffin and Golding are “two totally different dudes,” noting that Kiffin is quieter and Golding is “very emotional when he talks to the team.”
When the Rebels routed Tulane 45-10 on Sept. 20 in Oxford, Chambliss passed for 307 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 112 yards. Kewan Lacy, a first-team All-SEC honoree, rushed for 68 yards and two TDs.
“We have to play a better football game than we played the last time in Oxford, Miss., because last time we played rotten and they played good,” Sumrall said. “Hats off to them. They’re a really good team.
“I just want to see us play a better version of Tulane football than what I saw the last time we went up there.”
Green Wave quarterback Jake Retzlaff, who arrived on campus from BYU just six weeks before the season opener, struggled in the first meeting. He completed 5 of 17 passes for 56 yards before being benched.
“The guys know who I am (after a full season), so that helps a lot,” Retzlaff said of his teammates. “We started poorly last game. That’s out, that’s gone, that’s been flushed through the system.”
Ole Miss ranks 11th in the country in scoring (37.2 points per game) and Tulane is 57th (29.1), but when the Green Wave stall in scoring position, they can lean on kicker Patrick Durkin. The American Conference Special Teams Player of the Year has made 24 of 27 field-goal attempts, including 4 of 6 tries from 50-yards plus.
Tulane is 1-0 with Sumrall as a lame duck, having defeated then-No. 24 North Texas 34-21 in the American championship game on Dec. 5 in New Orleans.
