OXFORD – When the clock hit zero at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday night, it’s hard to know exactly what happened. old miss the mind of head coach Lane Kiffin.

Kiffin and the Rebels needed a win over No. 3 Georgia Bulldogs to keep College Football Playoff hopes alive, and that’s what they did, dominating the Dawgs to the tune of a Final score 28-10.

The fans stormed the field. The goal posts collapsed. The players celebrated. But once Kiffin had a little time to process the victory, his mind returned to his last four seasons at Oxford.

“Really happy for our university,” Kiffin said after the game. “Five years ago, when we got here after four winless seasons, a lot of really good things happened, but there hasn’t been a signature game like this. We were close. Just really happy.”

Kiffin arrived at Ole Miss for the 2020 season while the Rebels were on the heels of NCAA sanctions that essentially destroyed the program in an unforgiving Southeastern Conference. There hadn’t been a winning season at Oxford since 2015, but Kiffin preached a championship mentality at a place that has had peak moments in the past.

He wanted to right the ship and had done so by Saturday night. But this win over Georgia meant something. It meant Kiffin’s championship mentality needs to be taken a little more seriously in the future because his program finally achieved one of the best programs in the sport.

“That’s a great Georgia team,” Kiffin said. “Outside of Alabama, they’ve won 51 games in a row against people since COVID. I’m happy that our players play that way where it ends up being dominant. To win three scores, there’s a lot of people doing a lot of things.” good.”

One of those people was quarterback Jaxson Dart, who is now the winningest quarterback in Ole Miss history. Dart had a record-breaking performance last week against Arkansas, and while his numbers weren’t as eye-popping against the Bulldogs, his grit helped propel the Rebels to a much-needed victory.

Ole Miss has made two mistakes in conference play with heartbreaking losses to Kentucky and LSU, two results that put them in this must-win scenario to have a shot at making the playoffs. Dart didn’t blink. Those defeats hurt him, but, in his words, he and his teammates kept the faith.

“It feels great. I feel like everyone wrote us off after the LSU game,” Dart said. “We felt like we were two plays away from being the number one team in the country. I’m very proud of how resilient our group of guys is. It starts with our coaching staff and we never give up or lose faith. It’s all part of the plan.”

What makes Dart’s performance even more impressive is that He was injured on the second play of the game. On the third play of the game, he threw a pass off his back foot and was intercepted by the Georgia defense, a moment that ultimately led to the Bulldog’s first (and only) touchdown of the night.

Dart missed just one offensive possession in which backup Austin Simmons dazzled and led a game-tying response. After that series, QB1 returned to the field and played through the pain, helping lead Ole Miss to its historic victory.

“I never thought it was going to come out,” Dart said. “There has to be something very wrong for me to get out of the game.”

A lot went into Saturday night’s outcome. The Rebels overcame adversity before and during the game against the Bulldogs, but they got the job done.

Time will tell if Saturday will be the spark that propels Ole Miss to the College Football Playoff. But for now, fans of Kiffin, Dart and Rebel should enjoy what Saturday night meant: an iconic victory with their backs against the wall.