Ole Miss Football: Sugar Bowl Predictions

After an up and down season that nearly had Ole Miss football fans packing for Atlanta, the Rebel faithful have to settle for their second straight New Year’s Six Bowl. Can they produce a different outcome against another Big 12 opponent?

Let’s just not delve too deep into last year’s Peach Bowl.

The Ole Miss Rebels came into the game just happy to be there and treated the game prep as a scrimmage. TCU, who belonged in the College Football Playoff, treated the Peach Bowl as a statement game. Ole Miss football fans never knew what hit them.

This year The University of Mississippi sends their Ole Miss football team back a New Year’s Six bowl, one of only six programs to be able to make that claim. They will face off the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who were looking like a College Playoff participant until the last 2 weeks of the season.

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Just like Alabama gets a shot of redemption against another Big 10 East opponent in the College Football Playoff, the Ole Miss Rebels get their shot against another Big 12 team who thought they would be playing in the playoff. The difference this year, however, is that Oklahoma State has no argument that they should be in after losing their last 2 games of the regular season.

How can the Ole Miss football team gain a measure of revenge? How might the Rebels be further embarrassed?

How Ole Miss can win:

The key to an Ole Miss victory will be for Chad Kelly to continue his impressive run of games that he has had late this season. After several up and down performances that reminded Ole Miss fans of “Good Bo and Bad Bo,” Kelly finished the last three games of the regular season by tossing 7 touchdowns, rushing for 6 and (most importantly) throwing 0 interceptions. If Kelly has another game in which he scores in multiple ways for the Rebels and does not turn the ball over, the Sugar Bowl will be ole so sweet for the Rebels and Ole Miss football fans.

How Ole Miss can lose:

Does anyone else remember how the Ole Miss 2015 secondary was not supposed miss a beat after losing two All-Americans to graduation last year? The addition of Tony Bridges and Tee Shepard, along with a more experienced defensive line and Tony Conner, was supposed to upgrade the overall talent on the defensive side of the ball for Ole Miss. As it turned out, only Kendarious Webster had a great year in the defensive backfield and the ‘landshark D’ of Ole Miss was incredibly inconsistent in 2015. If they are torched like they are torched like they already have been many times this season, Ole Miss could be playing an impossible game of catch-up.

Predictions:

John: Both teams will be highly motivated to win this game. Some believe that Oklahoma State will come into the game without proper motivation after missing the College Football Playoff. That’s garbage. Oklahoma State will be out to prove that if they had not lost Mason Randolph in the season finale, they would be in the playoff instead of Oklahoma. Ole Miss will be out to redeem themselves after last year’s disappointment. With Ole Miss missing both Nkemdiche brothers, Fadol Brown and Tony Conner, their defense will give up some points and big plays. I think Kelly will tear apart Okie State’s defense, though, on the way to winning a high scoring thriller 48-42.

Ben: Ole Miss embarrassed the school, the state, and the entire SEC with that whippin’ that got put on them last year. Don’t think Coach Hugh Freeze has forgotten about that. Missing the Nkemdiches will definitely help Oklahoma State’s offense get some rhythm but I think Chad Kelly and the high powered Ole Miss offense wins in a shootout 42-48.

Neal: I’ll take the Rebels to win here.

More sec: Ole Miss Football: Rebels to Receive Boost in 2016

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