OXFORD, Miss. — The first College Football Playoff game contested on a campus in the Deep South was here, of all places. Not in the state of Alabama, not in Georgia, not in Florida nor Tennessee nor  Louisiana. It was played Saturday in what author Willie Morris, a Yazoo City native, referred to as “poor, ol’ whupped-down Mississippi.” 

The Mississippi Rebels—who have never played in the Southeastern Conference championship game, whose last SEC title came 62 years ago, who have forever been fighting uphill—got the honor of being first to host a playoff game in the region that loves this sport more than any other.

This historic occasion was witnessed by the biggest crowd to ever see a football game in the state: 68,251 fans. They striped the Vaught-Hemingway Stadium stands red and blue. They shook tens of thousands of red pompoms every time the Rebels did something noteworthy (which was often). They left floating on a cloud of satisfaction after smashing Tulane, 41–10. 

The school came to this moment after enduring a Faulknerian family drama. Six-year coach Lane Kiffin took the job at hated rival LSU at the end of November while still wanting to coach the Rebels in the postseason, creating a tense standoff with the administration. Ole Miss leaders went from vigorously trying to keep Kiffin to bitterly kicking him to the curb, refusing to extend his stay through the playoff. Defensive coordinator Pete Golding was given a battlefield promotion to permanent head coach, with one imperative: Do not lose the biggest home game in school history.

Life after Lane got off to the start it absolutely had to for Ole Miss.

The Grove, the campus location where Rebels fans have made tailgating an art form, was a notably happy and positive place Saturday. On an idyllic day under cloudless skies, the fury that accompanied Kiffin’s departure for LSU on Nov. 30 was largely absent. The one-finger salutes at the Oxford airport that day were replaced by an almost intentional amnesia. Like Kiffin had been scrubbed from the emotional database.

One tent featured a large “golden ticket” to the playoff. Another had a life-size cutout of Golding. The woman who made the cutout was wearing gold pants and had hung gold streamers from the tent. Her button, which featured a picture of Golding, said, “Life is Golden.”

“You have to move on,” she said placidly.

Only a couple of tents had signs that took shots at Kiffin. “Geaux To Hell Heaux,” read one inside a tent that was occupied by a Christmas tree and a man in a Santa outfit. (The word “Ho,” and its Cajun-spelled derivative “Heaux,” has been affixed to Kiffin with enthusiasm in these parts.) Another read, “We love Jesus, Ole Miss, Elvis and Lane,” but “Lane” was crossed out and “Pete” had been written in.

“The team has had such a rough time for the last month or so,” says longtime fan Ben Countiss. “But it is what it is. Kiffin, he was going to make a mess of it when he leaves no matter what. I think everybody’s just glad to have it over.”

The list of people who did take shots at Kiffin included one surprise—legend Archie Manning.

Manning, probably the most beloved player in Ole Miss history and the patriarch of America’s first football family, is famously positive in public. But in a video message to an Ole Miss fan that wound up on social media, Manning didn’t hold back.

“I think we’re going to do great in the playoff without our narcissist, jerk coach,” he said. “I sure hope so.”

Manning attended Ole Miss practice Friday, something he reportedly hadn’t done in years, and took a picture with Golding. If there is one relationship that is vital to restore for the new coach, it’s with the Manning family.

In terms of purging the Kiffin aura, Golding noted that he removed the basketball goal that the Rebels kept in their team meeting room and on the sidelines, using it as a prop for celebratory dunks after big plays. Kiffin used to toss alley-oops to players. Golding tossed the entire premise.

“We got rid of the basketball goal first,” he said afterward, wearing shorts and a hoodie to the postgame news conference and seeming very much at ease and in charge. For a night, at least, the pressure had lifted.

This was not your average debut—but the stakes actually helped sharpen the focus.

“It’d be one thing—no disrespect—like, if this was the Pop-Tarts Bowl or something like that,” Golding said. “That s--- would have been really hard. This is the playoffs.”

Golding did his job, and did it exceedingly well. He’s now 1–0 as a head coach and the most popular man in Oxford, having pushed the least popular man in Oxford into the past tense. With six minutes and 24 seconds left and the Rebels up 41–3, the single-syllable chant started circulating through the stadium until it became a roar.

“Pete! Pete! Pete!”

When it was over, Golding got a Gatorade bath from his players and an escort off the field from his sons, Braxton and Bentley, as he tousled their hair. He pumped a fist to the cheering fans, then accepted an embrace from athletic director Keith Carter, who has stuck his neck out by hiring a first-time head coach without benefit of a search.

Rebels head coach Pete Golding celebrates with players after beating Tulane.
Rebels head coach Pete Golding celebrates with players after beating Tulane. | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

The 41-year-old Golding kept his head down for the past few weeks and plowed through the tumult until this day. As he put it, this was his chance to “finally be the last voice,” with a team. “It kind of hit me some.”

Despite the added duties and the gravity of the game, Golding didn’t stray from his customary character, according to the rest of the Rebels.

“He was Pete,” assistant head coach Joe Judge said. “He’s always been the same guy. He’s not going to change.”

If there were any nerves, the Ole Miss offense did its part to alleviate them by racing to 14 points in its first seven snaps. Offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., fully removed from the shadow of offensive savant Kiffin, scripted and called a perfect start.

“I had zero concern with Charlie Weis calling this game for this one reason—Charlie Weis could not afford not to call a hell of a game,” Golding said. “All he’s heard, ‘It’s Lane Kiffin’s offense, Lane Kiffin’s offense, Lane Kiffin’s offense.’ So this is his one opportunity for people to realize Charlie Weis calls the offense. Just as he has all season.”

Weis’s offense racked up 497 yards on 68 plays, a 7.31 yards-per-play average that was Ole Miss’s most against an FBS opponent since the first Tulane game (a similar mismatch). There were a couple of anxious moments when star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and star running back Kewan Lacy both were injured late in the first half, but both returned to action.

Rebels wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling runs after the catch for a touchdown.
Rebels wide receiver De’Zhaun Stribling runs after the catch for a touchdown between Green Wave safety Bailey Despanie (32) and defensive back Javion White (3). | Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

More will be expected, of course, starting with a Sugar Bowl rematch with Georgia in the CFP quarterfinals, but this win provided some closure on a tumultuous and potentially ruinous period in Ole Miss football history.

As the fans filtered away from Vaught-Hemingway into a mild night, there was a history made and crisis averted. The first playoff game played on a campus in the Deep South was a massive triumph. An 11–1 season is now 12–1. The Bulldogs are next and they are formidable, but Ole Miss actually led them by nine points in the fourth quarter in Athens, Ga., before giving up the final 17 points. The Rebels will be happy to take their chances in a rematch on a neutral field.

Life after Lane is off to a giddy start.

Among the older fans walking out was Lynne Millette, who says she’s been an Ole Miss fan for 52 years—her husband was a walk-on on the team in the early 1970s. Her eyes were shining beneath the fedora she wore on her head.

“This,” she says, “is the dream team we’ve been waiting for.”

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Life After Lane Kiffin Begins With CFP Statement for Ole Miss, Pete Golding.

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