Mississippi knocks off No. 7 Indiana
Even before Mississippi took the field for the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida, the Rebels felt good about the direction they’re headed.
Coach Lane Kiffin was rewarded with a new contract despite having only been at the school one season. There also was no guarantee one of the nation’s lowestranked defenses would be able to slow down No. 7 Indiana enough to ensure the team’s first non-losing record since 2017.
“It’s really only up from here,” quarterback Matt Corral said Saturday after throwing for 342 yards and two touchdowns to pace a 26-20 victory that ruined the finish to surprising Indiana’s breakout season.
Corral’s 3-yard pass to Dontario Drummond put the Rebels (5-5) ahead for good with 4:12 remaining.
The Ole Miss defense, which allowed 535.7 yards and 40.3 points per game during the regular season, came through with one more stop to clinch the school’s first bowl win since beating Oklahoma State in the 2016 Sugar Bowl.
“We talked about it all week. We’re going to need that,” Kiffin said. “We were not going to go score 60 points. … We knew it was going to be a struggle, and it was great to see the defense play like they did.”
Drummond finished with six catches for 110 yards. Corral completed 30 of 44 passes without an interception, including a 5-yard TD throw to Casey Kelly that put Ole Miss up 13-3 midway through the second quarter.
Jack Tuttle was 26 of 45 for 201 yards in his second start in place Michael Penix Jr. for Indiana (6-2), which lost its star quarterback to a season-ending knee injury in late November.
Stevie Scott III rushed for 99 yards and scored on runs of 3 and 2 yards to help Indiana wipe out a 20-6 deficit in the fourth quarter.
Ole Miss missed the extra point after Drummond’s go-ahead TD catch. leaving Indiana with an opportunity to pull out its first bowl win in nearly 30 years.
The Hoosiers, who don’t have a postseason win since the 1991 Copper Bowl bowl, drove to the Rebels 33 before stalling and turning it over on downs.
“They made enough plays to come up with the win. I’m disappointed for our players,” Indiana coach Tom Allen said. “They have been through so much, sacrificed so much and worked hard. This one is going to hurt for a while.”
(12) Iowa State 34, (25) Oregon State 17: Breece Hall ran for 136 yards and two touchdowns, Brock Purdy accounted for two scores and Iowa State beat Oregon in the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona.
The Cyclones (9-3) used their ballcontrol offense to dominate the time of possession and keep Oregon’s offense off the field for long stretches to win their first New Year’s Six bowl.
Hall, an AP All-American, had 34 carries and his ninth 100-yard game this season. Purdy, who went to high school in nearby Gilbert, threw for 156 yards and a touchdown on 20-of-29 passing, adding a touchdown on the ground. Iowa State had a time of possession advantage of more than 25 minutes.
Oregon (4-3) alternated between Tyler Shough and Anthony Brown at quarterback but couldn’t sustain anything on offense and was plagued by numerous mistakes.
Kentucky 23, (24) North Carolina State 21: A.J. Rose ran for a career-high 148 yards, Chris Rodriguez added 84 yards and two scores and Kentucky held off North Carolina State in a chippy Gator Bowl in Jacksonville, Florida.
Christopher Dunn missed two field goals for the Wolfpack (8-4), which trailed, 16-14, late when Bailey Hockman threw his third interception of the game. Rodriguez scored on the ensuing play, going nearly untouched for 26 yards.
NC State got a final chance after Jordan Houston scored with 1:10 remaining. But Allen Dailey recovered Dunn’s onside kick, and the Wildcats (5-6) ran out the clock. Coach Mark Stoops got a
Gatorade bath following the team’s third straight bowl victory, which ended a tumultuous season.
A big issue for the Wolfpack was playing without four defensive starters. Safety Tanner Ingle (suspended), defensive tackle Alim McNeil (opt out) and injured linebackers Payton Wilson and Drake Thomas missed the game.
College Football Playoffs
(3) Ohio State 49, (2) Clemson 28: Justin Fields threw six touchdown passes to outshine Trevor Lawrence and No. 3 Ohio State avenged last season’s painful College Football Playoff loss to Clemson with a victory in the Sugar Bowl semifinal Friday night in New Orleans.
In a matchup of quarterback prodigies from Georgia, Fields might have given the Jacksonville Jaguars something to think about what do to with that first pick in the NFL draft. Lawrence is the presumptive No. 1, but Fields outplayed him on this night, going 22 for 28 for 385 yards. He set a Sugar Bowl record for TD passes and did it playing more than half the game after taking a vicious shot the side that forced him to miss a play and spend time in the medical tent.
Lawrence was 33 for 48 for 400 yards and three total touchdowns in what is expected to be the junior’s final college game. His final pass was intercepted, but Clemson (10-2) went 34-2 in his starts and won a national title when he was a freshman.
The third meeting between Clemson and Ohio State in the playoff, and fourth bowl matchup since the 2013 season, was a game the Buckeyes had been pointing toward ever since a 29-23 loss to Tigers in the Fiesta Bowl last year.
That score was everywhere the Buckeyes (7-0) turned in the Woody Hayes Athletic Center in Columbus this year.
Buckeyes coach Ryan Day called it a statement game for the program.
“I think this performance, not only by Justin, but this team, hopefully will go down in Ohio State history as a landmark game,” Day said. “Because we want to go on to win the national championship. But there was a lot of tough days, a lot of tough days over the last six months.”