After a full Saturday of college football, the Ole Miss Rebels would get things started Sunday night with the weekend’s only ranked matchup, facing the Louisville Cardinals in Nashville in the Liberty Mutual Music City Classic. Sunday night would also mark the official start of the Coach Pete Golding era in Oxford after he took over following last season’s Egg Bowl; Sunday would be the official start of year one. For Louisville, Sunday night was about making a statement as Coach Jeff Brohm entered his fourth season as Head Coach, needing a statement win over a College Football Playoff participant to keep last season’s momentum going as they look to make a return trip to the ACC Championship for the first time since the 2023 season. 

Coming into the matchup, many around the country expected a highly competitive game, and it could very well be a trap game for Ole Miss with LSU looming on the 19th. 

As expected, the first half felt like two heavyweight boxers feeling each other out by throwing haymakers, with Louisville striking first with a 25-yard field goal, before Lucas Carneiro would tie things up for the Rebels with a 43-yard field goal of his own with 14:51 remaining in the second quarter. Kewan Lacy would give Ole Miss a 10-3 lead. Louisville would respond with a 46-yard field goal to cut the Rebels’ lead to 10-6 with six seconds remaining in the half. 

Tre Richardson would give Louisville a 13-10 lead with a 30-yard rushing touchdown to start the second half and swing the momentum in favor of the Cardinals. Trinidad Chambliss responded as he found Deuce Alexander on a 62-yard touchdown pass over the middle to retake a 17-13 Rebels lead. With 2:22 remaining in the third quarter, Carson Hilbert would drill a 45-yard field goal to cut the Ole Miss lead to 17-16. However, Trinidad Chambliss would find Deuce Alexander once more for another 62-yard touchdown pass that would extend the Ole Miss lead to 24-16. Soon after, as we’ve seen all night long, Lincoln Kienholz would find Tre Richardson on a 62-yard touchdown pass and, after a successful two-point conversion, would tie the game at 24 with 16 seconds remaining in the third quarter. 

Something to monitor heading into the 4th quarter would be the impact of Louisville using all three second-half timeouts in the third quarter, while Ole Miss carried all three over. 

Trinidad Chambliss would find Caleb Odom on a 35-yard touchdown pass to retake a 31-24 Ole Miss lead with 12:45 remaining in the game. Trinidad Chambliss would all but put the game on ice with a 5-yard quarterback keeper to extend the lead to 38-24 with 6:43 remaining in the game. Louisville would add a touchdown with 4:42 remaining on a touchdown pass from Lincoln Kienholz to Lawayne McCoy to cut the Ole Miss lead to 38-31. Louisville would tie the game at 38 with 1:28 to play, leaving the game in the hands of Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels’ offense. However, as we saw all last season, Lucas Carneiro would nail a 48-yard field goal to give the Rebels a 41-38 victory over Louisville. 

As we saw all last season, Trinidad Chambliss picked up where he left off last season and now has his go-to wide receiver for the 2026 season, as Deuce Alexander made it look easy for Chambliss with multiple 60-yard receiving touchdowns on Sunday night. 

Louisville kept hanging around doing so by exposing the Ole Miss secondary one pass play at a time. Ole Miss just couldn’t stop them; from not wrapping up the Cardinals’ receivers to leaving guys wide open, the Louisville offense kept hanging around by playing chess with the Rebels’ secondary. Leading to the game-tying touchdown with 1:28 remaining. However, as we saw all last season, Lucas Carneiro would nail a 48-yard field goal to give the Rebels a 41-38 victory over Louisville. 

It might have been ugly, but a win is a win for the Rebels as they jump-start the season with a top-25 non-conference victory over a contender out of the ACC. Ole Miss did what they had to do down the stretch, allowing Trinidad Chambliss to take over as only he can. At the end of the day, Ole Miss did what they had to do to earn a victory, and now the focus shifts to Charlotte on Saturday night. 

Ole Miss will return home next Saturday as they welcome Charlotte to Vaught-Hemingway Stadium before the showdown with LSU on the 19th. 

Photo Credits- Ole Miss football on X