From the Locker Room: ‘An exciting finish’ against Texas A&M kept Ole Miss’ playoff hopes alive

No. 10 Ole Miss improved to 8-1 (5-1 SEC) on the season with a 38-35, last-possession win over Texas A&M (5-4, 3-3) on Saturday.

The Rebels have won eight of their first nine games in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 1961-62. Ole Miss, now 20-2 in its last 22 home games, rallied from a fourth-quarter deficit to win for the third time this season. 

WR Tre Harris had a career-high 11 receptions for 213 yards and a touchdown. The yardage total is sixth-most ever at Ole Miss. The receptions are tied for ninth. Saturday was his fourth 100-yard receiving game and first career with 200-plus. He’s one of six Rebels in history with a 200-yard game.

Ole Miss running back Quinshon Judkins had his first career three-touchdown rushing performance. Quarterback Jaxson Dart eclipsed 300 yards passing for the fifth time at Ole Miss, which is good for No. 7 in school history. He’s eighth all-time at Ole Miss in career passing yards (5,441).

Judkins and Dart met the media following the win, as did safety John Saunders, Jr., and fourth-year head coach Lane Kiffin.

Saunders had his third interception of the season (and the eighth of his career) to seal the win.

Also notable, sophomore defensive tackle Zxavian Harris returned from injury and secured a career-high seven tackles. He blocked a potential game-tying field goal, too, his third at Ole Miss.

OLE MISS HEAD COACH LANE KIFFIN 

Opening Statement: What an exciting finish to a game. Kind of somewhat of an LSU feel where it seemed like we were in command and then let it slip away there. To get it back at the end there, go down and score on a 75-yard drive and then block the kick at the end, I’ve got to give our players a lot of credit. I know that team was only 5-3, but as you saw, those guys have great players. Credit to A&M coming back in a game that was headed one direction. We actually scored to go up 21-0, then had a holding and then a 10-point turnaround on a blocked field goal instead of getting a field goal, and give them seven. Really proud of the way our guys battled. It’s one thing if they just go down and miss the short field goal. I thought our guys did a good job of holding them to a longer field goal. One of these days we’re going to actually catch the ball when they throw it to us on defense at the end of games. Good push at the end there, and then (Zxavian) Harris getting the block.

On Ole Miss QB Jaxson Dart’s performance: I think as you guys know, I’ll tell it how it is and be hard on players. I thought he was fabulous today. Again, that is, by statistics, the best defense in the country. I mean, negative plays, sacks, third down, they’re third in the country. That’s a really hard defense to play that well of a game. As you see, you’ve got to do all of those things and it can still come down to the wire.

“Awesome game by him and obviously Tre (Harris), showing up today.”

That was kind of where we thought the matchup was that would help us in our favor, because obviously people really struggle inside against them. (The plan) was to just let Tre go one-on-one outside, so that takes Jaxson making the throws and Tre making some great plays.

On the team’s ability to come back late in game this year: I think it says a lot about the team. I’m also thinking, I’m a coach that doesn’t say, we have a field goal to win the game, and drive all the way down and miss a chip shot, then sit here and say how resilient we are. I really do think our players played really well today. Overcame adversity in areas. It’s unusual to have a 10-point swing on one play. A lot of credit to them for how they handled it and handled the waves of the game. I really do feel like our offense knew they were going to score. It was actually like, don’t score too fast. It was 75 yards away, and just the way they broke the sideline huddle when they scored was like, ok guys we’re gonna go score, let’s not score too fast. Even Jaxson came off and was like ‘We scored too fast,’ and I said ‘Can you be positive please?’

“And then he’s like ‘They’re going to make the kick,’ and I’m like ‘Can you be positive?’”

Finally after the game he said alright, he’ll stop being negative. I think he was watching too much Bobby Knight this week about the power of negative thinking.

On the play of Ole Miss linebacker Ladarius Tennison: Yeah he was great. Especially the first half, making big plays, showing some speed out there to catch some of the really elite, fast players that they have. He’s one of our favorite guys that we have, just the way that he plays regardless of how many snaps he plays is the same.

On the difficultly of going 8-1 in the SEC: I told them we’re like the cardiac kids or something, the way that our players play and take it down to the wire in these games. I thought our crowd was really good in the first half, and helped us with a couple of false starts as well.

On the crowd: (It makes me feel) good. Kind of like how when a player plays good, we kind of expect that. I would hope that these kinds of games get people excited. To go 8-1, is pretty cool. We’re I think 19-2 our last 21 games here, went undefeated in the SEC home schedule this season. Lot of cool memories here this year.

RELATED: No. 10 Ole Miss survived Texas A&M for an historic 8-1 start. Here’s what it looked like.

OLE MISS QB JAXSON DART 

On his conversation with Kiffin about how fast the Ole Miss offense was scoring: We’re a tempo offense, so we go fast. I kinda blame it on Coach Weis and Coach Kiffin for calling too good of plays to get us down fast. As a quarterback, you see that much time and that they have two timeouts, it’s kind of like ‘okay that’s a lot of time we have to deal with.’ At the same time I had a lot of confidence in our defense. They’ve been there, they’ve won us games in these kinds of situations many times, so I just knew they were going to be able to get it done.

On motivation from social media comments: We knew coming in that they were a top-10 defense in the country and they’re really talented and stuff. I feel like we have one of the best offenses in the country. So coming in we had a lot of confidence already and them doing that just boosted it even more. I know the O-line specifically took that to heart because of how many defensive lineman commented on it. I guess they don’t get enough attention from the games they’re losing. It was a good win for us.

On Ole Miss WR Tre Harris: Well we woke up this morning, had breakfast and I came back in the room and he was gonna go back to sleep. I was like ‘bro how can you go to sleep right now? I’m wide awake’, we have an early game and I was already juiced up. So, I guess he was just super calm again because he was ready to go back to sleep.

OLE MISS RB QUINSHON JUDKINS

On where he was during the game-winning blocked field goal: I was actually with my position coach praying. I was with Coach Smith on the sideline. I didn’t have any doubt since Zay Harris was back out there. We had a very big chance of completing the block with the front we had up front against those guys. I believe in our team and they executed.

On what was going through his head on the final drive: You know as we took the field I really didn’t speak to Jaxson (Dart), but my position coach specifically was telling me to know the down and distance, the time we have on the clock and just go out there and execute. This might be the last drive since they were holding the ball for so long, so just take advantage of the possession we have.

On what he feels about having a three touchdown performance: Honestly, I’m just glad we got the win overall as a team. Going into this game we all knew A&M was a great team, they had a great front defensive line and great defensive players. So just coming out with the win overall is a great feeling.

OLE MISS SAFETY JOHN SAUNDERS JR.

On his interception in the end zone: I was definitely expecting it. He was trying to stutter like he was faking blocking but I was prepared for it. They do a lot of tricky stuff in the endzone, trying to play with your eyes and stuff. So I just kept my eyes on the receiver, located the ball and was able to bring it down.

On what being 8-1 means to him: It means a lot to me, especially coming from a different school. So, coming here and them accepting me, it just, it means a lot. Seeing the locker room after the game, everyone’s ecstatic and happy, it’s just amazing.

On seeing the blocked kick: Oh man, I was on the right side and I saw the ball snap. Coach told me ‘just make sure nothing funny happens,’ so I’m watching and just making sure no fake is going on. You never know. Then, I see the ball kick and I see all penetration from the left side, everybody was back there. It got tipped a little bit, it had the arc at first but then it fell short. I was just thankful man, started hugging teammates. We were all just happy, people were crying happy tears. It was crazy, for real.