Ole Miss wide receiver Braylon Sanders to participate in NFLPA Collegiate Bowl
Ole Miss senior wide receiver Braylon Sanders will have more football to play after the Sugar Bowl.
Sanders, who ranks second on the team with a career-best 512 receiving yards this season, will participate in the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl, a postseason all-star game for draft-eligible college players. Kickoff is set for January 29, 2022 in Pasadena, California.
However, before the Collegiate Bowl, followed by the NFL Draft in the spring, is the Sugar Bowl. No. 8 Ole Miss (10-2) will take on No. 7 Baylor (11-2), the Big 12 champion, in New Orleans, Louisiana, at 7:45 p.m. CT on New Year’s Day.
The game will be carried by ESPN.
“Winning,” Sanders said, when asked recently what he’s focusing on for what will be his final game as an Ole Miss Rebel. “As a team, we just need to do this for all the seniors that’s been here. For myself, I’ve been here five years. (The Sugar Bowl) would be a big win for us to go out the right way.”
Ole Miss is aiming for its first-ever 11-win season. The Rebels last appeared in the Sugar Bowl in 2016.
The game will serve as the final act for the 6-foot, 195-pound Sanders. Sanders, when healthy, has regularly served as one of the team’s best big-play receivers.
Injuries, though, have slowed him, including in his fifth and final season, when he was lost for multiple games because of myriad ailments, among them to his leg and ankle.
Sanders still led Ole Miss in receiving average (22.26) and was tied for second in touchdowns (3). His 10 games played as a sophomore in 2018 were the most of his career.
“I’m feeling great right now,” Sanders said. “Just to be able to go out there in New Orleans, New Year’s Six bowl, and just be out there with my brothers and make plays is a blessing.”
Sanders has caught 68 passes for 1,416 yards and nine touchdowns at Ole Miss.
He’s played in each of the last two games, and the Rebels have won four straight, most recently a 31-21 takedown of in-state rival Mississippi State in the Battle of the Golden Egg on Thanksgiving night. Ole Miss, with the win, capped its first 10-win regular season in program history.
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Sanders had one catch for 26 yards.
“Just being in a New Year’s Six is a blessing itself, but over the years, how much work we’ve put in, coming in last year and going 5-5 and then this year a 10-win season, it’s just a great feeling,” Sanders said.
“Just happy to see me and my brothers happy at this point. Just ready to go out there and do the same thing January 1. The town, everything, just feels more alive than it was two years ago.”
Ole Miss leads the NCAA in bowl win percentage (.649). The Rebels are 14th nationally in bowl wins and 21st in bowl appearances.
They’re making their second straight bowl appearance after knocking off No. 7 Indiana, 26-20, last season in the Outback Bowl. Ole Miss is 12-2 in its last 14 bowl games, including a streak of six straight victories from 2002 to 2013.
This will mark Ole Miss’ 10th appearance in the Sugar Bowl, the fourth-most among all college football programs.
