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The University of Mississippi Athletics
FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Ole Miss - Tulane 1981
9/10/2010 | Football
Sept. 10, 2010
FRIDAY FLASHBACK rewinds to some of the memorable Ole Miss games from this week's all-time series. The Rebels' longest running series with any opponent is with Tulane, whom Ole Miss faced back in its inaugural year of football in 1893. Since then, the series has included some exciting and memorable finishes. Ole Miss leads the all-time series 41-28, including a 24-5 record in games played against the former SEC foe in New Orleans. In 1981, the Superdome provided a miraculous (or lucky) win for the Rebels in one of the most exciting finishes in program history.
Call it lucky or miraculous, but Ole Miss won
By Rick Cleveland
The Clarion-Ledger
Just outside the boisterous den that was the Ole Miss locker room, victorious coach Steve Sloan was calling his team "lucky" and the win "miraculous."
Perhaps. If so, the Rebels, who have lost so many the same way they won this one, certainly had one coming. Ole Miss 19, Tulane 18. Call the Rebels lucky, if you like. You can also call them 1-0.
And, as a Superdome crowd of 43,685 can attest, the game was every bit as exciting as it was miraculous. Last year, the Green Wave hit a field goal on the final play to beat Ole Miss 26-24. This time, they missed.
After leading 12-0 at halftime and then falling behind in the fourth quarter, here's the situation Ole Miss was facing:
They were down 18-12 with 2:13 remaining. All-Southeastern Conference quarterback John Fourcade, who had played in the game despite a broken finger, was now on the sideline with a bummed-up left shoulder. The Rebels were 96 yards from the end zone, and sophomore Kelly Powell was the quarterback.
Considering the way Tulane had dominated the second half, all seemed so very hopeless for Ole Miss. Somebody forgot to tell Powell.
First, he hit tailback Buford McGee, flashing out of the backfield, for 13 yards up to the 17. After two incompletions, Powell hit McGee again for 28 yards to the Ole Miss 45. Tight end Steve Dearie was Powell's next target, good for 7 yards. Then, he hit Breck Tyler with a 10-yarder down to the Tulane 39.
"It was a simple curl pattern, but I kind of flipped my wrist to tell him (Tyler) to head downfield. I laid it up there, and he made a great catch."
What Tyler did was snatch the ball away from freshman cornerback Treg Songy and fall into the end zone.
"I saw him (Powell) point towards the end zone," Tyler said, "I didn't know what I was doing but I headed that way. It was probably the worst pattern I've ever run."
Maybe so, but it worked. Tyler caught the ball and stumbled into the end zone, tying the game 18-all. Then, with Tyler holding, Todd Gatlin kicked the winning point with 1:01 left.
The excitement was far from over. Tulane came right back, with Wade Elmore passing the ball down the field in much the same manner he had the entire second half. Tulane went from its own 26 to the Ole Miss 29, where, with only eight ticks left on the clock, Vince Manalla trotted on the field to try a 47-yard field goal. He had already made one from 48 yards with room to spare.
After an Ole Miss timeout, Manalla kicked a line drive, which Reb freshman Freddie Joe Nunn blocked. The miracle was complete.
Said Sloan, "The reason we won today and the difference between this team and the way it's been for us in the past is defense. In the past, we'd have been beaten 30 to 10. Today, we played good defense."
Especially in the first half, he might have added. Tulane never came close to scoring in the first half, and the Rebels scored on the first opportunity.
Powell, who completed 10 of 16 passes for 199 yards in his first collegiate start, heaved a 54-yard bomb to Michael Harmon to set up Buford McGee's 2-yard touchdown run. The PAT attempt was botched by a bad snap but Ole Miss led 6-0 little more than five minutes into the season.
It was that Rebel defense that set up the next point. Defensive end James Otis snared Tulane quarterback Paul Cantenese's screen pass and ran it 17 yards to the Tulane 17. The Rebels stalled, but Gatlin hit a 22-yard field goal and it was 9-0 with 2:45 left in the first quarter.
Fourcade entered the game in the second quarter and moved the Rebels into position for their second field goal, a 27-yarder by Gatlin with 7:31 left in the half. For the game, Fourcade completed 9 of 15 passes before he was injured in the third quarter.
Ole Miss appeared to go up 18-0 on the last play of the first half when McGee again dove over from a yard away. Instead, the Rebels were flagged for illegal procedure, and the half ended.
Rebel coaches protested vociferously, but Sloan later said, "It was the proper call. Our flanker lined up off the line. It was heads up officiating, but I've never seen anything take so much out of a team as that took out of ours."
So it seemed. Tulane came out and dominated the second half, that, until the last two minutes.
Elmore, who took over for Cantanese at quarterback, completed 13 of 21 passes for 216 yards in the second half. He took the Greenies 59 yards in eight plays on their first possession of the second half, sneaking over from the one for the touchdown. Manalla's PAT cut the lead to 12-7.
While Ole Miss - which was without a running game throughout - was being held without a first down in the third quarter, Tulane scored again on Manalla's 48-yarder with 59 second left.
That made it 12-10, and Tulane made it 18-12 by going 66 yards in seven plays on its first possession of the fourth period. Elmore hit tight end Rodney Holman with a 7-yard touchdown pass and then hit wide receiver Nolan Franz with the 2 point conversion pass to make it 18-122.
That only set the stage for Ole Miss' late heroics.
"We were lucky," Sloan said. "I know how Tulane feels. They dominated the second half. They feel like they deserve to win. We've been there.
"We made a lot of mistakes, but, I'll tell you, it's a lot easier to work on correcting those mistakes when you win that when you lose."
And, again, you can call it what you like, Ole Miss won.
