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The University of Mississippi Athletics
FRIDAY FLASHBACK: Ole Miss - UL-Lafayette 2010
9/12/2014 | Football
FRIDAY FLASHBACK rewinds to some of the memorable Ole Miss games from this week's all-time series. This week features a 2010 win over Louisiana-Lafayette in the Rebels' last meeting with the Ragin' Cajuns.
REBELS FINISH: UM loses Masoli but puts ULL away with strong 2nd-half defense
By Kyle Veazey, The Clarion-Ledger
November 7, 2010
OXFORD, Miss. - It started with Jeremiah Masoli quarterbacking Ole Miss. It ended with Nathan Stanley.
In between, it was another topsy-turvy, question-lending game in a season full of them. But it was a win, 43-21 over Lousiana-Lafayette on Saturday night at Vaught Hemingway Stadium, something Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt cherished after three straight losses to top 20 teams.
"(I) got on them a little bit at halftime and asked them to really step up and finish," Nutt said. "And I thought our defense really came to play in that third quarter."
The Rebels (4-5) closed out non-conference play by shortening the parameters needed for bowl eligibility. Two wins in the next three is the bar. ULL (2-7) lost its fifth straight.
Ole Miss rushing game thrived, collecting 298 yards. Brandon Bolden (136 yards) and Enrique Davis (116) topped the 100 yard mark, with Bolden scoring two touchdowns. And after a shaky first half, the much maligned Rebel defense had a stellar second half. Of their 215 yards, the Ragin' Cajuns had just 49 in the second half. "We just cut it loose some more up front," defensive coordinator Tyrone Nix said.
Heading to Tennessee this week, though, the Rebels will have some quarterback questions. Masoli, the senior transfer from Oregon who took over the starting job in the second week of the season and has been the teams exclusive quarterback since week 3, left the game in the first half after suffering what school officials called "mild concussion."
Masoli took a big hit on his 6 yard touchdown run with 3:19 to play in the first quarter and was lifted after his 15 yard touchdown pass to Bolden with :41 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Stanley, who started the first game and played a series in the second game but none since, took over. "He's better right now, but you will always worry about concussions," Nutt said. "We probably wont know until Monday."
Masoli and Stanley led an offense that collected 478 yards. Bryson Rose made five field goals.
The Rebels bounced back from allowing an opening ULL touchdown drive to score 27 unanswered points. They appeared en route to a blowout before ULL summoned a few big plays as part of a six-play, 74 yard drive that culminated in a touchdown with 4:51 before halftime.
The Rajin' Cajuns flipped momentum when the Rebels' Rodney Scott fumbled near the goal line and ULL's Melvin White returned the ball 93 yards for a touchdown.
But the Rebels stiffened defensively in the second half and effectively played keep away. Ole Miss held the ball nearly 37 minutes and ran 72 plays compared to ULL's 45. A pair of second half Rose field goals helped stretch UM's lead and Bolden added the punctuation with a touchdown with :58 seconds left.
Not that many were around to see it, though. With UM entering 3-5 after 3 straight losses and with temperatures forecasted to approach freezing by the end of the night, many fans stayed home. The school announced a crowd of 53,144 but in reality it was probably 20,000 less than that.
