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The University of Mississippi Athletics
Fresh off the Field: Domination in Duval
1/3/2025 | Football
Lane Kiffin's Rebels raced out to a 17-0 lead and never looked back, mounting a 45-7 advantage before Duke added two late touchdowns, including one on a 99-yard kickoff return. Ole Miss outgained its ACC foe by 309 yards in an outstanding effort all around.
Click here for a full recap of the win, and scroll on for our top three takeaways from the bowl victory.
Exciting day for Ole Miss, for the players, for the fans. That's a really good team that we played, a team that won nine games, had one of the best defenses statistically in the country," Kiffin said. "Proud of the way that they played. We screwed up with the fake field goal early, but outside of that, just completely dominated a nine-win team on offense and defense in the game. That was great to see.
Ten Again
Ole Miss locked up its second consecutive 10-win season for just the second time in program history and first time since 1959-60. The Rebels have now won 10 games in three of the last four seasons under Kiffin.
The Rebels also boosted their outstanding bowl record, now to 27-15 all-time on the field for a .634 win percentage, good for fourth in the nation. Kiffin spoke postgame about the continued string of success seen in Oxford.
I think it says a lot. I think it says a lot, too, because the SEC is so competitive now," Kiffin said. "It just says a lot about these players in this era to do that. It says a lot about the commitment from the chancellor, from Keith when they hired us, and then continual commitment throughout that process, not just here's the job but then we needed things. We needed things with facilities. We needed things with staff budget to be able to get coaches like we have and be able to get a Pete Golding to come. They've given us everything we've ever asked for.
Old-School Rebs
When Ole Miss fell short of the College Football Playoff, many assumed the Rebels would be literally or at least figuratively checked out, but nearly the entire roster laden with NFL talent committed to play in the Gator Bowl, and it was quickly apparent that they were committed to winning it.
The Rebel defense allowed just one first down in the first quarter to set the tone, and they stayed suffocating all night. While Ole Miss built and held a comfortable lead, the Rebel upperclassmen wanted to keep playing. Potential first round draft picks like Walter Nolen, Princely Umanmielen and Trey Amos made sure Duke didn't mount a comeback, while Jaxson Dart and Jordan Watkins threw themselves one last party as Dart threw for 404 yards, including 180 and two touchdowns to Watkins.
I told them last night, you are an old-school football in that mentality," Kiffin said. "Like you actually care about your team and your brothers in the locker room and you're playing for them. That doesn't happen very much anymore, unfortunately. I told them, actually that's how it always was, and they didn't realize that.
Dart's Last Dance
Dart delivered his 28th win in his final game, the most by any Ole Miss starting quarterback in history. In the effort, he broke the single-season records for total offense (4,774) and passing yards (4,279), breaking Chad Kelly's marks from 2015.
The First Team All-SEC quarterback closes his senior season at No. 3 in the nation in passing behind Syracuse's Kyle McCord (4,779) and Miami's Cam Ward (4,313) and led the country this season in passer rating (180.7) and yards per attempt (10.8).
From our experience in Oxford, the growth, just the environment, the culture itself of bringing people together, it's like a dream playing football at Ole Miss," Dart said. "You can go anywhere and everybody is going to know your name. Everybody is going to support you. Everybody is going to have your back, and that's just special. You don't get that everywhere, especially where I'm from. I didn't experience that at all at my old school, and then coming here, it's just a family. The state of Mississippi is special.
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