Football vs.Tulane: Fresh off the Field

OXFORD, Miss. – No. 6 Ole Miss football cruised Saturday afternoon with another commanding 41-10 win over No. 11 Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. This was the first-career victory for head coach Pete Golding, making him the 10th Ole Miss head coach in the modern era to win their first contest as head coach.

This was Ole Miss' first appearance in the College Football Playoff, as well as the first postseason game hosted at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. With the victory, this marks the Rebels first 12-win season in Ole Miss football history.

Hear what Pete Golding, Bryan Brown, Joe Judge, TJ Dottery, Will Echoles and De'Zhaun Stribling had to say after the win.

Obviously an exciting night for our program, for our fans, and more importantly for our players," Golding said. "They've been through a lot over these last couple of weeks, and it was good just to get back on the grass, at home in front of their fans and get out there and play football, a game that they love. We didn't play perfect by any means. Kind of started pretty slow on both sides of the ball throughout the first quarter, and then came in at halftime. Thought they responded, but we didn't play clean, and our big thing is when guys have the opportunity at this point in the season, they got to take advantage of those. Then we had some guys late in the game that went in that we need to play a little better. Super excited for our program. More importantly, for our players to be able to play again. That was the message to them throughout it. 'You're playing to play again. Don't let this season end.'

Well, the best part of it was getting back to normalcy with football." Judge said. "When we got back to the meeting and focusing on Tulane and get ready for practice, that's the thing that centered everyone back into what's the mission at hand, with having those guys come back up. Charlie did a phenomenal job the last two weeks, coming back in here. It's not easy for those guys to come back in this building. They were nervous too coming back in this building how were they going to be received. But Charlie did a phenomenal job of really kind of connecting with the players, really building on being here to help them win, he was all in on this team. Look, there's a lot of leadership he showed the last couple of weeks. Did a phenomenal job preparing the team, and all the coaches really worked together well. But it was obviously a smoother transition once the football started, when you kind of let the dust settle and the other stuff. That was really good. I was really proud of the players, how they blocked out a lot of the noise and took a lot of the external stuff and turned it into motivation, what they're doing on the field. But really the main focus wasn't any of the other stuff out there. It was about Tulane. They were too good of a team to overlook. Our guys knew that, and we knew they were.

DOTTERY COMES UP BIG
Linebacker  TJ Dottery tallied his second forced fumble of the season in the final minutes of the third quarter.

I was excited," Dottery said. "We preach turnovers a lot, and haven't gotten as many as we wanted up to this point in the season, but today came out with two or three. So that was really good.

Dottery continues to dominate, finishing tied for the team lead with six tackles Saturday afternoon.

It's Really about executing," Dottery said. "When we get to those moments on fourth down and critical downs, executing the play call, because it's really not about the play. It's just executing everyone's job at that point.

ECHOLES PACES THE DEFENSE
Echoles helped pace the Ole Miss' defense recording six tackles, which tied for the team lead.

We just got to go play our best game," Echoles said. "We got to tackle better. We got to do everything better. The Georgia game, it was a bad game for the defense, period. We got to play better, and we're going to play better come January 1.

The Rebels defense recovered two fumbles and had one interception for three turnovers forced against Tulane, the second three takeaway game this year for Ole Miss alongside Nov. 1 vs. South Carolina.

It means everything, because nobody can take this moment away from us," Echoles said. "This team is always going to be remembered in Ole Miss history.

STRIBLING FINDS THE END ZONE
Wide Receiver De'zhaun Stribling hauled in five receptions for 79 yards and one touchdown, his sixth of the season.

It's been great, this is why I came here," Stribling said. "I came to play here at a high level and play in some big-time games. Just to see all of my hard work and all the labor paying off is just a great feeling, but also great seeing what we poured in together as a team, seeing it come to life."

Stribling surpassed 200 career receptions Saturday afternoon with 204.

It shows our real focus and our real goal is just to go 1-0," Stribling said. "We don't care who the ball goes to or who has all the stats. We just care about winning. As long as we can do our job and help the team win, that's all that matters.

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Players Mentioned

TJ Dottery

Will Echoles

De'Zhaun Stribling

The University of Mississippi Athletics