Ole Miss Rebels football
The Ole Miss Rebels football program represents the University of Mississippi, also known as "Ole Miss". The Rebels compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). As of 2021, the team is coached by Lane Kiffin. The Rebels play their home games at Vaught–Hemingway Stadium on the university's campus in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1893 as the state's first football team, Ole Miss has won six Southeastern Conference titles, in 1947, 1954, 1955, 1960, 1962, and 1963. The  team has been co-national champion once, with Minnesota in 1960 (the only time that Ole Miss has been acknowledged by the NCAA). Ole Miss, however, has never finished a season No. 1 in the AP or Coaches' Poll. With a record of 24–14, Ole Miss has the highest all-time post-season winning percentage of schools with 30 or more bowl appearances. History. The Ole Miss football team played its first season in 1893, and have since fielded a team every year except for 1897 (due to a yellow fever epidemic) and 1943 (due to World War II). In  that first season, the team compiled a 4–1 record under head coach Alexander Bondurant. In 1899, Ole Miss became a member of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA). The program joined the Southern Conference in 1922 and the Southeastern Conference in 1933. In 1947, Johnny Vaught became head coach and led the team to its first conference championship. Vaught coached Ole Miss for 25 seasons, compiling a 190–61–12 record and winning six conference championships, three national championships, and ten bowl games. No Ole Miss coach has since matched Vaught's longevity or winning percentage. The longest-tenured coach since Vaught  was Billy Brewer, who from 1983 to 1993 compiled a 68–55–3 record and won three bowl games. As of 2021, the team's head coach is Lane Kiffin, who took over in 2019 after Matt Luke was fired after a 4-8 2019 season and an Egg Bowl loss to rival Mississippi State 20–21. Johnny Vaught era (1947–1970, 1973). The modern era of Ole Miss football began in 1947, when Harold Drew was ousted in favor of his line coach, Johnny Vaught. A former All-American at Texas Christian University (TCU), Vaught led the Ole Miss program to national prominence  over the next 24 years, posting 23 winning records and making the team a fixture in the national polls. Under Vaught, Ole Miss won the 1959 Dunkel System national championship; the 1960 Football Writers Association of America, Dunkel System, and Williamson System national championships; and the 1962 Litkenhous Ratings national championship. Just 2-7 in 1946, the Rebels went 9–2 in Vaught's first season at the helm, winning the first of his six SEC titles (1947, 1954, 1955, 1960, 1962, 1963). The 1947 season also saw Ole Miss great Charlie Conerly become the first Rebel player to seriously contend  for the Heisman Trophy, placing fourth in the voting. The Rebels were among the winningest programs in the country during the 1950s. From 1950 to 1959, Ole Miss posted an 80–21–5 record (.778 winning percentage). The .778 winning percentage was third only to Oklahoma and Miami (OH) during that decade. Vaught's 1959 squad, which was honored as the "SEC Team of the Decade," was ranked the third-best collegiate football team from 1956 to 1995, by Jeff Sagarin Ratings in January 1996. In the 1960s, Vaught guided the Rebels to a 77–25–6 record and a .740 winning percentage, which  was the ninth-best during that decade. The Rebels were ranked atop the Associated Press poll for three weeks during the 1960 season and one week during the 1961 campaign. The 1960 unit is the only team to win a national championship that is recognized by the NCAA and the college football community at large. That squad finished 10-0-1; the only blemish was a 6-6 tie against LSU. Ole Miss was presented with the Grantland Rice Trophy by the Football Writers of America after its Sugar Bowl victory, though that did not carry the same weight of  the wire service voting (AP and Coaches' Poll) which selected Minnesota as the national champion. The Rebels’ 1962 season is Ole Miss' only undefeated and untied season: 10–0. They capped off the season with a victory in the Sugar Bowl, but finished No. 3 in both major polls. In 1964, Ole Miss was ranked preseason No. 1 in the Associated Press poll, but finished with a dismal 5–5–1 record at seasons' end. Vaught also made going to postseason play the norm rather than the exception for the Rebel football program. Ole Miss played in 15 consecutive bowl games from 1957  to 1971, a national record at the time. In all, Vaught led Ole Miss to 18 bowl games, posting a 10–8 record. For his efforts, Vaught was named SEC Coach of the Year six times (1947, 1948, 1954, 1955, 1960, 1962). Vaught coached some of the best players in Ole Miss football history. and produced 26 All-America first-teamers. He also coached four players who finished in the top five in the Heisman Trophy voting: Conerly in 1947, Charlie Flowers (5th in 1959), Jake Gibbs (3rd in 1960), and Archie Manning (4th in 1969, 3rd in 1970). Failing health  forced Vaught to resign his position in 1970. He was succeeded by Billy Kinard. Billy R. Kinard era (1971–1973). Billy Kinard became the first Ole Miss alumnus to head up the football program, while Frank "Bruiser" Kinard, an offensive line coach under Vaught since 1948, was named athletic director that same year. The Rebels went 16–9 under Billy Kinard, including a 10–2 record and a 41–18 Peach Bowl victory over Georgia Tech in his first year in 1971. Kinard's ten victories are tied for fourth most by a first-year head coach in NCAA Division I history. Kinard coached  the Rebels through the 1972 season and through the third game of the 1973 season. After the disappointing 5–5 season in 1972, the alumni were advocating to have Kinard removed as head coach. The administration fired Kinard after the Rebels started the 1973 season 1–2. The two losses were a shutout to Missouri, 17–0, and an upset by Memphis State, 17–13. Both Billy Kinard and Frank Kinard were fired, and Johnny Vaught was rehired as both the head coach and athletic director. Following the 1973 football season, Vaught resigned once again as head coach, but remained on as athletic director . His final record with the Rebels was 190–61–12. The 190 victories still rank Vaught in the top 25 winningest coaches in NCAA Division I history, and he is the fourth-winningest coach in SEC history. In 1979, Vaught was inducted in the National College Football Hall of Fame. Ken Cooper era (1974–1977). Ken Cooper, an assistant under Kinard since 1971, was named head coach on January 17, 1974, and took Ole Miss through the 1977 season. Cooper compiled a 21–23 record, and his tenure is probably best remembered for the matchup with Notre Dame in September 1977. In one of  the most memorable games in Rebel football history, Ole Miss upset Notre Dame, 20–13 in Mississippi Memorial Stadium on September 17, 1977, in Jackson. That loss was Notre Dame's lone setback of the 1977 campaign, as they finished the season with an 11–1 record and claimed both the AP and UPI national titles. Cooper is now the assistant head coach and offensive line coach at Benedictine Military School in Savannah, Georgia. Steve Sloan era (1978–1982). Following the 1977 season, Steve Sloan, the former All-American quarterback at Alabama under Paul "Bear" Bryant, was hired as the new Rebel head  coach and began his five-year stint in 1978. Sloan posted a 20–34 record from 1978 to 1982. Billy Brewer era (1983–1993). After stepping outside the Ole Miss family football tree the previous nine seasons, Ole Miss looked for a familiar face to lead the football program, and the Rebels found that person when Billy Brewer returned to Oxford to take over as head coach in December 1982. In his first season in 1983, Brewer guided the Rebels to their first winning regular season since 1977 with a 7–4 record (Tulane win a result of forfeit). The Rebels also went  to their first bowl game since 1971 losing to Air Force 9–3 in the Independence Bowl. Brewer remained in Oxford for another ten seasons, leading the Rebels to five winning seasons and four bowls, including Ole Miss' 1990 New Year's Day Gator Bowl appearance, which was the program's first January bowl game since 1969. He was named SEC Coach of the Year in 1986 (8–3–1 record) and 1990 (9–3 record), and in 1986, the Rebels return to the national rankings for the first time in over a decade. Brewer coached 11 years (1983–93) and compiled a 68–55–3 record , making him (at the time) the second winningest Ole Miss football coach behind Vaught. Brewer also led Ole Miss to eight Egg Bowl victories over rival Mississippi State. Brewer was dismissed just prior to the 1994 season after the NCAA infractions committee found him guilty of "unethical conduct," and Ole Miss defensive coordinator Joe Lee Dunn took over as interim coach, directing the Rebels to a 4–7 record under difficult circumstances highlighted only by a 34–21 victory over rival LSU. Tommy Tuberville era (1995–1998). On December 2, 1994, Tommy Tuberville was selected as the coach in charge of getting the  Rebels on the right track. After serving as an assistant coach on the collegiate level for nine seasons (eight at Miami and one at Texas A&M), Tuberville began creating excitement in his first season in 1995, finishing the campaign with a 6–5 record and an Egg Bowl victory over Mississippi State. That excitement grew in 1997, when Ole Miss recorded its best season since 1992 with an 8–4 record, a thrilling 15–14 Egg Bowl victory over Mississippi State and a Motor City Bowl win over Marshall University. The bowl appearance was the program's first since 1992, and the Rebels  earned a final national ranking of No. 22 in both polls. The revitalized Ole Miss program continued in its success in 1998, but suffered a setback after the Egg Bowl when Tuberville, despite repeated assurances that he would not leave and even going so far as to say, "They'll have to take me out of here in a pine box" agreed 2 days later to become the head coach at SEC West rival Auburn University. David Cutcliffe era (1998–2004). David Cutcliffe took over as head coach on December 2, 1998. Cutcliffe, who came to Ole Miss from his offensive  coordinator post at Tennessee, took over the reins just 29 days before the Rebels' Sanford Independence Bowl date versus Texas Tech. Despite the short preparation time for the game, Cutcliffe led the Rebels to a 35–18 victory over the Red Raiders, quite arguably the biggest upset of the 1998 bowl season. Cutcliffe brought with him to Oxford a high-powered offensive style that energized the Rebel fanbase. In the time from 1997 to 2003, the Rebels played in six bowl games, tied with Arkansas for the most bowl appearances among SEC Western Division schools during that span. Cutcliffe had four  winning seasons in his first five seasons at Ole Miss, in 1999 (8–4), 2000 (7–5), 2001 (7–4) and 2002 (7–6), becoming the first Rebel mentor since Harry Mehre (1938–41) to post winning marks in his first five years. Cutcliffe also directed Ole Miss to four bowl appearances in his first five seasons. In 2003 Cutcliffe guided the Rebels to a 10–3 overall mark and a share of the SEC West title with eventual BCS National Champion LSU. Following their 31–28 victory over Oklahoma State in the Cotton Bowl Classic, the Rebels finished No. 13 in the final poll. It was  Ole Miss' first New Year's bowl since the 1991 Gator Bowl against Michigan. Despite his 44–29 record, five straight winning seasons, and guiding the team to its first 10 win season in over 30 years, Cutcliffe was fired by Ole Miss's Athletic Director Pete Boone in December 2004 after the team posted a disappointing 4–7 record and three consecutive losses to LSU. Ed Orgeron era (2005–2007). Ed Orgeron, regarded as one of college football's premier defensive line coaches and recruiters, was named the 35th head football coach in the history of the University of Mississippi on December  16, 2004.<ref name="USA Today 12/16/04"></ref> Orgeron, who took control of the Ole Miss program after serving the previous seven seasons as defensive line coach at the University of Southern California, and played a role in Pete Carroll's Trojan championship in 2004. He also served as USC's recruiting coordinator from 2001 to 2004 and was named assistant head coach in 2003. Orgeron was named the 2004 National Recruiter of the Year by The Sporting News and Rivals.com. Orgeron's talent as a recruiter created a buzz among Rebel fans and drew national attention when Ole Miss' 2006 signing  class ranked as high as 15th in the rankings. His 2007 recruiting class was also listed among the best in college football (No. 31 according to scout.com). However, his recruiting success did not translate to on the field performance. In 2007, Ole Miss was last in the SEC in scoring offense, turnover margin, rushing offense, rushing defense, punt returns, opponent first downs, red-zone offense, opponent third-down conversions, field goal percentage, time of possession and kickoff coverage. The 2007 season was an unmitigated disaster for the Rebels. They went winless in the SEC for the first time since 1982  and ended the season at 3–9 (0–8 in SEC play). Orgeron was fired on November 24, 2007. Three days later, Houston Nutt was hired as the next head football coach. Houston Nutt era (2008–2011). On November 27, 2007, Houston Nutt was hired as the 36th head football coach of the Ole Miss Rebels, just five weeks after having defeated Ole Miss as the head coach of the Arkansas Razorbacks. During Nutt's first season, he guided the Ole Miss Rebels to a 9–4 record with marquee victories over the eventual BCS National Champion Florida Gators squad, the reigning BCS National  Champion LSU Tigers, and the Texas Tech Red Raiders in the 2009 Cotton Bowl Classic. The Rebels posted their 600th win on September 27, 2008, when they defeated the Florida Gators 31–30. At the end of this season, the Rebels were ranked in the Top 15 in both major polls. Nutt's tenure at Ole Miss crested with the 2009 season, and the Rebels would only win a total of six games in the next two years. In 2011, they went winless in SEC play. On November 7, 2011; due to what ESPN called the "total decline" of the program  over the past two years, athletic director Pete Boone forced Nutt to resign at the end of the season. NCAA investigators later concluded that Nutt had allowed student athletes to play while ineligible. Due to these violations, as well as others committed by his successor, Hugh Freeze, in 2019 the NCAA punished Ole Miss by stripping the team of 33 wins over six seasons. This included all four wins in 2010 and two wins in 2011, making them "officially" the first winless seasons for the Rebels in over a century. Hugh Freeze era (2011–2017). On December 5, 2011, Hugh Freeze  was announced as the new head coach of the Ole Miss Rebels football team. Freeze was previously the head coach at Arkansas State and had previously been the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator from 2005 to 2007. In his first year he went 7–6 and finished the regular season with a win over rival Mississippi State. The Rebels won their bowl game against Pitt in the BBVA Compass Bowl. In Freeze's second year, the Rebels went 8–5 (3–5). The 2013 Rebels defeated then-sixth-ranked LSU on a last-second field goal in Oxford and capped off the  season with a 25–17 victory over Georgia Tech in the Music City Bowl. In 2014, Freeze led Ole Miss to one of its strongest seasons in four decades. The Rebels spent most of the season in the top 10, rising as high as third in October—their highest ranking at that late stage in the season in almost half a century. They ultimately finished 9–3, only the third time since Vaught's tenure that a Rebel team has won as many as nine games. This garnered them a berth in the 2014 Peach Bowl—their first major-bowl appearance since  1969. Freeze led to the Rebels to another strong season in 2015, perhaps the program's strongest since the undefeated and untied season of 1962. The 2015 season featured wins over ranked SEC West Rivals LSU and Mississippi State, but was headlined by a road victory over then-No. 2-ranked Alabama, their first win in Tuscaloosa since 1988 and only the first time they had beaten the Tide in back-to-back seasons. Ole Miss controlled their own destiny in the SEC West for much of the 2015 campaign, but ultimately finished in second place. The Rebels earned a  trip to the 2016 Sugar Bowl, their first appearance in this bowl game since 1970, where they beat Oklahoma State 48–20. Freeze led the Rebels to their first 10-win season since 2003, and only the third since the Vaught era. On July 20, 2017, Freeze resigned after Ole Miss officials learned that he had used a university-provided cell phone to place calls to an escort service in "a concerning pattern" that began shortly after he took the job in 2011. NCAA investigators later concluded that Freeze had cheated on 15 occasions by breaking recruiting rules and allowing students  to play who had not maintained the required academic standing; they also determined that his predecessor, Nutt, had broken similar rules. This constituted one of the worst violations ever, and in 2019 the NCAA punished Ole Miss by stripping the team of 33 wins over six seasons, including seven from 2012, eight from 2014, and five from 2016. This changed Freeze's official record at Ole Miss from 39–25 over five seasons to 12–25. The NCAA also banned the team from postseason play for two years, stripped it of scholarships for four years, and placed it on three years of  probation. In 2019, the NCAA vacated 33 of the team's victories dating from 2010 to 2016 and levied a two-year ban on postseason play as punishment for recruiting and academic violations under both Houston Nutt and Freeze. Matt Luke era (2017–2019). Co-offensive coordinator Matt Luke was named interim head coach the same day. In November 2017, Luke was named the permanent head coach after leading the Rebels to a 6-6 record, including a 31-28 Egg Bowl win over Mississippi State. In the 2019 Egg Bowl, Luke's recruit Elijah Moore performed a post-touchdown mockery  of a urinating dog, costing the Rebels a penalty and ultimately losing the game by a missed extra point 20-21. Luke was dismissed after the game. Lane Kiffin era (2020–present). On December 7, following FAU's blowout win in the C-USA championship game, it was confirmed by Ole Miss AD Keith Carter that Lane Kiffin, the then-coach of FAU, would be the next head coach at Ole Miss. In his first season, Kiffin compiled a 5-5 record in an all-SEC Conference schedule including a 26-20 win over Indiana in the Outback Bowl in  Tampa, Florida. In 2021, his second season at the helm, Kiffin piloted the Rebels to a 10-2 regular season record, the best regular season record in school history, going 6-2 in conference and finishing 11th in both major polls after a 21-7 loss to Baylor in the 2022 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, Louisiana left the Rebels with a final record of 10-3, only the eighth time in school history that the football team has recorded ten wins in a season. Conference affiliations. Ole Miss has been affiliated with the following conferences. Championships. National championships. Ole  Miss has been selected national champion three times by NCAA-designated major selectors in 1959, 1960 and 1962. But the two major wire service polls of the time (AP Poll and Coaches' Poll), named Syracuse, Minnesota, and Southern California as the national champions in those years, respectively. In 1960, the final Associated Press (AP) and United Press International (UPI) polls placed the Rebels second and third, respectively, behind the national champion Minnesota Golden Gophers. Students made “AP” and “UPI” dummies, hung them from the Union Building, and burned them while chanting, “We’re No. 1, to hell with AP and  UPI.” The Gophers, however, subsequently lost the Rose Bowl to Washington, and Ole Miss defeated Rice, 14–6, in the Sugar Bowl, leading the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) to vote Mississippi as national champions. This is the only national championship recognized by the NCAA. Ole Miss has never finished a season ranked No. 1 in the AP or Coaches Poll. Conference championships. Ole Miss has won six SEC championships. Divisional championship. The SEC has been split into two divisions since the 1992 season with Ole Miss competing in the SEC West since that time. Ole Miss has won a  share of one divisional title, but has yet to make an appearance in the SEC Championship Game. † Co-champions Head coaches. Ole Miss has had 38 head coaches in over a century of play. † Includes interim status Bowl games. Ole Miss has participated in 39 bowl games and compiled a record of 24–14 through the 2021 season. The school's victory in the 2013 BBVA Compass Bowl was subsequently vacated and is not included. Uniforms. Ole Miss primarily uses four jersey options along with two pant styles and two helmet variations. They often mix and match these jerseys, helmets, and  pants to create a wide range of uniform combinations. Since the 2017 season, Ole Miss has taken the field in at least ten different uniform combinations. The Rebels have traditionally used red jerseys for their primary home uniforms and blue jerseys as alternates; both have bold white numbers and white vertical shoulder stripes. The Rebels have also made extensive use of their new "powder blues," a uniform combination consisting of solid white pants, a powder blue jersey with white shoulder stripes, and the powder blue helmet. This uniform combination started as an alternate uniform, but has become very popular among  fans and players; since the 2020 season it has been worn as the primary home uniform. White jerseys with red numbers and stripes are typically used on the road. These jerseys are paired with either gray pants with red and blue stripes or solid white pants, though for the 2018 season were paired with white pants with red stripes as part of a "white out" uniform combination. A similar white road uniform with navy stripes and letters has also been used. Typically, Ole Miss uses one of two helmet designs. The Rebels’ traditional primary helmet is navy blue with a  single red stripe and “Ole Miss” written in script on each side. The other helmet's blue is a lighter color, a shade known as “powder blue.” In recent years, the powder blue helmet has seen more and more use. Since its reintroduction in the 2019 season, the Rebels have worn powder blue helmets in over half their games, typically with their red or white jerseys, and have arguably become the teams primary helmet. In 2017, Ole Miss used special helmets for a military-appreciation game against Louisiana and a rivalry game against LSU. The military appreciation helmets, which have  been worn multiple times since then in both navy and powder blue variations, were the same as the primary design, except the logo on each side of the helmet was filled with an American flag design. The helmets worn against LSU were powder blue with jersey numbers on each side, similar to a design worn by the Rebels in the 1960s. Rivalries. Mississippi State. The Battle for the Golden Egg (nicknamed the Egg Bowl) is the Rebels' last game of the season against in-state SEC rival Mississippi State University (MSU). The teams have played each other 114 times since  1901, and the first game officially known as "The Battle of the Golden Egg" was in 1927. The game gets its name from the trophy awarded to the winner of the contest; the football element of the trophy is based on the much more ovoid and rounded football used in 1927 when it was designed, and resembles a large golden egg. While it is called a "Bowl", the game is not a postseason bowl game but a regular season SEC game. Twenty-nine Egg Bowls have been played on Thanksgiving Day. Ole Miss leads the series with 64–46–6. In 2014 , the game gained much more national attention due to the postseason implications the game possessed. Mississippi State entered the game with a No. 4 ranking in College Football Playoff, and had a spot in the Playoff on the line entering the game against No. 19 Ole Miss. MSU also had a chance at making the SEC title game, where they needed a win and an Alabama loss. In an upset, Ole Miss beat the Bulldogs 31–17 and jumped from No. 19 to No. 9 in the College Football Playoff rankings. Both schools got New Year's Six bowl games. Ole  Miss would later vacate this win due to NCAA violations. Ole Miss entered the 2015 Egg Bowl with a No. 18 ranking in the College Football Playoff rankings, and MSU was No. 21. The game was considered to be a play-in game for the Sugar Bowl. Ole Miss entered the game as only two point favorites but won the Egg Bowl convincingly 38–27 and led by 25 points at halftime. This was Ole Miss's first road win against Mississippi State since 2003, and the first time that the Rebels beat the Bulldogs two years in a row since  2003–04. LSU. Ole Miss first played LSU on December 3, 1894, winning 26–6 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Throughout the fifties and sixties, games between the two schools featured highly ranked squads on both sides and several matchups had conference, and at times, national title implications. Since then, the rivalry has only had one contest with significant national title implications. The 2003 loss to LSU decided the SEC Western Division Champion, and helped propel LSU to a national championship. The student bodies at both universities created a trophy for the LSU–Ole Miss rivalry in 2008, and renamed the matchup the  Magnolia Bowl. Ole Miss won the first two official Magnolia Bowls in 2008 31–13 and 2009 25–23. LSU won their first official Magnolia Bowl in 2010 with a last minute score, 43–36. The 2010s featured several memorable Magnolia Bowls. LSU humiliated the Rebels 52–3 at Oxford in 2010.Les Miles ordered third-string quarterback Zach Mettenberger to take a knee four times after LSU gained a first-and-goal at the Ole Miss 1-yard line with five minutes to play. The Rebels lost the 2012 Magnolia Bowl 35-41 during the last minute of the game when LSU's Jeremy  Hill scored a 1 yd touchdown run. On October 19, 2013 an unranked Rebel team beat the No. 6 ranked Tigers 27-24 on a last-second 46-yard field goal. In 2014, Ole Miss entered with a No. 3 ranking. No. 24 LSU pulled the upset by beating the Rebels 10–7 on a last–minute interception thrown by Rebels' quarterback Bo Wallace. In 2015, No. 22 Ole Miss upset No. 15 LSU 38–17, which was Ole Miss's largest margin of victory over LSU since 1992. LSU leads the overall series over Ole Miss 64–41–4; since the creation of  the Magnolia Bowl, LSU leads the series, 9–5. Arkansas. Ole Miss first played Arkansas in 1908, with Arkansas winning that game 33–0. They would play each other many times, though sporadically, over the next several decades, including two meetings in the Sugar Bowl in 1963 and 1970; Ole Miss won both Sugar Bowl matchups. The two teams have played each other annually since 1981. In the 1980s, Arkansas dominated the Rebels. The 1990 meeting between the two teams ended memorably. Having the ball inside the Ole Miss 20 and trailing by 4 with seconds remaining, Arkansas needed a score. The  Hogs handed the ball to running back Ron Dickerson who seemed to have an open path to the endzone. At the goal line, Safety Chris Mitchell stopped Dickerson at the one yard line as time expired. In 1991, Arkansas joined the Southeastern Conference. The next year the SEC divided into two divisions. Both teams were placed in the SEC West. Ole Miss won the first conference contest in Little Rock by a score of 17–3. During the 2000s, the rivalry was reignited by a series of close games and coaching changes. The 2001 Ole Miss–Arkansas game set an NCAA  record for most overtime periods played (7). Arkansas won that game 58–56 off a 2-point Rebel conversion that got stopped just short of the goal line. Since then, five FBS football games have reached seven overtime periods. In November 2007, Houston Nutt resigned as the head coach for Arkansas and was hired as Ole Miss' head coach a week later. 2008 saw the first game between Ole Miss and Arkansas after Nutt left Arkansas to coach Ole Miss. The Rebels kicked a field goal with less than 3 minutes remaining to go up 23–14, but Arkansas scored with a  minute left. Arkansas was awarded with the recovery of an onside kick, but received a penalty for offensive pass interference before turning the ball over on downs. Ole Miss and Nutt won 23–21. The following season, Ole Miss won 30–17 led by running back Dexter McCluster who had over 200 all purpose yards, including a 60 yd touchdown in the 3rd quarter. In 2010, Arkansas finally beat their former coach Houston Nutt after a 38-24 game in Fayetteville. In 2015, the Rebels' 52-53 loss to Arkansas saw them fall out of first place in the SEC West and  lose the division. Alabama. The Alabama–Ole Miss football rivalry is an American college football rivalry between the Alabama Crimson Tide and Ole Miss Rebels. Both universities are founding members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), and have competed in the SEC Western Division since the 1992 season. It has been one of the conference's most lopsided rivalries. Alabama leads the series 53–10–2 (50–9–2 without NCAA vacations and forfeits). From 2004 to 2013, Alabama won every game between the two teams, including six wins by double digits. However, in 2014, No. 11 Ole Miss beat No. 3 Alabama 23-17  for the first time since 2003. Ole Miss cornerback Senquez Golson sealed the victory with an interception in the fourth quarter. The victory catapulted Ole Miss to No. 3 in the AP Poll, their highest ranking since 1964. In 2015, Ole Miss visited Alabama as double digit underdogs. The Rebels upset the No. 2 Crimson Tide 43-37 for their second ever victory in Tuscaloosa. This marked the first time Ole Miss had beaten Alabama in back to back seasons. Following the upset, Ole Miss jumped to No. 3 in the AP Poll, marking the first time that Ole Miss  had been ranked in the top three in consecutive seasons since 1963–64. Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt and Ole Miss have played annually since 1942. When the SEC split into divisions in 1992, the Commodores and Rebels were selected as permanent cross-division rivals. Ole Miss leads the all-time series 52–40–2. The Rebels have won 16 of the last 24 games, including nine games by double digits. However, Vanderbilt has sustained the rivalry with a surprising blow-out victory over the Rebels in 2016. Auburn. Auburn leads the series 35–10 through the 2021 season. Memphis. The Ole Miss–Memphis football rivalry has  also been a far less competitive rivalry series. The Rebels hold a 47–12–2 advantage over the Tigers in this non-conference series. The two schools have met 62 times from 1921 to 2019. Ole Miss won every game between 2005-2009, and the teams temporarily suspended competition from 2010 to 2013. The rivalry was resumed in 2014. Ole Miss won the game 24–3 to increase their winning streak against Memphis to six straight. In 2015, The Tigers upset No. 13 Ole Miss, 37–24. The Rebels fell 11 spots in the AP Poll to No. 24 and Memphis entered the rankings  at No. 18. It was the Tigers' first victory over a ranked team since defeating No. 6 Tennessee in 1996. Memphis won the most recent matchup 15–10 on August 31, 2019. As of 2020, there are no future games scheduled between the two teams. Tulane. Ole Miss and Tulane have been rivals since the time that Tulane was an SEC member. Ole Miss leads the series 42–28 through the 2021 season. Future games are scheduled for 2023 in New Orleans and 2025 in Oxford. Team of the Century. In 1992, to commemorate the 100th year of Ole Miss football, the  Ole Miss Athletic Department put together a so-called "Team of the Century," recognizing the outstanding accomplishments of 26 players. The head coach for the Team of the Century was Johnny Vaught, who coached Ole Miss from 1947 to 1970 and again in 1973. Hall of Fame. College Football Hall of Fame. Ole Miss has nine players and two coaches in the College Football Hall of Fame. † Charter member ‡ Played freshman year at Ole Miss, then appointed to the U.S. Military Academy where he played for Army as a sophomore, junior and senior Pro Football Hall of Fame. There have  been two Ole Miss players inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. National Quarterback Club Hall of Fame. Ole Miss has one former player in the National Quarterback Club Hall of Fame. Confederate symbols. In 1972, Ole Miss' first black football player, Ben Williams, was signed and began playing. The defensive tackle, recruited out of a small school in the Delta region of Mississippi, eventually claimed All-SEC honors and had a long and successful NFL career following his stint at Ole Miss. Since 1983 , the administration has distanced itself from Confederate symbols. In 1997, the university student senate  passed a resolution requesting fans not to display the Confederate battle flag at university athletic events. The university also banned flag poles to discourage fans from displaying the Confederate flag at football games and other athletic events after head coach Tommy Tuberville complained that the battle flag had hampered his attempts to recruit top-notch black athletes. Coaches prior to Tuberville also expressed concerns about the difficulty of recruiting black athletes. In 2003, the school's mascot, Colonel Reb, was discontinued from official participation in athletic events by the school. The school solicited ideas to replace Colonel Reb, but after  an exceedingly lackluster response, decided to go without a mascot. An unofficial Colonel Reb mascot still makes appearances in The Grove, Ole Miss' tailgating area, before home games. In 2010, the university began its plan to phase out the use of Colonel Reb on official merchandise such as hats and shirts. The university has reclassified the Colonel Reb trademark as a historical mark of the university. On October 14, 2010, it was announced that students, alumni and season ticket holders at the university had picked Rebel Black Bear as their new mascot. The announcement was the result of a campus -wide vote in February and months of polling. The bear beat out two other finalists, the Rebel Land Shark and something called the "Hotty Toddy," an attempt to personify the school cheer. On October 6, 2017, Chancellor Jeffrey Vitter announced that the new university mascot would be the Landshark, beginning with the 2018–19 season. The black bear will be replaced by the Landshark, in reference to a celebratory hand symbol that players began using in 2008. Team honors. Chucky Mullins Courage Award. At the end of each spring's practices, the team plays the Grove Bowl, which pits Ole Miss  players against each other. The senior defensive player who most embodies Chucky Mullins' spirit and courage receives the "Chucky Mullins Memorial Courage Award" and the right to wear Mullins' No. 38 jersey, which was otherwise retired in 2006. Future opponents. Intra-division opponents. Ole Miss plays the other six SEC West opponents once per season. Non-division opponents. Ole Miss plays Vanderbilt as a permanent non-division opponent annually and rotates around the "East" division among the other six schools. Non-conference opponents. Announced schedules as of April 26, 2020.