Strong play late helps Ole Miss overcome a raucous Jordan-Hare

Oct. 22—AUBURN — Historically, Ole Miss has struggled to find success at Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Heading into Saturday's matchup, Ole Miss was 3-17 all time on the road against Auburn. The team's last win over the Tigers away from Oxford came in in 2015. The Rebels had won at Jordan-Hare just twice since the turn of the century ahead of Saturday night's 28-21 win.

Coming off a bye week, a raucous environment awaited the Rebels. More than 88,000 people packed the stadium for a primetime kickoff. To add fuel to the fire, the man leading the Tigers would be Hugh Freeze, a former Rebels head coach who took the program to great heights while he was there.

So how did they get it done?

In the eyes of Lane Kiffin, it came down to something they've done well all season; playing their best football late in the game.

"I don't care what records are going into it. This place at night is a hard place to play," he said. "When you look at percentages, a lot of people lose in here. For our guys to kind of take over in the second half on the last play of the third quarter and the fourth quarter is awesome."

With 2 minutes, 28 seconds left in the third quarter, Ole Miss took over with the game tied 14-14.

The Rebels were later faced with third down, on which they were 1 for 9 up to that point. However, Jaxson Dart found Tre Harris for a 29 yard gain, then followed up with another connection for a 24-yard gain.

Four plays later at the one yard line, Dart took it himself for a touchdown, putting Ole Miss ahead 21-14 going into the fourth quarter.

The junior quarterback felt that he and Harris getting going was a big key for the Rebels. It helped lead them into a fourth quarter where they had a lot of confidence.

"I just feel like this year we feel really comfortable in that kind of situation," he said. "There is not a lot of stress. There are not a lot of guys that have emotional swings, but I am just really proud of this group and the confidence we have to be able to finish up games like that."

Dart and the offense were both able to make bigger and bigger plays as the game went on, taking some of the energy out of Jordan-Hare. When it came to some of the throws and runs he made, he credited the 10 guys around him.

"All the credit goes to the o-line and the guys blocking up front and then the playmakers making plays down the field, but it's pretty easy when you can go on a run on fourth down untouched," he said. "I give a lot of credit to those guys and what they prepare to do each and every week and I wouldn't be able to do it without them."

In between the third and fourth quarter of each of their home games, Auburn gets its fans hyped for the final 15 minutes. Think Wisconsin and Jump Around. With Ole Miss having taken the lead just before it got started, Kiffin felt that the show didn't have as much of its intended effect.

"When things aren't going good, that show can kind of be intimidating," he said. "But the fact that we had just scored and taken some air out of the stadium I think was a huge play right there heading into the fourth quarter."

Instrumental to the effort was Quinshon Judkins, who eclipsed 100 yards for the second time this season. He headlined a rushing attack that amassed 223 yards.

For him, being able to come into Jordan-Hare and do what they did speaks volumes.

"It speaks that we have discipline to play throughout all four quarters," he said. "It speaks of what type of team we are compared to the other Ole Miss teams in the past that have been there. It is special for sure."

Judkins considers himself an even keel player no matter what the game. However, even he admitted that the raucous environment made that difficult.

"I'm just staying not too high or not too low, but with the environment that it was today, it was pretty hard to do so."

Saturday night was a homecoming of sorts for Judkins, who grew up 39 miles away from Auburn in a town called Pike Road.

Ole Miss will now head back home for its next two games, the first against rival Vanderbilt.

james.murphy@djournal.com