Lane Kiffin exit haunts Ole Miss at ancient stadium where Eli Manning helped force NCAA to change OT rules

Ole Miss are currently preparing to head into battle with a new coach at the helm.

Following Lane Kiffin’s messy departure for the coveted LSU role, the No. 6 Rebels now have Pete Golding at the helm as they take on No. 11 Tulane in the first round of the College Football Playoff at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi.

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The iconic stadium built in 1915 will welcome a full 64,000 capacity on Saturday as quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, running back Kewan Lacy and Ole Miss bids to reach the Sugar Bowl where the No. 3 seed Georgia Bulldogs await the winner.

The Rebels went 11-1 in 2025 – their best ever record, ahead of the 2023 season in which they went 11-2 – and finished third in the SEC standings behind Georgia (12-1) and Alabama (10-3).

Despite this, there were initially some doubts over whether the CFP committee would include them in the 2025 playoffs due to Kiffin’s $90 million departure, though they ultimately decided not to inflict any more pain on the team and penalize them.

Kiffin had reportedly asked whether he could see out the 2025 campaign with the Rebels and coach them through the playoff, but revealed in his leaving statement that Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter denied him that opportunity.

But one thing that the Rebs will be hoping doesn’t happen in the CFP first round is being involved in a game which goes to SEVEN overtime periods to find a winner, something which happened in 2001 and ended in heartbreak.

Ole Miss-Arkansas’ infamous 2001 game

The sub-rivalry between Ole Miss and Arkansas is widely considered as one of the most underrated matchups in the SEC, and has been at the heart of some of the most gut-wrenching outcomes for the Rebels.

This includes their 53-52 OT defeat back in 2015 on the play simply known to Rebels fans as the ‘4th & 25’ and a play so iconic to the Razorbacks that they have a whole page on their website dedicated to it, even a decade after the fact.

But long before Ole Miss’ despair in inexplicable circumstances, there was a contest in 2001 that kickstarted game-wide changes in how college football is played today.

In the 2001 regular season, a young sophomore quarterback named Eli Manning was under center for the Rebels.

At that time, nobody could have envisioned that he would go on to etch his name into NFL folklore as the only quarterback to defeat the GOAT Tom Brady in two Super Bowls.

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Entering the contest at Vaught-Hemingway, the Rebels had racked up a 6-1 record, with the Razorbacks at 4-3, with Manning having already led his team to a road victory against LSU.

But with the score level at 17-17 after the fourth quarter, the chaos was only just beginning to ensue.

The teams went back-and-fourth on touchdown drives – seven in total, though the second overtime period was scoreless – as Arkansas came away with a 58-56 road victory despite Manning’s 27-of-42 passing for 312 yards and six touchdown performance (five of which came in overtime, and once again breaking the hearts of the Rebels’ faithful.

The infamous night also saw NCAA records continue to tumble, resulting in seven NCAA and SEC marks being set at the time, including the 80 combined points scored in overtime dwarfing that of the Division I-A high of 49 set in 1996 between Georgia and Auburn.

Furthermore, there were 198 total plays between both teams, breaking a 30-year record of 196 set by San Diego State and North Texas in 1971, whilst Arkansas’ 41 points scored in OT was a national record for a single team.

The seven overtime record was tied or surpassed seven times since this contest in 2001, including in 2017 when LSU – with Joe Burrow under center – and Texas A&M went to 7OT in the Aggies’ 74-72 road victory.

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The NCAA had first adopted an overtime rule in 1996, in which each team got one possession from its opponent’s 25-yard line with which there was no game clock, only a play clock.

If a game reached a third overtime, teams would have to attempts a two-point conversion after every touchdown.

However, the rules were eventually changed in 2019 following the LSU-Texas A&M game, in which teams would alternate two-point conversion plays instead of offensive possessions from the fifth overtime period onwards.

However, following the contest between Illinois and Penn State in 2021, which needed nine overtime periods for the Fighting Illini to win out 20-18, the rules were changed once again.

Now, teams are required to run the 2-point conversion play after a touchdown when the game reaches 2OT, whilst if the game reaches 3OT, then teams will run alternating 2-point plays in a bid to shorten the amount of OT plays.

All Rebels’ eyes on the National Championship

With 41-year-old Golding’s debut game as head coach coming on Saturday, the team’s former defensive co-ordinator is all in on trying to center the narrative around the team, and not around him and Kiffin.

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“I’m not changing who I am,” Golding said after being named Kiffin’s replacement. “I ain’t changing what the hell I wear. I’m [not] going to yoga … I ain’t doing any of that s—. I am who I am.”

Golding has only been in charge for 19 days, but the team are still runnnig their former HC’s offense, whose 498.1 yards per game led the SEC, and their 37.3 points per contest ranked third.

Virtually the entire defensive coaching staff has remained intact for next season, whilst offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr., tight ends coach Joe Cox and wide receivers coach George McDonald will join LSU next season, but have returned to Ole Miss for their bid to win the CFP National Championship.

“I think this group is focused on the mission, not the man,” Golding added. “I think the big thing from our players, at any level — D-II, Division I, the NFL — they want to be in a room with guys that create value for them.

“Getting you prepared to play really well, whether it’s individually, as a group or as a unit. When you get back to a routine, you are doing it with the same guy that got you to 11-1.

Where he’s going to be in January really doesn’t matter.”

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