Ole Miss Holds off Georgia Southern 37-27

Saturday, November 5

Oxford, MS

Noon

Georgia Southern University

4-5

Ole Miss

4-5

1st

2nd

3rd

4th

Georgia Southern

Ole Miss

Matt Breida ran for 100 yards for the first time this season.

Photo by: Frank Fortune - Georgia Southern Athletics

11/5/2016 4:08:00 PM | Football

Box Score

The Eagles play host to UL Lafayette Thursday night in Paulson Stadium.

By: Marc Gignac

OXFORD, Miss. – Akeem Judd rushed 26 times for 139 yards and a touchdown, and Ole Miss scored 21 straight points in the second quarter to earn a 37-27 football victory over Georgia Southern Saturday afternoon at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.

Matt Breida had 100 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, and Myles Campbell caught four passes for 121 yards, the most for an Eagle in six seasons, and a score. Kevin Ellison rushed for 54 yards and a score and threw for 134 and a touchdown.

Chad Kelly threw for 226 yards and a touchdown and ran for two scores for Ole Miss (4-5) before leaving the game in the third quarter. Evan Engram caught four passes for 75 yards and a touchdown, and Damore'ea Stringfellow had five receptions for 66 yards.

Trailing by 10 points at halftime, Georgia Southern (4-5) made it a one-possession game twice in the second half on a pair of field goals by Younghoe Koo, but the Eagles could not get the equalizing touchdown.

The story
Trailing by a touchdown, Georgia Southern got its first turnover of the game when Darius Jones Jr. was credited with an interception of Ole Miss backup quarterback Jason Pellerin. After a 38-yard field goal by Koo made the score 34-27, Pellerin threw deep to A.J. Brown but Jones ripped the ball away, going to his knee in the process, to give the Eagles the ball at their own 22-yard line with 11:10 remaining.

The Rebel defense came up big and forced a three-and-out, and the Ole Miss offense moved the ball to the GS 21-yard line with the help of a 15-yard personal foul penalty on Georgia Southern as the game began to get chippy on both sides. The Eagle defense forced an incompletion on third down, and Ole Miss settled for a Gary Wunderlich 38-yard field goal to make it a 10-point game with 7:14 to go.

Georgia Southern moved the ball to its own 40-yard line, but on fourth-and-4, Breeland Speaks tipped Ellison's pass at the line of scrimmage to give the ball back to the Rebels with 3:49 to play. Pellerin converted a fourth down with a 4-yard run, and Ole Miss was able to keep the ball and hang onto the win.

The game began to turn in the second quarter after the Eagles opened a 21-10 lead on a 68-yard touchdown run by Breida. The senior found a hole up the middle and raced untouched for the score and the longest touchdown run of the season for the Eagles.

With momentum in hand, Georgia Southern tried the surprise onside kick, but Ole Miss senior Hunter Thurley was there to make the recovery. The Rebels took advantage of the short field and after completing a 35-yard pass to Stringfellow, Kelly ran it in from five yards out to trim the lead to 21-17.

Ole Miss got the ball back at its own 40-yard line after a GS punt and gobbled up 60 yards in 1:26, taking the lead on a 9-yard touchdown run by Judd. The Rebel defense forced a three-and-out, and Kelly hit Engram for a 38-yard touchdown pass on the third play from scrimmage, capping a 21-point surge in just over eight minutes and giving Ole Miss a 31-21 advantage at halftime.

Georgia Southern came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and rolled up 113 yards of offense while taking a 14-3 lead in the first quarter. Ellison found Campbell for a 29-yard touchdown pass and ran for a 9-yard score on the quarterback keeper. The second touchdown was set up when Malik Henry blocked an Ole Miss punt to give the Eagles the ball near midfield.

Quotables
Head coach Tyson Summers
Overall
"We played extremely hard and did a lot of things we can be very proud of. We never feel good about a loss in any way shape or form, but we made vast improvement from last week to this week."

On the offense
"We tried to cut back a little bit and get good at the things we do. The offensive line played by far their best game, our running backs did a much better job and Kevin (Ellison) did a great job managing the game."

On the onside kick
"We all came here to win today, and I thought it was the right time to try the surprise onside and that we had a great shot at it, given the looks we were seeing."

On Thursday's game
"We have the opportunity to go 7-5 and make a bowl game and finish this thing the right way, and that's what we'll be looking to do."

Sophomore safety Joshua Moon
On the Ole Miss offense
"Honestly, I thought practice this week getting ready for it was harder than the game so our coaches did a great job preparing us for the tempo and getting us ready."

Senior running back Matt Breida
"The O-line stepped up to the challenge going against an SEC defensive line. I feel liked we made a lot of improvement this week on offense and defense, and we are ready to try to run the table."

Game Notes
• Captains: #5 Darius Jones Jr., #12 BJ Johnson III, #32 William Bussey Jr., #62 Sean Gaddy

• Georgia Southern lost the toss and deferred to the second half. It's the third time GS has lost the coin toss this year.

• Myles Campbell caught his third touchdown pass of the season in the first quarter, a 29-yard play from Kevin Ellison.

• Malik Henry blocked an Ole Miss punt in the first quarter. It was his first career block and the first blocked punt of the season for the Eagles. It was the fourth blocked kick of the season for Georgia Southern.

• Matt Breida broke off a season-long 68-yard touchdown run in the second quarter. It was the senior's 12th career rush of 60 yards or longer and his 13th rushing touchdown of 50 yards or longer. He finished with a season-high total of 100 rushing yards.

• The Rebels scored 28 points in the second quarter, tying the GS record for most points ever given up during that stanza. North Carolina (2009) and Western Michigan (2016) also scored 28 points in the second quarter against the Eagles.

• Younghoe Koo missed his first field goal of the season at the end of the first half, a 54-yarder that was wide right. He had made a school-record 14 in a row to start the season before the miss. Tim Foley made 12 straight in the 1985 season to hold the previous single-season mark. Foley still holds the school record for most consecutive field goals at 19 set during the 1995-96 seasons (last 12 of 1995, first seven of 1996).

• Darius Jones Jr. recorded his fourth career interception in the fourth quarter and his second of the year.

• Breida passed Georgia Tech's Eddie Lee Ivory (3,517 yards; 1975-78) for fourth place all-time in the state of Georgia for career FBS/D-IA rushing yards and now has 3,599 career FBS rushing yards. His 15-yard run in 2013 when the Eagles were still in the FCS does not count toward this mark.

• Kevin Ellison sits is fifth place at GS in career passing yards (3,067) and is 10th in rushing yards (3,152). He passed Chaz Williams for 10th place all-time at GS in the South Alabama game to join Tracy Ham, Greg Hill and Jayson Foster as the only players in the top 10 for both.

• Kevin Ellison sits in fifth place in school history in career passing yards (3,076). He's 137 yards from Kenny Robinson passing fourth place.

• Kevin Ellison has the sixth-most passing completions in GS history with 105.

• With his 134 yards passing at Ole Miss, Kevin Ellison became the third Georgia Southern quarterback with 3,000 career passing and 3,000 career rushing yards (Tracy Ham, Greg Hill). He currently has 3,152 rushing yards and 3,067 passing yards.

• Matt Breida has 15 games with 100+ rush yards, which is the ninth most in Georgia Southern history. He's one games from Chaz Williams (eighth) and three from Jerick McKinnon (seventh).

Next up
Georgia Southern returns to Sun Belt Conference play when the Eagles play host to UL Lafayette Thursday night in Paulson Stadium. It's Homecoming, kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. and the game will be televised nationally on ESPNU.

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