A ranked win is a ranked win, but Ole Miss knows it has plenty to work on following Week 1
- Story byNortheast Mississippi Daily Journal, Tupelo
- A ranked win is a ranked win, but Ole Miss knows it has plenty to work on following Week 1
NASHVILLE – Ole Miss is still admittedly working out the kinks in the early portions of the 2026 season. And Rebels head coach Pete Golding knows there is a lot of work to be done, even after a top-25 victory.
No. 9 Ole Miss and No. 24 Louisville played a season-opening thriller at Nissan Stadium on Sunday night, with the Cardinals overcoming a two-touchdown deficit with less than seven minutes to play before Lucas Carneiro walked it off with a game-winning 48-yard field goal that gave the Rebels a 41-38 victory.
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It wasn't the cleanest performance by any means – not uncommon in a first game with a handful of new players and coaches – and there is still plenty to learn from the tape despite the ranked victory.
Sunday was Golding's first regular-season game as Ole Miss' head coach after leading the Rebels to a pair of wins in the 2025 College Football Playoff following Lane Kiffin's departure for LSU . After this weekend's matchup with Charlotte, Ole Miss hosts Kiffin and the No. 11 Tigers on Sept. 19 in one of the most highly anticipated matchups of the 2026 season.
"Obviously, our goal is to go 1-0, and it was a top-25 matchup at a neutral site. And all that sounds good, and it's good to get out of here with a win," Golding said. "But if we don't come into this tape with an open mind and learn from the mistakes, it's going to take a loss to do it. And so I think that's really important. We have to go through this tape and we have to get this corrected before Week 2."
In addition to determining the status of a few key players going forward – junior running back Kewan Lacy , junior defensive end Kam Franklin , fifth-year cornerback Antonio Kite, fifth-year linebacker Keaton Thomas and senior offensive tackle Tommy Kinsler IV all left the opener with varying injuries – establishing consistency on both sides of the ball looms large. The Rebels (1-0) allowed 83 yards to Louisville (0-1) in the first half but surrendered 386 yards over the final two quarters; the Cardinals trailed 38-24 with less than seven minutes to play but were able to tie the game with 1:28 remaining. Making his first-career start, Cardinals quarterback Lincoln Kienholz threw for 261 yards in the second half alone on 11 of 15 passing.
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According to Pro Football Focus, the Rebels missed 25 tackles Sunday night and had a 38.1 grade in coverage overall. Kienholz's two touchdown passes were from 62 and 54 yards out.
"I think, obviously, from a communication standpoint, they're all correctable," Golding said. "I think some of them we call LOVs – the lack of violence – and bad angles and not wanting to finish and effort. That's a decision that you have to make, right? And so those are the ones that we can't put on tape and we can't allow to be on tape."
Star sixth-year quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and the Rebels' offense struggled mightily in the first half in John David Baker's first game as offensive coordinator, racking up 148 yards to go with a pair of Chambliss turnovers. Ole Miss' offense showed signs of what made it special last year under Charlie Weis Jr. in the second half, notching 340 total yards as Chambliss accounted for four total touchdowns.
Junior wide receiver Deuce Alexander broke the game open in the second half, catching a pair of 62-yard touchdowns to go with his career-best 159 receiving yards. All but 11 of his receiving yards came in the last two quarters.
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"Offense is still brand new," Alexander said. "… Being able to play together and just learning each other and just learning how (Baker) thinks and how everybody thinks on the sideline. Just to be able to talk through things, just handle adversity, (it) just helped us out."
Chambliss threw for 336 yards in the game and ran for another 60; 261 of his passing yards came in the second half. The first game of the season is always its own type of test, Chambliss said, as teams are deciphering defenses that might look different than what was on tape last season.
"You try to replicate as much as you can throughout fall camp, but it's really nothing compared to an actual, real game, real-game situations, having to adjust to what they do defensive-wise," Chambliss said. " … All fall camp, you're scheming up of what they did last year. So, they had a whole offseason, whole eight months to prepare for us. … They could have switched some things up, different disguises, all that. So, first game is always kind of tricky, but I'm glad that we got the win."
