No. 20 Ole Miss 37-20 rallies past No. 22 Tulane, 37-20

NEW ORLEANS – The No. 24/No. 22 ranked Tulane football team (1-1) took a tied game into the fourth quarter against a ranked SEC opponent, but couldn’t overcome visiting No. 20/No. 20 Ole Miss (2-0) in a 37-20 loss at Yulman Stadium on Saturday in front of a sellout crowd of 30,000.

Kai Horton, who was making his second career start and 10th career appearance at quarterback, led a valiant team effort for the Green Wave in going 15-for-37 for 231 yards and a passing touchdown.

Makhi Hughes just missed the first 100-yard rushing performance of his career with 92 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries. Shaadie Clayton-Johnson totaled 32 yards on his seven carries. Lawrence Keys III totaled five catches for 94 yards.

Jha’Quan Jackson recorded four catches for 83 yards and a touchdown. Jackson also led the team with 47 yards as a punt returner with a long of 26 yards. Tyler Grubbs led the defense with his nine tackles.

Bailey Despanie made eight tackles as did Jesus Machado. Eric Hicks Jr. chipped in six tackles and a sack. Darius Hodges had 1.5 sacks. Kameron Hamilton picked up his third sack of the season in a take down of the Ole Miss quarterback. Patrick Jenkins totaled half a sack. Lance Robinson had an interception for the Green Wave.

Ole Miss was led by Jaxson Dart, who went 17-for-27 for 267 yards and two passing touchdowns. Dayton Wade recorded seven catches for 106 yards.

Ole Miss was limited to 363 total yards in the game and went 1-for-13 on third down. Tulane totaled 342 yards (231 passing and 111 rushing). The Green Wave controlled the clock for 34:45 compared to 25:15 for Ole Miss.

The Rebels scored first as Dart connected with Tre Harris for a touchdown to put the Rebels up 7-0 after the made extra point at the 14:12 mark.

Tulane tied the score up at 7 all on a two-yard rush from Hughes and the made extra point from Valentino Ambrosio at the 9:37 mark of the opening quarter. The big play on the drive was a 57-yard pass from Horton to Keys .

The Green Wave took the lead on a 44-yard field goal from Ambrosio at the 14:10 mark of the second quarter.

The Green Wave added a touchdown to the lead at Horton connected with Jha’Quan Jackson on a 41-yard pitch-and-catch to put Tulane up 17-7 with 5:48 remaining in the second quarter after the made extra point from Ambrosio.

Ole Miss answered with a 37-yard field goal late in the second quarter to narrow the margin to 17-10 going into the break.

The Rebels tied the score midway through the third quarter on the nine-yard touchdown run from Quinshon Judkins at the 6:11 mark after the made extra point from Caden Davis.

Ole Miss took its second lead of the game, 20-17, on the Davis’ 27-yard field goal with 12:50 remaining in the contest.

After a fourth down overturned call against Tulane, Ole Miss capitalized and scored a touchdown as Dart connected with Michael Trigg on their own fourth down attempt to take the 27-17 lead with 4:28 remaining in the game.

Tulane pulled to within a touchdown, 27-20, as Ambrosio knocked in a 26-yard field goal with 2:56 remaining.

Ole Miss again went up 10 points on a long 56-made field goal from Davis.

The Rebels added a late touchdown on a fumble recovery return after a sack to make the final score 37-20.

Next the Tulane football team heads to Hattiesburg, Miss. to take on Southern Miss on Saturday, Sept. 23, at 3 p.m.

NOTES:
The loss ends Tulane’s winning streak at four games dating back to the end of last season…it also snapped Tulane’s three-game winning streak over ranked teams as Ole Miss was ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press Poll…The program had gone since 1984 and a win over then No. 19 Vanderbilt (61 straight) without beating a ranked opponent before ending the streak with three straight victories over ranked opponents to end the 2022 campaign…The two other times that Tulane and Ole Miss have played each other when both were ranked was 1939 and 1956 with each game being Tulane victories…Today was Tulane’s first out of conference game where both teams were ranked since 1940 in the Sugar Bowl when the Green Wave played against No. 1 Texas A&M…Tulane’s last victory over Ole Miss came in 1988 by a 14-9 score…Since the start of the 2016 season, Tulane is now 37-10 when leading at the half…The win improved Ole Miss to 43-28 all-time against Tulane, after vacated Rebel wins in 2010 and 2012…Jha’Quan Jackson now has 55 catches for 792 yards and six touchdowns in home games in his career…He moved into 11th place all-time at Tulane in career touchdown receptions as his touchdown catch today was the 16th of his career…This was the second start (Cincinnati in 2020) and 10th career appearance for Kai Horton…The team drops to 5-5 in games that he has appeared in and 0-2 in his starts…Tulane’s last win over an SEC opponent was at Mississippi State during the 2006 season by a 32-29 score on the road…Tulane’s last win over an SEC opponent at home was against Mississippi State during the 2003 season by a margin of 31-28…Tulane, not including vacated wins for Ole Miss, is 159-245-30 against current SEC members…Willie Fritz has won five of his last seven games against the power conference schools with victories over Kansas State, Houston, Cincinnati during the 2022 regular season, UCF in the 2022 AAC Championship Game and USC in the Goodyear Cotton Bowl during the 2022 season…His lone two losses in that stretch came against UCF during the 2022 regular season and to Ole Miss today.

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