Ole Miss vs. Georgia Tech, 2013 Music City Bowl: Rebels hang on

Offensive touchdown scored by Oregon in the Alamo Bowl. The Ducks did gain 469 yards (6.9 per play) on Texas, but the Longhorns were able to limit damage on third downs (4-for-12), and special teams gave Oregon long fields from which to work all night despite six Texas three-and-outs -- nine of 11 Oregon drives began at the Ducks’ 25 or further back.

Texas bent but rarely broke and did what a defense has to do to give itself a chance against the Oregon offense. Unfortunately…

That’s the whole story.

Georgia Tech mounted a fourth quarter rally, but Ole Miss held on for an 25-17 win in the Music City Bowl.

The Rebels got off to a solid start, driving 75 yards for a touchdown on the opening possession of the game. Although Georgia Tech answered right back with a touchdown of its own, the first three quarters belonged to the Rebels. Ole Miss held a 13-7 lead at halftime and extended the advantage to 23-7 heading into the fourth quarter.

Prewitt is the team’s leading tackler, recording 70 this year, and the junior defensive back also has six interceptions. The Nkemdiche brothers have combined for 63 tackles with 10 for a loss this season, and true freshman Robert also has five carries for 32 yards.

Ole Miss already has a tough task against Paul Johnson’s triple option offense, and they will have to weather the storm early without a bunch of their stars.

Ole Miss vs. Georgia Tech

Ole Miss, loaded with superstar freshmen like Tunsil, is a team to keep in an eye on in the future. For now, they’re light on NFL prospects.

Sometimes stagnation is growth.

When you improve from 100th in the F/+ rankings to 26th in one year, as Ole Miss did in 2012, it is probably asking a bit much for the team to improve again the next year. The Rebels didn’t -- Hugh Freeze’s second squad fell to 35th with one game to play, though they did win one more game in the regular season -- but that’s probably alright. Solidifying your gains with a young squad in Year 2 is nice. You can live with that.

The biggest issue for any game involving Georgia Tech is how the opposing defense can handle their option attack. If the front seven gets caught out of position or is overly aggressive, they can get cut to ribbons in a hurry. Our Georgia Tech blog, From The Rumble Seat, took a look at the matchup between the Yellow Jackets offense and the Rebel defense.

Meanwhile, our Ole Miss blog, Red Cup Rebellion, decided to take a look at the matchup between the two teams through the lens of history. Ole Miss and Georgia Tech were both founding members of the SEC, but there’s surprisingly little history between the two teams even though they played in the same conference for 32 years.

The Mississippi Rebels (SEC, 7-5 SU, 6-6 ATS, 6-6 OU) have been bowling 10 times over the last 22 years, but over that span they’ve gone 9-1 SU and 8-1-1 ATS including a current run of 5-0 SU over their last five.

It’s one small factor in the Music City odds being tilted in favor of Ole Miss.

Facing the unique challenge of stopping Georgia Tech’s triple-option offense in the 2013 Music City Bowl, Ole Miss is running cut-block drills in practice to prepare for the Yellow Jackets. Head coach Hugh Freeze isn’t a fan of the drills, calling them “scary,” per the Jackson Clarion-Ledger.

A cut block is employed when an offensive player dives for the legs of an opposing defensive player, instead of rising and blocking him upright. If one offensive lineman engages a defender high and another goes low, that’s an illegal chop block, but one-on-one cut blocks are within the rules. The “scary” aspect is that low blocks are believed by many to create a greater chance of knee or ankle injuries, though the notion hasn’t exactly been studied. In addition to using them on the line, Georgia Tech’s wide receivers cut block on the outside, as well.

In mid-November, it looked nearly impossible that Oklahoma could find their way to a BCS bowl. Sure, they had wins over ranked Notre Dame and Texas Tech teams, but neither was looking quite as good as the numbers to the left of their names might have suggested. The only real challenges the Sooners faced were against Texas and Baylor -- both resulted in blowout losses.

But Oklahoma recovered, easily defeating Iowa State and Kansas State before pulling out a dramatic upset win in Stillwater to rob rival Oklahoma State of the conference crown while simultaneously taking away their BCS berth.

The ACC had 11 bowl-eligible teams this season, with Pitt tying for both the worst overall record (6-6, with North Carolina and Syracuse) and conference record (3-5, with Maryland) among them. The Panthers did beat three other bowl teams this season, with an early-year win over Duke and late-season victories over Notre Dame and Syracuse.

Ralph Friedgen’s final game as Maryland’s head coach came in the 2010 Military Bowl -- the game was also the Terrapins’ last bowl game. Athletic director Kevin Anderson made the change from Friedgen to Randy Edsall, saying he wanted the program to go from “good to great,” and three years later, the Terps get to go to the same place.