Atlanta, Ga.- On a day that is supposed to be filled with jubilation and celebration ended in distraught for the Rebels as they ran into a motivated TCU buzz saw on New Years Eve.
Coming in angry and highly motivated from being left out of the College Football Playoff, TCU routed Ole Miss 42-3 with three touchdown passes from junior quarterback Trevone Boykin and a stellar performance from its defense.
The Ole Miss offense looked lost from the very start as the unit only totaled 129 total yards and three points thanks to a field goal late in the fourth quarter.
Senior quarterback Bo Wallace struggled mightily against a stellar TCU defense. Wallace finished 10 for 23 passing for 109 yards and three interceptions, including one in the Ole Miss end zone for a TCU touchdown.
Everything went wrong for Ole Miss on New Years Eve in Atlanta and it never got any better.
“Obviously a very disappointing day. Got to go around the locker room and see every single senior and to see them hurt today is not much fun. It’s not enjoyable at all,” head coach Hugh Freeze said. “We did not perform well today, TCU did. I take credit for that. I didn’t have our kids ready to play. I love them, they deserved to be here and compete today, but I’m extremely proud of our kids and how they turned this program in a short three years to be relevant and competitive.”
The 42-3 loss to TCU marks the worse bowl loss in Ole Miss history and the worse loss for the program since the 66-31 loss to Texas in 2012.
The nation’s second-leading offense, TCU scored at will, scoring on each of their first two drives and never let up the rest of the game.
TCU out gained Ole Miss on offense 423-129 in total yards of offense and outscored Ole Miss by 39 points, even when both teams had four turnovers each. The offense was held to 59 total yards and four first downs in the first half. Wallace was also sacked five times in the first half.
Wallace struggled in the first half in the opening game against Boise State in the Georgia Dome this season and his struggles in the Georgia Dome continued Wednesday.
Wallace’s struggles this game can’t all be pinned on him, as the offensive line struggled to protect him against a vicious TCU front seven as he was running for his life.
“I just think they’re a very good defense. They won all their one-on-ones,” Wallace said about the TCU defense. “Credit to them, they had a good plan against us. You have to give them credit.”
A disappointing loss in a highly anticipated bowl game for Ole Miss is not the way Wallace and the rest of the seniors wanted to go out. The loss certainly doesn’t help the Rebels in the preseason rankings next year, which meant a lot for Wallace to win this game.
“I didn’t want to go out this way. I didn’t want the seniors to go out this way,” Wallace said. “We had a chance to help next years’ team in the preseason rankings next year and that was important to me. I felt like winning this game could be me giving them a top-five ranking in the preseason next year.”
The offensive took a crucial hit late in the second quarter, as sophomore left tackle and all-SEC first-team selection Laremy Tunsil, was carted off the field with a broken right fibula. Even before the Tunsil injury, the offensive line struggled to protect Wallace and the offense stalled as a result.
The Ole Miss defense showed signs of life against TCU, forcing four turnovers over the course of the game, but could not capitalize on those turnovers.
Senior cornerback Senquez Golson tied the school record with his 10th interception of the season, 16th of his career, which is tied for third in Ole Miss history. The interception helped set up the lone score for the Rebels, a 27-yard field goal by freshman kicker Gary Wunderlich in the fourth quarter.
Star junior quarterback Trevone Boykin was named the Peach Bowl MVP for his performance against Ole Miss. Boykin finished 22 for 31 passing for 187 with three touchdowns and three interceptions. Boykin also rushed for 65 yards and 10 carries.
How the vaunted Ole Miss defense would try to contain a high-powered TCU offense was the main storyline of the game. TCU was able to advance their streak to 15-straight games of scoring at least 30 points with the win.
The TCU offense did a great job of spreading out the Ole Miss defense from sideline to sideline making it difficult for the Rebels to make tackles in open space. TCU looked faster and better prepared against the “landshark” defense and the defense seemed to notice that.
“I don’t know that we ever had any momentum,” Freeze said. “Our defense did create some turnovers, and I thought we stopped the run for the most part. But the defense just had to stay on the field the entire day.”
“It all came down to execution. It seemed like every little thing that went wrong for us today could have went wrong on defense,” senior defensive end C.J. Johnson said. “Early on, they were hitting us with tempo. We were kind of looking over the sidelines, guys weren’t quite getting lined up and we missed assignments.”
This senior class gave it all for the years they were here and helped turn Ole Miss back into a contender. A loss like this to end their time putting on an Ole Miss uniform on was never an image they thought of.
“The boys will come back and work hard,” senior linebacker Serderius Bryant said. “The loss against TCU give sue hunger going into the spring.”
“The emotion was there. The passion was there. We just made too many mistakes,” senior safety Cody Prewitt said.
The loss to TCU will give the team next year some extra motivation to never let a loss like this happen again.
There is plenty to build on next season for Ole Miss. A nine-win season, including wins over Alabama and Mississippi State, and an appearance in a New Years Six bowl game is something to build off of for the 2015 campaign and year four of the journey.
“This offseason we are going to prepare for a national championship. That is our goal for next year,” sophomore tight end Evan Engram said. “We will swallow this one, as hard as it will be to do. We’ll use this as motivation for next year.”
