Austin McAfee | The Daily Mississippian
Mississippi’s Taz Zettergran (89) and Dehendret Collins (1) celebrate with fans after defeating Texas in an NCAA college football game on Sept. 14, 2013, in Austin, Texas. No. 25 Mississippi won 44-23.
“I’m just really proud of that group of guys in the locker room,” Ole Miss head coach Hugh Freeze said. “Players, coaches, manager, our administration. To represent our university on a stage like this is a blessing to us. We just feel great about the opportunity to come into this kind of arena, as a young program, with young kids and fight for 60 minutes and see what the scoreboard says. That’s what our kids did tonight.”
Ole Miss lit up the scoreboard early with two solid touchdown drives in the first quarter. Senior running back Jeff Scott scampered in the end zone from 5 yards out early in the first quarter to give the Rebels a 7-0 lead, the junior Bo Wallace found junior Donte Moncrief on the next drive from 18 yards out to push the Rebel lead to 14-0.
Texas would answer late in the first with a touchdown pass from Case McCoy to Mike Davis from 13 yards, and then the Longhorns kept rolling.
Anthony Fera kicked three field goals and Johnathan Gray added an eight yard touchdown run to push the Texas lead to 23-14 late in the second quarter. However, senior kicker Andrew Ritter would add a career long 52 yard field goal at the end of the half to put the Rebels within striking distance at 23-17.
A whole new Ole Miss team appeared in the second half as the Rebels shutout the Longhorns the rest of the game and held them to just 100 yards of total offense. On the other side, the Ole Miss offense came to life and racked up 27 second half points.
The scoring began when Wallace ran into the end zone from 15 yards out to put the Rebels back on top in the middle of the third, 24-23. Near the end of the third quarter, Wallace found freshmen tight end Evan Engram from 17 yards out to put Ole Miss up 31-23. On the ensuing drive the Longhorns were forced to punt, but Scott fielded the punt and took it back 73 yards for another Ole Miss touchdown making the score 37-23. Jaylen Walton capped off the scoring with an eight yard touchdown run in the middle of the fourth and secured the Rebel victory.
