The Ole Miss Rebels are set to open the 2024 college football season this Saturday with the Furman Paladins, a small private university in Greenville, S.C., that competes in the Southern Conference.
Ole Miss and Furman have actually met before, the first and only time coming almost 100 years ago on Nov. 14, 1924 where Furman would take down the Rebels 7-2 in Greenville.
This matchup was actually a conference game in the SoCon, a league that has home to over 40 schools in its history from powerhouses such as Alabama to the Keydets at VMI. Since 2005, the Rebels have played three teams from their former conference: Samford in 2008, Wofford in 2016 and Mercer last season. So, how did they do in those contests?
Let's dive in below.
On a beautiful Saturday evening in mid-September, Ole Miss would suit up and march out of the tunnel for its second home game of the year. The Rebels were 1-1 on the year and had returned home after a loss to No. 20 Wake Forest in Winston-Salem, N.C., the previous week.
This would serve as a tune-up game for the Rebels as they hosted FCS-member Samford, who made the roughly three-hour drive northwest from Homewood, Alabama. Ole Miss would score first on a 33-yard field goal, but Samford would proceed to drive down the field and score on a 13-yard run from Riley Hawkins, snatching the lead from the Rebels.
Ole Miss would respond with a field goal of its own to start the second quarter and would score two touchdowns before half to make it 20-7. The Rebels got the ball to start the third quarter and would score on their opening drive, making it 27-7. The two sides would engage in a defensive chess match the rest of the quarter, but Rebels DB Marshay Green would add a 77-yard punt return touchdown for good measure to start the fourth and give Ole Miss a 34-7 win.
Ole Miss vs. Wofford, Sept. 10, 2016
Coming off a loss to No. 4 Florida State the week before in the Camping World Kickoff Classic, the No. 19 Rebels would return home and take on the Wofford Terriers in their first home game of the season, looking to bounce back into the win column.
Ole Miss would get the ball first and get on the board via a 40-yard field goal. Their next time out, quarterback Chad Kelly would drive the Rebels down the field and hit Markell Pack on a five-yard score, making it 10-0. DK Metcalf would haul in another score to start the second quarter, extending the lead to 17-0.
Wofford would manage to get on the board with a 29-yard field goal with 4:29 left in the quarter, but Ole Miss would respond with a six-yard touchdown pass to wideout Quincy Adeboyejo just before the half, with Ole Miss leading 24-3 at the break. Neither the Terriers or Rebels would score for the majority of the third quarter, with Ole Miss scoring the only points of the frame at the 5:07 mark, pushing the margin to 31-3.
Wofford would finally find the end zone in the fourth quarter, but AJ Brown would answer with a 12-yard score. A Terriers field goal made the final score 38-13 on the field, but this game was later vacated for Ole Miss due to NCAA sanctions.
The Rebels' season opener last season was an exciting one for fans as quarterback Jaxson Dart and the offense exploded in a 73-7 thrashing of the Mercer Bears. On the first drive of the game, Dart found star wideout Tre Harris for a 38-yard touchdown and wouldn't let off the gas. The score would read 28-7 at the end of the first quarter and 38-7 by half.
A huge third quarter would see Ole Miss score another 28 points before bleeding the clock throughout the fourth and adding another touchdown for good measure, pushing the Rebels over 70 points. Dart and Harris would prove almost unstoppable, with the quarterback going 18-for-23 through the air for 334 yards and four touchdowns, all of which went to Harris. The No. 22 Rebels would jump up two spots in the polls thanks to the dominant win.
