Pete Golding owns ‘very disappointing performance’ against Georgia

OXFORD, Miss. — Ole Miss coach Pete Golding was blunt in assessing what unfolded at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium on Saturday.

“Hats off to Kirby and Georgia, that was a butt-whipping,” Golding said after his No. 10-ranked Rebels suffered a 42-7 defeat at the hands of the No. 2 Bulldogs, snapping Ole Miss’ 16-game home win streak.

“Obviously very disappointing performance in all three phases, and it really started from the first play of the game and it didn’t stop.”

The Rebels opened with a run play that gained just 1 yard and proceeded to go three-and-out, then UGA’s Nate Frazier ripped off a 46-yard run on the Bulldogs’ first offensive play to spark an opening touchdown drive.

Georgia scored touchdowns on its next two drives, too, taking a 28-0 lead into the half.

All the talk entering the night was about the Ole Miss offense, but Gunner Stockton (9 of 15, 186 yards, 4 TD passes) stole the show, passing four four touchdowns and running for another.

Trinidad Chambliss (18 of 34, 170 yards, 1 interception) struggled to the extent that Golding lifted him from the game in the fourth quarter with his team down 42-7 and more than nine minutes remaining,

“I did not see that coming …. “ said Golding, who took over the Ole Miss head coaching job when Lane Kiffin exited for the LSU job and led the Rebels to the CFP semifinals with two playoff wins, including a 39-34 Sugar Bowl quarterfinal win over Georgia.

“When you don’t execute against really good football teams, that’s what it looks like,” Golding said. “We ween’t able to get much going, especially in the run game, and that’s what we talked about all week; if you can’t run the ball well, and you don’t stop the run and lose the turnover battle on top of it, it’s not going to be close, and it wasn’t.”

Georgia, led by Nate Frazier (16 carries, 107 yards) had 295 yards rushing to Ole Miss’ 66, and Chambliss accounted for both of the Rebels turnovers with a fumble and interception while the Bulldogs did not commit a turnover.

Golding said he expects his team, now on the verge of College Football Playoff elimination with a 6-3 record, will be attentive in their next film study on Sunday night.

“This will be real easy to get their attention tomorrow night, it’s normally hard when you win a game and it’s an emotional game and you’re trying to tell them this isn’t good enough and we have to fix this,” Golding said. “They’re like ‘Coach we won, what are you talking about?’ (Well) we just got our ass beat, so they will be into this tape, and they don’t want to feel that away again in this type of game, that’s a top 10 game.”