By David Ubben, Seth Emerson and Nick Baumgardner
Ole Miss coughed up a double-digit lead in the second half before wrestling back a 34-26 road win at No. 13 Oklahoma, bolstering its College Football Playoff chances while piercing the Sooners’ own Playoff hopes.
The win seemingly clears a path for the No. 8 Rebels (7-1, 4-1 SEC) to make the Playoff, as they don’t have another ranked team on their regular-season schedule. But it didn’t come easy on a rainy Saturday in Norman against a Sooners (6-2, 2-2) team looking for a signature, resume-building win as well.
Ole Miss led 25-13 midway through the third quarter but gave up the lead in less than five minutes of game time, thanks to a 65-yard touchdown run from Oklahoma’s Xavier Robinson and a three-and-out that set up OU’s go-ahead touchdown drive late in the third quarter.
The Sooners led 26-25 after three quarters, but Ole Miss, which gave up a second-half lead at Georgia last week in its first loss of the season, responded this Saturday. The Rebels answered with a 75-yard touchdown drive, taking a 31-26 lead on a Trace Bruckler touchdown catch. They then turned a fumble on a punt return from OU’s Isaiah Sategna into three points late in the fourth quarter.
TOOOOO smooth 😮💨#HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/1kS3xKUt1L
— Ole Miss Football (@OleMissFB) October 25, 2025
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss, a transfer from Division II Ferris State, outdueled Oklahoma’s John Mateer in the matchup, throwing for 314 yards and adding 53 more on the ground.
Playoff-bound Rebels?
It takes only a quick look at Ole Miss’ remaining schedule to realize how big a win this is for its Playoff hopes:
Remaining Ole Miss schedule
DateTeamSite
Nov. 1
Home
Nov. 8
Home
Nov. 15
Home
Nov. 28
Away
Ole Miss will be favored in all four of those games, perhaps heavily. Four wins would make it 11-1 and basically a shoo-in for a Playoff spot, whether or not it plays in the SEC championship game. The Athletic’s projections gave Ole Miss a 61 percent chance to make the CFP before Week 9, and that number climbed to 86 percent Saturday afternoon.
Of course, the Rebels could still lose one of those games down the stretch. This is the same program that lost at home to Kentucky last year. But even if they do lose one, a 10-2 record out of the SEC may be good enough, especially with a win at Oklahoma on the resume, along with the home win over LSU and the loss at Georgia being close.
Yes, nothing is certain, without knowing what the rest of the field looks like. But a year after barely missing the Playoff with Jaxson Dart and a loaded defense, Ole Miss is in prime position to get in with Chambliss and company. — Seth Emerson
What about Lane Kiffin job rumors?
Besides Oklahoma, there was another fan base deflated by the result: Florida, where a considerable amount of people are hoping to land Kiffin as its next coach.
That will be harder if Kiffin is coaching in the Playoff. The first round doesn’t begin until Dec. 19, and the quarterfinals are on New Year’s Eve and Day. That would be a long time to wait.
The counter-argument is if you really want a coach, and if the coach really wants you, then both sides can wait. The transfer portal is also later this year, running from Jan. 2-16, along with allowances for coaching changes: Players get a 15-day window to enter the portal starting five days after a new coach is announced.
But the early signing period — for the old-fashioned signing of high school recruits — is in early December. Kiffin may not want the Florida rumors to hang over his team while he’s trying to go win a national championship.
And perhaps more importantly: Ole Miss making the Playoff may show Kiffin that he doesn’t have to go to Florida to have a chance at the title. In the Playoff and NIL era, the ceiling at both programs may be the same. — Emerson
Sooners’ Playoff hopes fading
Oklahoma’s second loss means its Playoff hopes are dwindling, especially given how difficult the remaining schedule is. Every November opponent is ranked, starting with road trips to No. 17 Tennessee and No. 4 Alabama before finishing with home games against No. 15 Missouri and No. 20 LSU.
Oklahoma had a 24 percent chance to make the Playoff entering Week 9, per The Athletic’s model, and now it’s down to just 10 percent as of Saturday afternoon — merely the eighth-best odds in the SEC.
There are still opportunities for big wins, but even if Oklahoma manages to go 3-1 in its closing stretch, it would be sitting at 9-3 at season’s end, hoping for enough chaos around it and respect for its schedule strength to earn an at-large bid from the selection committee. — Ubben
Mateer’s post-surgery struggles continue
For the second time in three games since returning from thumb surgery, Mateer struggled in an Oklahoma loss. A Heisman Trophy favorite when he was sidelined in late September, he finished 17-of-31 for 223 yards and a touchdown against Ole Miss, missing a pair of open receivers that could have extended a possible game-tying drive in the final minutes.
Mateer transferred from Washington State and starred early with the Sooners before injuring his thumb on his throwing hand, which required surgery last month. He returned in just three weeks but threw three interceptions in a loss to Texas and threw for just 150 yards in a win over South Carolina last week.
After rushing for 190 yards and five touchdowns in the four games before the injury, he has yet to rush for more than 20 yards or a touchdown since. That snapped what had been a streak of 10 games with a rushing and passing touchdown. He finished with 13 rushes for 17 yards on Saturday. — Ubben
Chambliss’ NFL stock rising
Chambliss has been one of the great stories in college football this year, as the former Ferris State star in D-II took over the Ole Miss job earlier this season and hasn’t looked back.
His accuracy can be streaky, but he can be surgical in the intermediate range when he’s on. And the more he plays against this level of competition, the better he’ll get.
Chambliss isn’t big and his FBS sample size is relatively small, but you can squint and see a lot of the stuff that made scouts fall in love with Baker Mayfield once upon a time. He has a great release, with good intermediate accuracy and a refusal to give up on plays, and his fit in Kiffin’s offense has been just about perfect.
As for Mateer, his hand injury hasn’t helped his situation. Fully healthy or not, though, he plays with a lot of bad habits — and they tend to show up in stressful situations. One of his worst issues is that he tends to throw the ball without looking, ripping a throw to and hoping a receiver will be there rather than waiting long enough to confirm as much with his eyes. He’s already up and down with his accuracy, so he needs to eliminate those plays. — Nick Baumgardner
