By Ole Miss Athletics

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – No. 9 Ole Miss football came up short of its first win at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium since 2008, falling 24-17 to Florida.

The Rebels outgained the Gators by more than 100 yards but came up empty in three red zone trips and turned the ball over three times, a myriad of mistakes spelling defeat for Ole Miss in The Swamp.

Missed Opportunities
After the teams traded punts on their opening drives, Ole Miss marched down to the Florida 11-yard line but came up empty, and the Gators found the end zone in response, putting the Rebels in catch-up mode.

Ole Miss avoided the red zone with touchdowns from 43 and 22 yards out on its next two drives but missed a short field goal that would’ve given them a lead at halftime. The defense did its job out of the break, but a muffed punt led to a 17-14 lead for Florida nonetheless.

The Rebels again drove down to inside the red zone but once again came up empty, failing to retake the lead as they turned it over on downs for a second time. They were never really able to recover from that sequence.

Obviously very disappointing outcome today,” Kiffin said. “Game of a lot of missed opportunities. Go 0-for-3 in the red zone, lose the turnover margin in a tough place to play against a team that has played really good when that quarterback plays. Really disappointed in the outcome. Obviously a lot was at stake, and we didn’t come through.”

Uncharacteristic INTs
All the miscues put Ole Miss into a tough spot late, and Jaxson Dart tried his might to will the Rebels to victory in the waning drives.

The Ole Miss quarterback finished 24-for-41 passing and 14 carries for 394 total yards, tossing a pair of touchdowns, but he also had two uncharacteristic interceptions on the Rebels’ final two drives—just the third multi-INT game of his Rebel career and first since the 2022 Texas Bowl vs. Texas Tech.

The only thing I can really say right now is I’m sorry,” Dart said. “I’m sorry to my teammates. I’m sorry to my coaches. I’m sorry for the fans. Can’t lose these games. This one’s going to hurt for a really long time. That’s all I can really say now is I’m sorry.

Too Many Miscues
Similar to Ole Miss’ close losses to Kentucky and LSU, the Rebels could point at a number of moments throughout the game that tipped the scales way from their favor, but Florida also deserves credit for earning the win.

The Gators scored 14 red-zone points, went 7-for-15 on third down, able to sustain three strong touchdown drives, while Ole Miss was 3-for-14 on third down and 2-for-4 on fourth down—those two failed fourth downs making essentially five turnovers on the Rebels for the day, while the Gators had just one and no turnovers on downs.

It’s not the outcome we wanted, but we made more mistakes than they made today,” said Chris Paul Jr. “Nothing against Florida, they’re a great team. I feel like the team that made the less mistakes today won.