
OXFORD, Miss. – Oh, 50 years ago or thereabouts, Winn-Dixie distributed cards for entries in a TV show of taped horse races. If No. 3 won and it was on your card, you won.
It was the Draft Kings of its day. The show was called Let’s Go to the Races. A housewife might win a turkey or something.
That’s what Mississippi played on Saturday night. Surprising no one without an inordinately large store of purple merchandise, the Rebels pummeled the Paladins, 76-0, on Saturday at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.


Furman (0-1) found out how the other half lives in more bad ways than one.
Not only did head coach Lane Kiffin play everybody in the second half. He played everybody hard and used every tool in the shed.
It didn’t mean much for either team. Kiffin is a spiritual descendant of a basketball coach named Billy Tubbs, who once likened a failure to run up the score with shaving points. Kiffin’s Ole Miss team is ranked sixth in the nation and aspiring to higher.
It’s not against any rules.

Though already trailing 7-0 early, Furman’s offense came out bold and creative. Penalties stopped it, but Carson Jones looked composed. Williams backed Ole Miss up with a lob to the 10, but two plays later, most notably on Jaxson Dart’s 62-yard connection with Juice Wells, and after the second extra point, Furman was down two touchdowns after 3 minutes, 7 seconds.
The Rebels went 90 yards in 36 seconds. It didn’t get much better.


Kiffin ran his offense as if he were a mad scientist experimenting with outmanned opposition. He ran a defensive end, J.J. Pegues, twice for 12 yards and a touchdown.
Even the SEC Network analyst, who may not have known Furman was Paladins, noted the remarkable incidence of the few big Furman plays being marred by misfortune in the form of penalties, dropped interceptions and the like.

The Paladin quarterbacks had decent numbers, only much smaller.
Jones was 15/25 for 119 yards, Trey Hedden 5/9 for 27. Colton Hinton caught five passes but for just 14 yards. Joshua Harris caught three but for 59.

Matt Jones led the Rebel rush with 68 yards. Myion Hicks paced the Paladins with 23.
Furman led in the increasingly meaningless area of possession time, 30:50 to 29:10.
The best Furman numbers came from punter Williams, who averaged 40.1 yards and got quite a workout since he took 12 tries. Who ever cited total punting yards? Williams had 481. While on the subject of obscure yardage, Ole Miss’s Caden Davis had 778 kickoff yards.

The events of the evening left the Paladins with only an obligation to make sure the check cleared and get out of town.
The powerful Rebels of Ole Miss coolly put their prowess on display in a training exercise with live ammunition.
Furman has allowed more points. In 1969, Davidson defeated the Paladins, 77-14. Army piled up an 81-0 margin in 1955.
Charleston Southern (0-1), which lost to The Citadel by a point, 22-21, visits Paladin Stadium next Saturday at 6 p.m.
Take a look at the stats here.
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