The tone of the Vanderbilt Commodores’ Saturday night game against the Ole Miss Rebels was set early when, on the second play of the game, the Rebels’ John Rhys Plumlee broke free for a 54-yard run. Vanderbilt was able to hold Ole Miss to a field goal after that, but after a quick three-and-out, Plumlee got free for a 33-yard touchdown run on the Rebels’ next series to give Ole Miss a 10-0 lead with 9:15 to go in the first quarter.
That Vanderbilt held Ole Miss out of the end zone for the remainder of the first half, and went into halftime down just 10-6 with two Ryley Guay field goals providing the Commodores’ scoring, was something of a miracle: Vanderbilt stopped Ole Miss on fourth down twice in Commodore territory, and so long as Ole Miss wasn’t breaking off big running plays, the Rebels couldn’t seem to find the end zone.