Ole Miss survived Mississippi State, 26-14, on Saturday in Oxford. The Rebels finish the regular season 9-3 and await their postseason assignment. Ole Miss has won nine or more regular season games for the third time in Lane Kiffin's five seasons -- 2020 was the 10-game SEC Covid year.

The much-discussed Ulysses Bentley storyline picked up more juice, though it was against the SEC's worst rushing defense. Bentley went for more than 100 yards including an 89-yard touchdown scamper that's the conference's longest run in 2024.

Bentley ran for 136 yards on 20 carries and has the Rebels' two 100-yard rushing games this season. The other was against LSU which included a 55-yard touchdown run.

Jaxson Dart had his toughest day of the year from a stats standpoint, throwing for only 143 yards on 14-for-24 passing. He did, during the first half, overtake Eli Manning for the top spot in the all-time school passing chart. Manning had 10,119 in his three-plus seasons. Dart is within bowl-game reach of Chad Kelly's season record of 4,042 yards.

The Ole Miss defense executed a critical goal-line stand in the fourth quarter. After State caught a pass and fell just short of the end zone, Ole Miss stopped two rushes, used a penalty to push the Bulldogs back, tackled a receiver at the two-yard line and then forced an incomplete pass for a turnover on downs.

The Rebels took possession back over and got a first down to help run the clock in the final quarter. Ole Miss trailed 14-10 after one period, but the Rebels pitched a shutout the rest of the way.

Ole Miss leads the series 66-49-6 and has won four of the five under Kiffin.

State had three turnovers and ran for only 39 yards. Ole Miss ran for 254 yards as a team on 51 carries.

Both teams had eight tackles for loss, and Ole Miss sacked Michael Van Buren three times. Ole Miss was 8-for-17 on third downs and held MSU to 4-for-15 in that category.

Ole Miss, despite offensive issues, turned two red zone trips into two touchdowns.

Walter Nolen led Ole Miss with eight tackles and also had 3.5 tackles for loss.