Ole Miss put together back-to-back scoring drives in the second half to outlast Mississippi State, 17-7, and win its 10th game of the season for the second time in three years. The Rebels close the regular season 10-2 and await their bowl destination which will be announced next weekend.

The Rebels had never won 10 regular season game prior to Lane Kiffin, who has now done it twice.

Here are immediate thoughts from the Egg Bowl.

There was nothing pretty about it, but Ole Miss had more points when the game ended. Mississippi State held a second-half lead and found some offensive traction after a putrid nearly two quarters of offense, but the Rebels finished in the way they’ve excelled all season. Again, Ole Miss overcame adversity, was the more poised team and survived an SEC challenge.

The Rebels trailed Arkansas, Tulane, Texas A&M, MSU and LSU in the second half but won all those games. Most of the games weren’t flashy, but the record fits that category which is the point.

Ole Miss was listless in the first half for the second straight week, and Jaxson Dart struggled for much of the night. The Rebels had only three points until halfway through the third quarter and struggled without Micah Pettus and Jayden Williams at the tackle spots. The defense tackled and covered well. Pete Golding did an excellent job this season.

Dart finished 14-for-26 for 96 yards. He showed toughness, rode a 100-yard effort from Quinshon Judkins and won his 18th regular season game in two seasons ( even Luke Altmyer started the Central Arkansas game in 2022) — the most by an Ole Miss quarterback in the modern era. The third-down excellent play call pass to Caden Prieskorn for a touchdown in the third quarter put it away.

Judkins is over the 1,000-yard rushing total in back-to-back seasons. Ole Miss didn’t turn the ball over but had only total yards. Judkins is at 1,052 for the season.

Mississippi State is awful offensively, but the Ole Miss defense did its job and didn’t allow explosive plays or other mental or emotional errors to give cheap points or yards. The Bulldogs had some productive drives but missed two field goals. Rogers clearly wasn’t healthy, and MSU finished with 303 total yards.

Ole Miss in many ways maximized its regular season as a coaching staff, developing team chemistry with portal transfers buying into the program. The Rebels eclipsed the Vegas win total by 2.5 wins and is potentially headed to an access bowl. It was an A plus in many ways.

Injuries and a long season caused Thursday to be more of a slog than expected. The Rebels need to game develop more players in the future to help late-season play. Ole Miss sticks with a really small rotation on offense, and it seemed to affect things, as the Rebels closed the season.