The Ole Miss Rebels do have an advantage against Tulane entering the College Football Playoff, but not the way you think.
A landslide 45-10 regular-season victory is proof enough that the Rebels are familiar with what they are dealing with. The only difference would be the serious development Jon Sumrall's squad made after facing the Rebels, so much so that they won the AAC Championship.
The Rebels' head coach, Pete Golding, opened up that while knowing Tulane’s nuances offers an advantage, his team must still conduct a rigorous study of the Green Wave.
Why dealing with Tulane be a bit different
Ole Miss's strategy would be simple. In fact, just one question: Will our previous strategies work, or do we need to tweak them?
"Well, you might get a third of that actually in the game, but you’ve already got the other things game planned," Golding said in his press conference previewing Tulane.
" So when you’re watching it, because we played them so early, when you’re watching some of those things happen later in the year, you go back and revisit, ‘Hey, does the plan still match? Is it still married? They didn’t run it versus us, but do we still like it? Do we need to alter it? Do we need to change it?'"
"So a lot of that work has been done so that that piece is obviously, you know, pretty important. But yeah, I’d rather have played somebody we’ve already played with the situation that occurred."
Ole Miss's aggressive offense was key in dominating the Green Wave in their regular-season win.
They still have Charlie Weis Jr. handling the offense, and the same explosive offensive line lead by dual-threat QB Trinidad Chambliss. The only thing missing is the offensive mastermind Kiffin at the head of the table.
Only time will tell whether Golding can carry on the same high-pressure offense to have another massive win against Tulane in a high-stakes CFP game.