Trinidad Chambliss to start for Ole Miss against Tulane as Austin Simmons’ ankle injury lingers

​Austin Simmons is unlikely to play Saturday against Tulane as the quarterback continues to recover from an ankle injury that kept him on the sidelines last week for all but four plays.

Earlier in the week, head coach Lane Kiffin said he expected Simmons to play, but multiple reports on Friday suggest that Simmons is still dealing with the left ankle sprain and will have to sit out. This paves the way for Trinidad Chambliss to start for the second straight week.

​Chambliss started last week, but Simmons entered the game late in the first half while Chambliss was forced to leave due to a cut on his hand. Simmons was in the game for four snaps, including a quarterback run that gained eight yards and gave Ole Miss a first-and-goal.

Simmons finished the drive with a short touchdown pass to Trey Wallace, but when he got back to the sidelines, he was struggling to put any weight on his ankle and Kiffin said in his post-game interview that Simmons might have re-injured himself.

Chambliss is no normal backup

​The Ferris State transfer was an instant success for the Rebels last week and earned national honors as the Maxwell Award Player of the Week. 

Chambliss led the Rebels to five scoring drives in the first half against Arkansas and made some big runs late in the game to help secure the victory. He transferred to Ole Miss in the spring after leading Ferris State to the Division 2 championship.

He amassed nearly 4,000 yards in total offense for the Bulldogs last season and was named Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Player of the Year. 

Kffin said in his post-game press conference that Chambliss had an 'it' factor.

"Anytime we've gone in (Vaught-Hemingway) Stadium for scrimmages, or in his play the last two games, he’s done a fabulous job. I think he has the ‘it.’ That’s why we brought him here," Kiffin explained. "It's just a factor. We saw it in his game tape. We saw it in his scrimmages. Even as he was learning the offense and didn't know everything, he found a way to have some magic about him."