It’ll be the SEC and offense vs. the Big Ten and defense when Ole Miss takes on Penn State in the Chick-fil-A Peach on Dec. 30 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in the first meeting between the two.
“It’s a match made in heaven,” Peach Bowl CEO Gary Stokan said.
The No. 11 Rebels, led by Lane Kiffin, finished 10-2, 6-2 in the SEC West with notable wins against No. 23 Tulane, Georgia Tech, and No. 13 LSU. Ole Miss last played in the Peach Bowl in 2014 when it was beaten by TCU 42-3. It defeated Georgia Tech 41-18 in 1971.
“It’ll be close to home for us where a lot of our fans can go to a great stadium,” Kiffin said.
The No. 10 Nittany Lions, led by James Franklin, went 10-2, 7-2 in the Big Ten East with notable wins against No. 20 Iowa and Northwestern. It will be Penn State’s first appearance in the Peach Bowl and the sixth time an SEC school will play one from the Big Ten in the game.
“Ton of respect for Ole Miss from my time in the SEC,” said Franklin, who previously was the coach at Vanderbilt from 2011-13.
It should be an exciting matchup because Penn State was the 12th highest-scoring team in FBS, averaging 37.2 points per game, and Ole Miss was the 19th highest-scoring team in FBS, averaging 34.8 points per game. Franklin fired Penn State’s offensive coordinator Mike Yurcich with two games remaining in its season. Franklin promoted Ja’Juan Seider and tight ends coach Ty Howle to co-coordinators. Franklin hired Andy Kotelnicki to become the team’s offensive coordinator. Franklin said Seider and Howle would call plays in the Peach Bowl.
But the teams were quite different defensively. The Nittany Lions were No. 1 in total defense, 223.2 yards per game, and No. 3 in scoring defense, allowing an average of 11.42 points per game. Kiffin joked that he hoped Franklin would announced that a couple of his players are going to opt-out of playing in the Peach Bowl so that they can prepare for the NFL draft. The Rebels allowed 21.83 points per game and 371.9 yards per game.
“A great offense against a great defense,” Stokan said.
A Penn State win would make it the first to win the bowl games that comprise the New Year’s Six: Peach, Cotton, Fiesta, Rose, Orange and Sugar. Ole Miss will be attempting to win its first New Year’s Six bowl under Kiffin and reach 11 wins for the first time in its history.
Stokan said each school will receive 13,000 tickets to sell. The bowl gets the rest to sale. The stadium will be at its full configuration. Because of the quality of the teams and the passion of the fan bases, Stokan said he expects all of the tickets to be sold by the early next week.
Stokan, a native of Pittsburgh, said he had already gotten calls from old friends who were hoping to buy tickets.
“When you’re talking about Penn State, you’re talking about one of the top five brands in college football,” he said. “And then an Ole Miss team, with our old friend Lane Kiffin who probably has the most innovative offense in the country with players to back it up with Jaxson Dart being a top 10 quarterback and with Quinshon Judkins being a top 10 running back.”
Judkins has rushed for 1,052 yards and 15 touchdowns. Franklin said Penn State also tried to recruit Judkins. Dart has passed for 2,985 yards and 20 touchdowns. Penn State’s defense is led by Kobe King (54 tackles) and Adisa Isaac (7.5 sacks).
Ole Miss’ roster includes several players from Atlanta-area high schools, including Monty Montgomery (Norcross), Demarko Williams (Westlake), Jared Ivey (North Gwinnett), Dayton Wade (Lovejoy), Zach Johansen (North Gwinnett), Jack Damron (Buford), Nyseer Fullwood-Theodore (IMG), Ali Scott (McEachern), Wyatt Smalley (Milton), Charlie Pollock (Walton), Mark Trigg Jr. (Roswell), Reece McIntyre (Buford), Cedrick Nicely (Gainesville), Jeremy James (North Forsyth) and Cayden Lee (Kennesaw Mountain).
Players from Atlanta-area high schools on Penn State’s roster includes Hunter Nourzad (The Walker School), Alex Bacchetta (Westminster) and Audavion Collins (Newton).
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