NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- While much of the college football world is focused on former coach Lane Kiffin's return to Ole Miss in two weeks, Rebels coach Pete Golding knew his team was in for a battle in Sunday's opener against Louisville.
The No. 9 Rebels got all they wanted from the No. 24 Cardinals, who rallied from a two-touchdown deficit in the final five minutes and nearly forced overtime.
Ole Miss won 41-38 on Lucas Carneiro's 48-yard field goal on the game's final play.
Though the Rebels' showdown against No. 11 LSU has been circled for months -- and even more so after Kiffin attempted to add two former Ole Miss players to his roster after they were cut by NFL teams -- Golding was happy to get the opener out of the way.
"It kind of felt like a therapy session," Golding said. "It didn't go very well for half of it, but it was awesome. It was a heavyweight fight. That was a good football team, and we got punched in the mouth a lot. We didn't always respond the right way."
Though the Rebels did plenty of good things in their first game with new offensive coordinator John David Baker, there were also myriad mistakes. The Rebels snapped the ball over quarterback Trinidad Chambliss' head on their second play from scrimmage, and he lost a fumble and threw an interception in the first half.
"You obviously don't want to start like that," Chambliss said. "I'm making bad decisions, turning over the ball, not being comfortable in the pocket, and just not playing the type of ball I'm capable of. I guess I had to just get used to playing again."
The Rebels led 10-6 at the half after both offenses struggled to move the ball because of too many mistakes.
But then both offenses exploded in the second half.
Chambliss threw a pair of 62-yard touchdowns to speedy receiver Deuce Alexander to take a 24-16 lead. Alexander had five catches for 159 yards. Golding, a former Alabama defensive coordinator, compared Alexander to former Crimson Tide star wide receiver Jameson Williams because of Alexander's elite speed.
"He's just a playmaker," said Chambliss, who threw for 336 yards with three touchdowns and ran for 60 yards and one more score. "We knew that going into the year. He's one of the best receivers in the country, and we've got to use him."
Rebels star tailback Kewan Lacy ran for 61 yards and one touchdown, but he missed the last quarter and a half because of a thigh injury. Golding said the injury isn't serious.
Just as soon as the Rebels seemed to take control of the game late in the third quarter, the Cardinals came storming back, thanks mostly to breakdowns in the Ole Miss secondary.
Louisville tied the score at 24-24 on Lincoln Kienholz's 62-yard touchdown to Vanderbilt transfer Tre Richardson and a 2-point pass to Lawayne McCoy.
Even after the Rebels scored on their next two drives on Chambliss' 35-yard pass to Caleb Odom and Chambliss' 5-yard run to go in front 38-24, Ole Miss' defense couldn't come up with stops to put away Louisville.
Kienholz, an Ohio State transfer making his first start, threw a 54-yard touchdown to McCoy after the Rebels blew a coverage to pull the Cardinals within seven.
After Ole Miss went three-and-out, Kienholz rolled right and fired a 32-yard pass to running back Isaac Brown down the right sideline. That set up Kienholz's 7-yard scoring run that tied the score at 38-38 with 1:28 remaining.
The Cardinals had 469 yards of offense, including 307 passing, and converted 7 of 16 third-down plays.
"I just didn't think we were spotted on defense the right way," Golding said. "A lot of mistakes, a lot of missed tackles, a lot of communication errors that led to explosive plays. That was the best thing for me about playing a really good football team in Week 1 is when you make mistakes, they're going to take advantage of it."
The Rebels attempted to upgrade their secondary with several transfers, including cornerback Jalyn Crawford (Auburn) and safeties Joenel Aguero (Georgia), Sharif Denson (Florida) and Edwin Joseph (Florida State). Denson didn't play against Louisville because of an undisclosed injury, and returning cornerback Antonio Kite was also hurt early in the game.
"I think at the end of the day, we didn't take really good angles at times," Golding said. "We didn't have leverage at times. We had a coverage bust. Right now, there's too many highs and lows. There are flashes of a successful football team, and there's flashes of that's a bad football team, and we've got to get those off the tape, and that's our job as coaches."
The Rebels host Charlotte at home Saturday in their final warmup before the highly anticipated SEC opener against LSU on Sept. 19.
In Kiffin's debut Saturday night, LSU demolished Clemson 51-10 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. LSU had 38 first downs and outgained Clemson 644-155 in total offense.
Golding watched about two quarters of the game during Ole Miss' team dinner.
"I thought it was a good football team," Golding said. "I thought they played really good on defense and had some really good players up front. I think they are what everybody thought they were going to be."
