VIDEO: #12 Rebels Looking Forward, Not Backwards, In Facing #22 Razorbacks

OXFORD, Miss. (WCBI) — The #12 Ole Miss Rebels come off the bye week to a top 25 match-up against the #22 Arkansas Razorbacks.

The Razorbacks, coming off a 49-30 loss to #1 Alabama, are winners of two straight against the Rebels.

Players, coaches, and fans remember all too well the game from 2015, where the Razorbacks won in Oxford 53-52 in overtime.

An improbable fourth-and-twenty five conversion on a lateral, a facemask penalty, and a big game by quarterback Brandon Allen sunk the Rebels and their playoff hopes.

Head coach Hugh Freeze, however, said none of that matter for this week in 2016.

I don’t think the players look at what happened last year or the year before”, Freeze said.

“Certainly not the year before, they might remember last year a little bit because of the ending and what was at stake. It is not something I just don’t believe helps you prepare. If that is what my focus is on ‘Hey we got to get ready to beat them because they beat us last year’, I don’t really buy into that. I buy into, here’s the plan that gives us the best chance to succeed and now we’ve got to make sure we understand and can efficiently do it…”

“It hurt more than probably just a regular loss or getting blown out because for about five, ten seconds we thought we had the game won”, senior quarterback Chad Kelly said.

“That’s what makes this game so great. Watching even the Texas A&M, Tennessee game, the past two weeks for Tennessee, you got people going crazy and next thing you know it’s like “oh, man”. I think that’s what makes the game so special. Being able to play a game like this, a game of inches, you just never know, you got to play until the last second.”