Georgia running back Nick Chubb (27) runs against Mississippi in the first half of their NCAA college football game, Saturday, Sept. 24, 2016, in Oxford, Miss. No. 23 Mississippi won 45-14. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)OXFORD, Miss. – One bright spot for Georgia first-year football coach Kirby Smart is that he’ll never have to face Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly again.
Kelly led the Rebels to a 43-37 upset of Alabama last season, when Smart served as Crimson Tide defensive coordinator, and was even more brilliant Saturday afternoon in the 45-14 dismantling of Georgia in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. The nephew of Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly completed 18 of 24 passes for 282 yards and two touchdowns, and he had a 41-yard rushing score that gave the Rebels a 45-0 lead midway through the third quarter.
“He’s hard to tackle,” Smart said. “He’s hard to simulate. He’s better than you think he is, and when you make the right call on defense, he makes you wrong. There was nothing unexpected as far as what they had. What was unexpected is that I thought we would make more plays in the perimeter.”
Kelly was 13-of-17 passing in the first half for 233 yards and two scores for an eye-popping efficiency rating of 230.4.
His longest pass of the game was a 55-yard touchdown throw to DaMarkus Lodge with 10:24 remaining in the second quarter, which gave the Rebels a 24-0 lead. On the play, Kelly avoided a sack by outside linebacker Lorenzo Carter before launching it to Lodge, who had gotten behind Juwuan Briscoe.