Pete Golding’s two-point gamble gives Ole Miss extra room to survive LSU’s final push
Summary
Pick/market: OXFORD | One of Pete Golding's most consequential decisions in Ole Miss' 32-24 win came after the Rebels took the lead for good.
OXFORD | One of Pete Golding's most consequential decisions in Ole Miss' 32-24 win came after the Rebels took the lead for good.
After Trinidad Chambliss' 14-yard touchdown run gave No. 8 Ole Miss a 30-24 advantage with 6:14 remaining Saturday, the conventional decision was obvious: kick the extra point and force LSU to score a touchdown to tie.
Instead, Golding chose to make LSU's job even harder.
Ole Miss went for two. JT Lindsey ran it in. A six-point lead became eight, and LSU's final possession became a drive for overtime rather than a potential game-winning touchdown and extra point. The decision was aggressive, but it wasn't exactly the decision Golding initially planned to make.
LSU jumped offside at the 3-yard line, moving the ball to the 1.5. The Tigers then jumped again, putting the ball less than a yard from the goal line. At that point, Golding changed course.
"The plan was always for certain situations," Golding said. "They send a field goal block unit out there and try to catch people with 12, or make them burn a timeout, or even, like, if they jump, it's half the distance. So then at that point, if we can't get a half yard to get it to eight to make sure you don't lose the game, worst-case scenario, we're going to overtime, then we shouldn't win the game. It was something we worked on throughout the week that our guys executed well."
There was considerable logic behind it.
Going for two while leading by seven late in a game has periodically surfaced in college football for more than a decade. Minnesota coach Tracy Claeys used the strategy in consecutive seasons in 2015 and 2016, and the NFL is employing it more recently. Statistical analysis of the strategy has found that its attractiveness increases as a team's expected two-point conversion rate approaches 50 percent.
LSU drove from its 25 to the Ole Miss four-yard line in the final six minutes. The Tigers converted a 4th-and-4 with Sam Leavitt's 13-yard scramble, later received a defensive pass-interference penalty before a false start backed them up.
On fourth-and-goal from the six with 1:03 remaining, Jaylon Braxton intercepted Leavitt in the end zone.
Had Ole Miss simply kicked the extra point after Chambliss' touchdown, LSU's final drive was for the tie or the win. Instead, because Golding took advantage of LSU's mistakes and Lindsey converted.
"I felt like we were in a good position to go down and score and get a two-point conversion," Kiffin said. "The hope was to get it to overtime."
Ole Miss never had to find out.
"The two-point changed the momentum there," Golding said.
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