Sugar Bowl 2016: Highlights and Comments from Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss

The Ole Miss Rebels didn't waste their first trip to the Sugar Bowl in 46 years.

Ole Miss' 48-20 thrashing of the Oklahoma State Cowboys on Friday gave the Rebels a rare 10-win season, as well as hope that Hugh Freeze is putting the program on the right track.

Rebels play-by-play commentator David Kellum talked with Freeze after the game, and you can listen to the whole interview here:

Ole Miss quarterback and Sugar Bowl Most Outstanding Player Chad Kelly, who tied the game's record with four touchdowns, told ESPN's Joe Schad just how important Freeze has been to him:

Perhaps the most iconic play of this game was not made by the likes of Kelly or star receiver Laquon Treadwell, but it was by offensive lineman Laremy Tunsil. The man some mocks predict to go No. 1 overall in the upcoming NFL draft showed off his good hands at the very end of the first half, taking a lateral from Kelly and scoring a touchdown to give Ole Miss a 34-6 halftime lead:

Setting up that touchdown also took a bit of trickery from the Ole Miss coaching staff. Treadwell, who tied a Sugar Bowl record with three receiving touchdowns, also showed he has some skill at quarterback. ESPN College Football provided a clip of Treadwell's 45-yard bomb to running back Jordan Wilkins, which set up Tunsil's touchdown:

"You study film, you play the percentages," Freeze said of Tunsil's touchdown, per the Associated Press. "We felt comfortable with the lead we had at that moment and really thought that could be somewhat of a dagger to end the first half."

Hugh Kellenberger of the Jackson Clarion-Ledger also shared some words from Ole Miss offensive line coach Matt Luke on that improbable touchdown:

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Ole Miss co-OC/OL coach Matt Luke on Laremy Tunsil's TD: "The opportunity presented itself in Laremy's last game."

— Hugh Kellenberger (@HKellenbergerCL) January 2, 2016"

Oklahoma State was outgained 554-366 in a game that was supposed to feature two high-octane offenses, but it was Ole Miss that picked apart a Cowboys defense that collapsed toward the end of the year. ESPN's David Ching elaborates on that:

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The Cowboys' (10-3) late-season implosion is now complete. The loss to Ole Miss made it three straight defeats for Mike Gundy's club—a group that was unbeaten at 10-0 and sat at No. 6 in the College Football Playoff rankings in Week 12. This was also the worst bowl loss in school history, replacing a 26-point defeat against Ohio State in the 2004 Alamo Bowl (33-7).

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It was a tough fall for Oklahoma State, who was two wins away from a possible spot in the College Football Playoff, to ending the year with three straight losses—all by double digits. Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy said he felt like he didn't do a good enough job coaching his team, per the Associated Press:

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What I told the team was that we needed to do a better job of coaching. I may have fatigued them the way we practiced. And they made a lot of plays. So you tie all of that together and you end up in a game like this. I just don't want to take away from this team and the guys coming together and winning 10 football games. It's not easy to win 10 football games and we're proud of them for that. We were a little beat up late in the year, and that showed up at times.

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Ole Miss put together a dominant performance on both sides of the ball. The only team to defeat Alabama this year capped off its season with a performance that had everything.