Top 5 Ole Miss Wins

The Gamecocks and Rebels haven't meet since the 2020 Covid season, the schools have played eight times since Carolina's inaugural 1992 SEC football season. The Rebs hold a 5-3 advantage and a narrow 9-8 edge in the series all-time. Two of Ole Miss' wins came during the infamous 1-21 stretch. South Carolina's eight wins in the series have come by a total of 37 points, just a shade over 5.5 points a game. With margins of victory that tight, Bobby Marino's game-winning 21-yard field goal with 17 seconds left to clinch a 10-7 win in 1972 was omitted. As was Steve Spurrier's first of two wins against in Rebels. A game where the Gamecocks turned over an Ole Miss team that would finish 9-4 and win the Cotton Bowl four times in Oxford.

The 2024 matchup in Columbia will be one of the most anticipating matchups on the calendar, especially if the Gamecocks make it to the October 5th showdown at 3-1 or better. Two words: Juice Wells. The circumstances surrounding the talented wideout's departure should have Williams-Brice amped to another level.

The two schools actually played eight times from 1972-1981, as many times as they have since 1992. The only meeting outside of those two windows came in 1947, when the Rebels prevailed 33-0, the largest margin of victory in series history. Sit back and enjoy the top five wins over the Mississippi Rebels.

Games #4 and #5 on this list were the two most exciting games from opening kick to the final whistle. The 75' Rebels ended the season 6-5-1 after opening with a brutal three straight road games, all losses, and another loss at Legion Field to a Bear Bryant Alabama team that finished 11-1. The only game they'd drop in the Magnolia State all season would come to the Jeff Grantz led Gamecocks. Carolina would finish 7-5 and decimate Clemson 56-20 before losing to Miami Ohio in the Tangerine Bowl.

The 23rd ranked Gamecocks improved to 5-1 on the year after some last minute offensive heroics lifted Carolina to a 35-29 win over Ole Miss in Jackson, MS. It looked like the Rebels, who had just stunned Georgia with a late score and win the week before, had sealed the comeback win, as Tim Ellis threw a ten yard touchdown pass to Rick Kimbrough with 1:37 left in the game. That score gave the Rebels a one-point lead with time winding down. After the ensuing kickoff the Gamecocks stood on their own sixteen, needing to go 84 yards with only 90 seconds remaining. Signal caller Jeff Grantz was hotter than a pepper sprout on the final drive hitting two quick completions to Scott Thomas and Stevie Stephens. After a 15-yard penalty on Ole Miss the Gamecocks had made it to midfield. Grantz found Stephens again and Thomas for 22 more yards, leaving SC at the Rebel 28 with under 30 seconds left. Grantz, while being pulled down for a would be sack, hit Phillip Logan for the winning score with just 22 seconds remaining. Bobby Marino nailed the extra point and Carolina sacked Ellis to run out the clock on the ensuing possess. Grantz threw for 164 yards and three scores while also rushing for a touchdown. Coach Jim Carlen said about his quarterback after the game. 'If Jeff Grantz isn't an All-American then there's not one in the country. What he did there at the end of the game you can't coach. There was no doubt in his mind that we weren't going to win the game.'. Grantz was 5-5 passing for 66 yards on the final drive. The victory rose USC to #20 in the AP Poll.

The wildest game on our list. This one takes a spot on the list over the 08' win in Oxford. While the 2008 Ole Miss team was better than the 2018 edition, this game featured more excitement and more big plays and the 08' Gamecocks and 18' Gamecocks finished with identical 7-6 seasons both 4-4 in SEC play and both bowl game losers.

This games featured 1,126 combined yards, 742 of those yards coming thru the air, two 100-yard rushers, four 100-yard receivers, a game-opening Deebo Samuel kickoff return touchdown, and a highlight reel one-handed Bryan Edwards 75-yard touchdown grab. Basically, if a defense got two consecutive stops that team was winning the game. Carolina finally did in the fourth quarter allowing the last Ole Miss score to come with 14:15 remaining. The defense held the remainder of the game and allowed Jake Bentley to continue to pick apart the Rebels secondary. Bentley finished 22-of-32 for 363 yards and two touchdowns. He also rushed for the go-ahead score with 5:50 remaining. The South Carolina defense, after giving up eight scores in 10 possessions, closed with four consecutive scoreless series to preserve the 48-44 shootout win. This Ole Miss team featured NFL star A.J Brown and another NFL WR in Elijah Moore. The Rebels also lined up with NFL tight end Dawson Knox.

"Jake gave a gutsy performance and was really accurate with the ball," South Carolina coach Will Muschamp said. "The resiliency and fight of this football team says a lot about the culture of our program. A lot of guys stepped up to win this game."

We couldn't fine a video that contained any highlights from the 1976 Ole Miss v South Carolina game. A game that the Gamecocks' would win 10-7. So enjoy an original trailer for 1976's Academy Award winning Rocky, a film that was released about a month after this game. This wasn't a particularly exciting game and the 76' Cocks only finished 6-5, so why did it make the list? Well just like 2009 and hopefully 2024, a ranked Mississippi team comes into Columbia and gets upset.

The Rebels had just defeated #4 UGA in Oxford the week before their trip to Columbia. Both the Gamecocks and Rebels were 4-2, but Ole Miss was ranked 16th in the nation. The Gamecocks trailed 7-3 at the half. One of the more underrated Gamecock rushing duo's in history took over the second half with Carolina QB Ronnie Bass, (Sunshine from Remember the Titans) completing only nine passed for 86 yards. Kevin Long rushed 10 times for 91 yards and Clarence Williams rushed 10 times for 59 yards. Williams was also Carolina's leading receiver catching four passes for 26 yards and the lone Gamecock touchdown.

The loss in Columbia sent Ole Miss on a tailspin losing three of their last four. The Gamecocks, in Jim Carlen's second season, would also drop three of four to derail a promising season. Two of three losses were in one-score games.

"I'll be the first one to say that we were lucky today to beat Ole Miss." - Jim Carlen.

Carolina had been awful offensively for three quarters and were trailing 10-0 entering the final quarter, where they'd tie the game with 11:27 remaining on a 2-yard Johnnie Wright TD run and a 31-yard Eddie Leopard field goal. Ole Miss reclaimed their lead with 6:33 remaining after a three yard touchdown run. Carolina found themselves down seven and at their own 20-yard line with less than 30 seconds left in the contest. Gamecock quarterback Garry Harper heaved a deep pass down the left sideline to streaking freshman Horace Smith. A pair of Rebel defenders misjudged the ball and allowed it to fall squarely into the hands of Smith who scampered untouched into the end zone and set the stage for a dramatic 18-17 victory by the Gamecocks before 50,226 fans at Williams-Brice Stadium. The Cocks picked up the win with only nine seconds remaining when Harper fired a strike to flanker Zion McKinney in the corner of the end tone on the two-point conversion try and the Gamecocks (4-2-1) had pulled out a game that seemed lost just 30 seconds earlier.

Carlen said after the game, "Harper made a good throw and Horace Smith made a good catch I think we should give Harper some credit he hung in there today There was never any doubt in my mind to go for two points (on the conversion)." The 77' Gamecocks finished 5-5-1 and Ole Miss 5-6, but it doesn't diminish one of the most improbable Gamecock wins of all-time.

This is really the only choice. Finnish DJ Darude's Sandstorm had been played at other venues across the country prior to the fall of 2009. Earlier in 2009, it had been played during the men's basketball season at the CLA. While the Gamecocks were setting a school record for blocked shots en route to sweeping the season series against Kentucky, Sandstorm rang out to the same reaction is gets every Saturday. But it wasn't until #4 Ole Miss came into Columbia on a Thursday night that the Darude hit became associated South Carolina.

After horrific endings to the 2007-2008 campaigns, many wondered if Steve Spurrier could build South Carolina into a SEC contender. The momentum of his first two seasons had come to screeching halt following five straight losses in 2007 and three straight blowout defeats to end 2008. The program needed another big win, they got it on September 24, 2009, on a Thursday night in Columbia. In the process, they created South Carolina's newest tradition when a "rave broke out in Columbia."

The game itself was an offensive struggle with Carolina out-gaining Ole Miss 285-248 in total yards. Thru 2.5 quarters no team had found paydirt. Carolina led 9-3 on three Spencer Lanning FGs. Momentum decisively turned in the Garnet and Black's favor with nine minutes remaining in the third quarter when Cliff Matthews strip-sacked Rebel QB Javon Snead. Matthews would recover the fumble at the Ole Miss 25-yard line. Six plays later Stephen Garcia found Patrick DiMarco for a two-yard score, the extra point put Carolina up 16-3. The Rebs cut into the Gamecock lead with just under ten minutes to go in the game on a 45-yard touchdown pass. The Cocks and Rebs would trade punts before Ole Miss would force a final Gamecock punt. The Rebels took possession with 3:54 remaining at their own 39. After picking up two first downs deep into Gamecock territory, the Rebels would run into a sandstorm after a big hit from Darian Stewart and another Matthews sack. South Carolina held and then kneeled it out for a 16-10 win.

Did we get it right? Let us know in the Insiders Forum. Next up, Carolina has exactly five combined wins on the field against LSU and Alabama- we're ranking them.