Ole Miss throttles Penn State in Atlanta to be crowned Peach Bowl champions

ATLANTA — Two first-half touchdowns from tight end Caden Prieskorn led Ole Miss to a 38-25 win over Penn State to be crowned Peach Bowl champions.

After going three-and-out on their opening drive and surrendering a field goal to the Nittany Lions to start the afternoon, the Rebels quickly found their footing for the rest of the game.

Prieskorn scored the first touchdown by either team on a 6-yard touchdown grab. Two drives later, Ole Miss quarterback Jaxson Dart faked a toss and found a wide open Prieskorn down the sideline for a 37-yard score, propelling the Rebels to a 20-10 lead.

“[There were] too many moving parts with the staff and with the players against a good team. Too many moving parts, staff and players, to have the type of success that we wanted to have today,” Penn State head coach James Franklin said.

» READ MORE: Peach Bowl loss shows Penn State has plenty of work to do to join college football’s elite

Penn State quarterback Drew Allar finished 19-for-39 for 295 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, with tight end Tyler Warren accounting for 127 of those yards.

Dart finished with 379 passing yards and three passing touchdowns. Prieskorn led the way for the Rebels with 10 receptions for 136 yards and two touchdowns. Wide receiver Tre Harris added 134 receiving yards on seven receptions.

For Penn State, most of its early success came from running the football.

In the Nittany Lions’ opening drive, Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen combined for 62 rushing yards on five carries, leading to a 26-yard Alex Felkins field goal to open the Peach Bowl’s scoring.

Penn State was marred by an inconsistent passing game that has been bothering the Nittany Lions in big games all season.

» READ MORE: ‘It’s a poor system’: NCAA calendar has helped turn games like the Peach Bowl into meaningless exhibitions

The Rebels’ aerial attack benefited from the absences of the Nittany Lions’ starting two cornerbacks in Kalen King and Johnny Dixon, leading to Dart having 243 passing yards through 30 minutes of play.

“We said, we’ve got matchups. We told them before the game last night [that] this game will be won on offense in the one-on-one matchups at wide receiver and tight end,” Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin said after the game. “[I said], ‘You guys are going to have to win the game on offense, making plays in the passing game,’ and they did it.”

While Penn State couldn’t consistently throw accurate passes, the Nittany Lions were able to find chunk plays through the air to keep the game close.

Warren set up Penn State’s first touchdown of the afternoon after catching a tipped pass from Allar and rumbling for 75 yards.

Backup quarterback Beau Pribula also provided a spark after finding Singleton for a 48-yard touchdown pass out of the “Pribula Package” the Nittany Lions have utilized all season.

» READ MORE: Jameial Lyons is up next on a Penn State defense that has plenty of Philly flavor

At halftime, Ole Miss led Penn State 20-17, and Prieskorn had nearly eclipsed the century mark with 96 first-half receiving yards and two touchdowns on six receptions.

The Rebels simply ran away with the game in the second half.

Caden Davis made his third field goal of the game from 52 yards to extend the Rebels’ lead to 23-17. On Ole Miss’ next drive, running back Quinshon Judkins leaked out of the backfield on third down for an easy 14-yard touchdown.

Prieskorn was wide open on the two-point conversion to make the score 31-17.

For Penn State, nothing could go right.

The Nittany Lions started the second half with three consecutive three-and-outs. It wasn’t until the fourth quarter that Penn State gained its first first down of the second half.

It also took until the fourth quarter for a Nittany Lion receiver to catch a pass, as a 5-yard reception by Liam Clifford at the beginning of the quarter finally broke the drought.

“One of the things that I think can be challenging is you may not get an opportunity early in the game, but whenever those opportunities come, you’ve got to maximize them,” Franklin said. “You’ve got to maximize them, and we have not done that consistently enough this year.”

Dart scored a 2-yard touchdown run to put Ole Miss up three possessions in the fourth quarter, a lead that proved insurmountable for Penn State.

» READ MORE: Penn State’s 2024 class has three top Philly-area players. Here’s who the Nittany Lions are getting