1971 Ole Miss Rebels football team

The 1971 Ole Miss Rebels football team represented the University of Mississippi during the 1971 NCAA University Division football season. It was the first Rebel squad since 1946 to not be coached by Johnny Vaught, who was forced to take a leave of absence midway through the previous campaign due to health concerns. This was also Ole Miss' last all-white varsity team. The Rebels and Southeastern Conference rival LSU were the last major college teams still fielding all-white squads. LSU also fielded its first desegregated varsity squad in 1972.

1971 Ole Miss Rebels football
Peach Bowl champion
Peach Bowl, W 41–18 vs. Georgia Tech
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Ranking
Coaches	No. 20
AP	No. 15
Record	10–2 (4–2 SEC)
Head coach	Billy Kinard (1st season)
Captains	Paul Dongieux Riley Myers
Home stadium	Hemingway Stadium
Seasons ← 1970 1972 →

1971 Southeastern Conference football standings

v t e	Conf.							Overall
Team	W		L		T			W		L		T
No. 4 Alabama $	7	–	0	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 7 Georgia	5	–	1	–	0			11	–	1	–	0
No. 12 Auburn	5	–	1	–	0			9	–	2	–	0
No. 15 Ole Miss	4	–	2	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
No. 9 Tennessee	4	–	2	–	0			10	–	2	–	0
No. 11 LSU	3	–	2	–	0			9	–	3	–	0
Vanderbilt	1	–	5	–	0			4	–	6	–	1
Florida	1	–	6	–	0			4	–	7	–	0
Kentucky	1	–	6	–	0			3	–	8	–	0
Mississippi State	1	–	7	–	0			2	–	9	–	0
$ – Conference champion Rankings from AP Poll

Schedule

Date	Time	Opponent	Rank	Site	Result	Attendance	Source
September 11		Long Beach State*		Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS	W 29–13	33,500	[1]
September 18	7:30 p.m.	at Memphis State*		Memphis Memorial Stadium Memphis, TN (rivalry)	W 49–21	50,164	[2]
September 25		at Kentucky		McLean Stadium Lexington, KY	W 34–20	37,500	[3]
October 2		at No. 7 Alabama		Legion Field Birmingham, AL (rivalry)	L 6–40	72,871	[4][5]
October 9		No. 10 Georgia		Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS	L 7–38	42,000	[6]
October 16		Southern Miss*		Hemingway Stadium Oxford, MS	W 20–6	23,200	[7]
October 23		Vanderbilt		Hemingway Stadium Oxford, MS (rivalry)	W 28–7	27,500	[8]
October 30		No. 11 LSU		Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium Jackson, MS (rivalry)	W 24–22	47,122	[9]
November 6		at Tampa*		Tampa Stadium Tampa, FL	W 28–27	20,559–20,959	[10][11]
November 13		Chattanooga*		Hemingway Stadium Oxford, MS	W 49–10	22,190	[12][13]
November 25		at Mississippi State	No. 18	Scott Field Starkville, MS (Egg Bowl)	W 48–0	35,000	[14]
December 30		vs. Georgia Tech*	No. 17	Atlanta Stadium Atlanta, GA (Peach Bowl)	W 41–18	36,771	[15]
*Non-conference game Homecoming Rankings from AP Poll released prior to the game All times are in Central time

Game summaries

Mississippi State

Team	1	2	3	4	Total
• Ole Miss	0	42	3	3	48
Mississippi St	0	0	0	0	0

• Date: November 25
• Location: Scott Field
• Game attendance: 35,000

Scoring summary

Q2		MISS	Ainsworth 2 yard run (Hinton kick)	MISS 7–0
Q2		MISS	Ainsworth 19 yard run (Hinton kick)	MISS 14–0
Q2		MISS	Veazey ?? yard pass from Weese (run failed)	MISS 20–0
Q2		MISS	Ainsworth 20 yard run (Allen pass from Weese)	MISS 28–0
Q2		MISS	Myers 35 yard pass from Weese (Hinton kick)	MISS 35–0
Q2		MISS	Moley 43 yard interception return (Hinton kick)	MISS 42–0
Q3		MISS	Hinton 27 yard field goal	MISS 45–0
Q4		MISS	Hinton 37 yard field goal	MISS 48–0

^[16]

Roster

1971 Ole Miss Rebels football team roster
Players			Coaches
Offense Pos. # Name Class TE Jim Poole Jr. Sr QB 16 Norris Weese So	Defense Pos. # Name Class	Special teams Pos. # Name Class	Head coach Billy Kinard Coordinators/assistant coaches Legend (C) Team captain (S) Suspended (I) Ineligible Injured Redshirt

Awards

• All-SEC: DT Elmer Allen (AP, 1st Team), DB Paul Dongieux (AP, 2nd Team), TE Jim Poole Jr. (UPI, 1st Team) ^[17]