Lucas Carneiro's 48-yard FG leads Ole Miss past No. 24 Louisville - ESPN

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — While much of the college football world is focused on former coach Lane Kiffin's return to Ole Miss in two weeks, Rebels coach Pete Golding knew his team was in for a battle in Sunday's opener against Louisville.

The No. 9 Rebels got all they wanted from the No. 24 Cardinals, who rallied from a two-touchdown deficit in the final five minutes and nearly forced overtime.

Ole Miss won 41-38 on Lucas Carneiro's 48-yard field goal on the game's final play.

Though the Rebels' showdown against No. 11 LSU has been circled for months — and even more so after Kiffin attempted to add two former Ole Miss players to his roster after they were cut by NFL teams — Golding was happy to get the opener out of the way.

«It kind of felt like a therapy session,» Golding said. «It didn't go very well for half of it, but it was awesome. It was a heavyweight fight. That was a good football team, and we got punched in the mouth a lot. We didn't always respond the right way.»

Though the Rebels did plenty of good things in their first game with new offensive coordinator John David Baker, there were also myriad mistakes. The Rebels snapped the ball over quarterback Trinidad Chambliss' head on their second play from scrimmage, and he lost a fumble and threw an interception in the first half.

«You obviously don't want to start like that,» Chambliss said. «I'm making bad decisions, turning over the ball, not being comfortable in the pocket, and just not playing the type of ball I'm capable of. I guess I had to just get used to playing again.»

The Rebels led 10-6 at the half after both offenses struggled to move the ball because of too many mistakes.

But then both offenses exploded in the second half.

Chambliss threw a pair of