Louisville comes up just short against No. 9 Ole Miss

Too many self-inflicted mistakes and a sensational second half from arguably the best quarterback in college football were the stories as Louisville opened its 2026 season with a last-second, 41-38 loss to No. 9 Ole Miss Sunday night in Nashville.

New U of L quarterback Lincoln Kienholz rallied the Cards from a 38-24 fourth quarter deficit, tossing a 54-yard touchdown to Lawayne McCoy and then running another in a series later to even the score. Unfortunately, the 1:41 on the clock was too much time for Trinidad Chambliss, perhaps the best quarterback in college football, and Lucas Carneiro, perhaps the best kicker in college football.

After a first half that saw him both lose a fumble and toss an interception, Chambliss picked the Cardinal secondary apart in the second 30 minutes. The Heisman hopeful tossed for three touchdowns, including a pair of 62-yard bombs to Deuce Alexander, and scampered for another score to kick off his sixth and final(?) season of college ball.

Two of those Rebel touchdowns were aided dramatically by key Cardinal penalties. With eight minutes to play in the fourth quarter, U of L had appeared to take possession of the ball down just seven points when Ole Miss kicker Lucas Carneiro's 57-yard attempt came up short. However, cornerback D.J. Waller was whistled for roughing the kicker, and Chambliss carried the ball into the endzone to put the Rebels up 14 seven plays later.

The only Ole Miss touchdown of the first half was set up by a snap that sailed over U of L punter Niall Hayes' head, forcing him to fall on the football on the Cardinal 12-yard-line.

"We wanted to do something special, but we came up short," Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm said. "I'm proud of my team, but in the end we didn't do enough. The snap over the kickers head, costly. The roughing the kicker, costly."

Adding insult was the fact that this was the first time in the Jeff Brohm era where Louisville has won the turnover battle but come up short on the scoreboard. The Cards had previously been 17-0 under Brohm when committing fewer turnovers than their opponents, and 13-0 when committing zero penalties.

Ole Miss was very shaky early on in this one, and Louisville not taking advantage of that is ultimately where it feels like the Cards lost the game. You were +2 in turnovers, you limited one of the most explosive offenses in the country to just over 100 total yards … and you trailed 10-6 at the break.

Even with that being the case, it's hard to be entirely gloom and doom after this one.

I spent most of the summer saying I didn't feel great about this game, but I did feel great about this team. I'm doubling down on the second part of that equation after tonight.

The penalties and the poor game management were maddening at times, but the pieces are there. I wouldn't have been able to say that if Kienholz hadn't stepped up the way he did in the second half … but he did. That kid is a warrior, and while his early jitters were apparent to everyone watching, leading two successful must-score drives in the final minutes of a game against a team that was a play away from the title game last year is a pretty strong sign for the couple of months ahead.

There is zero time for wound licking or moral victory back-patting: The next 13 days loom extremely large for any hope of having a "special" season.